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Nero, the Circus Lion

<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2><h3>NERO AND THE TRAMP</h3> Nero, the circus lion, gave himself a big shake. His mane, or big fringe of hair around his neck, stood out like the fur on your cat's back when a dog chases her, and then Nero roared. Oh, such a loud roar as he gave! The ground shook. "There! Now do you know who I am?" asked Nero. Blackie, the cat who was once lost, seemed quite surprised at the way Nero acted. She looked at the lion and said: "Well, I'm sure I don't know why in the world you are making so much noise. I just asked what your name was, and there you go acting as though you were a part of a thunderstorm. What's it all about, anyhow?" "I was just telling you my name," said Nero, a little ashamed of himself for having made such a racket. "I'm a circus lion. At least I used to be in a circus, but I ran away last night, when my cage rolled downhill and broke." "Oh, a circus lion!" mewed Blackie. "Why,[Pg 114] I know some folks in a circus. There was Dido, a dancing bear, and—" "Why, I know him too!" roared Nero, in delight. "He's in the same circus I came from!" "You don't tell me!" exclaimed Blackie. "And then I knew Tum Tum, a jolly elephant, and—" "Well, say now, isn't that queer?" laughed Nero—at least he laughed as much as a lion ever laughs. "Why, Tum Tum is in my circus, too! We are great friends. And once a dog named Don came to the show, but he did not stay very long." "Oh, I know Don, too," said Blackie. "Once he ran away, and once he chased me. But that was before we were friends. Say, Nero, I feel as if I had known you a long time, since we know so many of the same friends. Tell me, have you ever been in a book?" "There it goes again!" cried Nero. "Book! Book! Book! Tum Tum is in one, and so is Don, and Dido. I suppose, next, you'll be telling me that you have had a book written about you." "Yes," said Blackie, rather slowly, as she waved her tail to and fro, "a man wrote a book about me. It tells how I got lost, how I was in a basket, and how I came home to find the family[Pg 115] all away. And maybe I wasn't glad when they came back! But were you ever in a book?" "No," answered the circus lion, "and I never expect to be." But that only goes to show that Nero didn't know anything about it. For he is in a book, isn't he? "Where do you live?" asked Nero of Blackie. "Is it in a circus?" "Gracious sakes alive, no!" exclaimed Blackie. "I wouldn't know what to do in a circus. I live in that house over there with a little boy and girl who are very kind to me. Wouldn't you like to come over and see them?" "Thank you, no. Not just now," Nero answered. "I'm not much used to being around houses, though I like boys and girls, for I see many of them in the circus, and they like to watch me do my tricks. But I have just run away, and I want to go about by myself a bit more. The men from the circus may try to catch me, you know." "Don't you want them to?" asked Blackie. "Well, not right away," answered the lion. "I want to have some fun by myself first." "Well, I must be going," said Blackie after a bit, when she had talked a little further with Nero. "If ever you're around my house, stop[Pg 116] in and see me. It's right over there, across the hill," and she pointed to it with her paw. "I will, thank you," said Nero, switching his tail from side to side. Then Blackie said goodbye to him, and the cat walked on through the woods, back toward the house where she lived. For two or three days Nero wandered about in the woods, and, all this while, the circus men were hunting everywhere for him. But they could not find him, for the lion kept well hidden in the woods. And of course, though Blackie knew he was there, she could not speak man-talk to tell about him. So Nero remained free and had a good time. But one day the circus lion felt lonesome. He had met none of his friends in the woods, and had not seen Blackie again, though he had looked for her. Nero did meet a little animal who seemed quite friendly. This was Slicko, the jumping squirrel, and Slicko had a nice talk with the lion. "I know what I'll do," said Nero to himself one day. "I'll go over to that house where Blackie lives and see her." So Nero started over the hill to go to the house that Blackie had pointed out as the one in which she lived. And a very strange thing happened to the circus lion there. As it happened, when Nero slunk out of the[Pg 117] woods, which were near Blackie's house, no one saw him. In fact none of the family was at home, having gone visiting for the day. Blackie wasn't at home, either, having gone down in the cow pasture to hunt grasshoppers, so there was no one in the house. But Nero did not know that. He went sniffing and snuffing around, thinking perhaps he could find something to eat, but nothing had been left out for lions, as Blackie's folks did not know one was roaming about so near them. Nero walked softly up to the kitchen door of the house. The door was partly open, and this was strange, if the lion had only known it, for folks don't usually go away and leave doors open behind them. And from the open door came the smell of something good. It was the smell of meat, and, in fact, was a boiled ham, which Blackie's mistress had left in a pot on the stove. Now the reason the door of the farmhouse was open was because it had been broken open by a tramp! This tramp, coming to the house to ask for something to eat and seeing that no one was at home, had broken open the door. He was going to get something to eat, and then take whatever else he wanted. And that's why the door was open when Nero walked up to it. The tramp was in the kitchen, cutting himself some pieces from the cold, boiled ham. [Pg 118]"My, that smells good!" thought Nero, as he sniffed the meat. "I guess I'll go in and see if I can't get some." So Nero, not, of course, knowing anything about the tramp, but wanting only to get some meat and, perhaps, see his friend Blackie, pushed the kitchen door open with his nose and walked in. And then, all of a sudden, that bad, ragged tramp, who had come in to steal, looked up from the table where he was sitting, eating ham, and saw the lion. "Oh, my! Oh, my goodness me!" cried the tramp, and he was so surprised and frightened that he just slumped down in his chair and didn't dare move. The piece of meat he had been eating dropped from his hand to the floor, and Nero picked it up and ate it, licking his jaws for more. "Oh, this is terrible!" gasped the tramp. "I didn't know this farmer kept a trained lion as a watchdog. I knew he had a black cat, but not a lion. Oh, what am I to do?" Of course Nero didn't in the least know what the man was talking about. But the lion smelled the meat and he wanted some more; so he sat down in front of the kitchen door and looked at the ragged man. "I don't know who you are," said Nero to[Pg 119] himself, "and you are certainly not as nice as my circus trainer. "But you have some more meat there," Nero thought on, for he could still smell the ham on the table. "I think you might give me a bit more. That little piece was hardly enough." And so Nero sat there looking at the tramp, who was too frightened to move. He couldn't get out of the door, because the lion was in the way, and he didn't dare turn his back, to go over to open a window and jump out, for fear the lion would spring on him. "Oh, I'm in a terrible fix!" thought the tramp. "This is the first time I was ever caught by a lion! It's worse than half a dozen dogs! Oh, what shall I do?" There really did not seem to be anything for him to do except just sit there. And Nero sat looking at him, waiting to be fed some more meat, as he had been used to being fed in the circus. And then something else happened. Back to the house came the farmer and his wife, and their little girl was with them. They had returned from their visit. "Why, look, Mother!" cried the little girl, as she went up on the back porch. "The kitchen door is open!" [Pg 120]"It is?" cried her mother. "I'm sure we locked it when we went away." "We did," said the farmer, who was the little girl's father. "Some one must have gone in—a tramp, maybe. I'll see about this!" The farmer walked quickly to the kitchen door and opened it wide. It had swung partly shut after Nero had gone in. And when the farmer saw the frightened tramp sitting in the chair at the table, too scared to move, and the lion between him and the door, on guard, it seemed, the farmer was so surprised and frightened himself that he cried: "Oh my! There's a lion in our kitchen, and a tramp! Oh, I must get my gun! I must send for the constable!" "The constable won't be any good for a lion," said the farmer's wife. "No, but my gun can shoot the lion," said the farmer. "I'll go for it." "Oh, let me see the lion!" begged the little girl. "I saw one in the circus the other day, and he was tame. Maybe this is the same one. The circus lion I saw wouldn't bite any one, even when the man put his head in the big mouth. Let me look!" She pushed past her father and mother, and looked in the kitchen. The little girl saw the[Pg 121] frightened tramp, who had been caught by the lion, and the little girl also saw Nero. And then she laughed and shouted: "Why, that's the very same nice, tame lion I saw in the circus! I'm sure it's the very same one, for it looks just like him. But I can soon tell." "Gracious goodness, child!" cried her mother. "Don't dare go near him! Besides, it may not be a tame, circus lion." "Well, if he is he can do tricks," said the little girl. "The lion I saw in the circus sat up on a stool when the trainer told him to. We haven't any stool big enough, but maybe I can make the lion sit on his hind legs on the table. That will hold him." And then the little girl, doing just as she had seen the trainer do in the circus, held up her hand, pointed at the lion in the kitchen, and then at the table, and cried: "Up, Nero! Up! Sit on the table!" And though Nero did not know the little girl, and did not remember having seen her before, the trained lion knew what the words meant. He had heard his trainer say them many, many times. So Nero slowly walked over to the table, got up on it with a jump, and then and there, right in front of the tramp and the little girl[Pg 122] and her father and mother, Nero sat on his hind legs on the table, just as he was accustomed to sit on a stool in the circus ring. "There! What did I tell you?" cried the little girl, clapping her hands. "I knew he was the tame, circus lion! Doesn't he sit up nice?" "Yes," said the farmer, "he does. But there is no telling how long he may sit there. He must have escaped from the circus, and I had better telephone the men that he is here. They'll be glad to get him back." "It's a good thing he scared the tramp," said the farmer's wife, as she looked at the ragged man. "What are you doing here, anyhow?" she asked him. "I—I just came in to get something to eat," he whined. "And then your lion wouldn't let me go." "He isn't my lion," replied the farmer. "But he's done me a good turn. I'll have the constable come here and take you away." And a little later the constable, who had been telephoned for, came and took the tramp to jail. Nero looked on, wondering what it was all about, and wishing some one would give him something to eat. And the little girl thought of this. "The tramp has spoiled the ham for us, Mother," she said. "Can't I give the rest of it to Nero?" [Pg 123] Illus  <ANTIMG src="images/illus-069s.png" class="png" height-obs="623" width-obs="400" alt="Nero sat on his hind legs on the table." title="Nero sat on his hind legs on the table." /> Nero sat on his hind legs on the table. Page 122 View larger image [Pg 124] [Pg 125]"Oh, yes, I suppose so," said the farmer's wife. So Nero got something to eat after all. And then, when he had fallen asleep in the woodshed where the farmer locked him, the circus men came to take the tame lion back with them. "I'm very glad to get Nero again," said his trainer. "I guess he has had enough of running away." And as they were bringing up the new cage which was to take the lion back to the circus, in came Blackie from the meadow where she had been catching grasshoppers. "Oh, so you did come to see me, after all!" she mewed to Nero. "Yes," answered the lion, in animal talk, which none of the people could understand, "I came to see you." "I'm sorry I was away," said Blackie. "So am I. But I really had a pretty good time," said Nero. "And I scared a man who wore very ragged clothes, something like the funny clowns in our circus. And now I am going back there. I'm glad to have met you, Blackie." "And I'm glad I met you, Nero. Maybe someday I'll come to your circus." "Yes, do," growled Nero. "Good-bye!" called the little girl to the circus lion, as he was hauled away in his cage. "Good[Pg 126]-bye! I'm glad you did the sitting-up trick for me!" Late that afternoon Nero was back in the circus tent again. "Well, where in the world have you been?" asked Tum Tum. "Oh, off having adventures, as I suppose you'd call them," answered the lion. "Adventures!" exclaimed the jolly elephant. "Well, if that man hears about them he'll put you in a book." "Oh, I guess not," said Nero, as he curled up in his new cage. But I did, just the same, and here's the book. And so we come to the end of Nero's many adventures—at least for a time. But there are other animals to tell about. In the circus was a striped tiger, of whom I have spoken. I think I will tell you about him. And so the next volume in this series will be called: "Tamba, the Tame Tiger: His Many Adventures." And now we will leave Nero peacefully sleeping in his cage, and dreaming, perhaps, of the little girl and Blackie and of the tramp with the boiled ham. <h4>THE END</h4> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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