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[Illustration: He jumped through a hoop covered with paper
_Frontispiece. See page 92_]
_Kneetime Animal Stories_
NERO
THE CIRCUS LION
HIS MANY ADVENTURES
BY
RICHARD BARNUM
Author of "Squinty, the Comical Pig," "Mappo, the
Merry Monkey," "Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant,"
"Chunky, the Happy Hippo," "Sharp Eyes,
the Silver Fox," etc.
_ILLUSTRATED BY_
_WALTER S. ROGERS_
NEW YORK
BARSE & HOPKINS
PUBLISHERS
KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES
By Richard Barnum
Large 12mo. Illustrated.
SQUINTY, THE COMICAL PIG.
SLICKO, THE JUMPING SQUIRREL.
MAPPO, THE MERRY MONKEY.
TUM TUM, THE JOLLY ELEPHANT.
DON, A RUNAWAY DOG.
DIDO, THE DANCING BEAR.
BLACKIE, A LOST CAT.
FLOP EAR, THE FUNNY RABBIT.
TINKLE, THE TRICK PONY.
LIGHTFOOT, THE LEAPING GOAT.
CHUNKY, THE HAPPY HIPPO.
SHARP EYES, THE SILVER FOX.
NERO, THE CIRCUS LION.
TAMBA, THE TAME TIGER.
BARSE & HOPKINS
Publishers New York
Copyright, 1919,
by
Barse & Hopkins
_Nero, The Circus Lion_
VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY
BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I NERO HAS SOME FUN 7
II NERO GOES HUNTING 16
III NERO IS SHOT 27
IV NERO IN A CAVE 36
V NERO IN A TRAP 45
VI NERO IN A CIRCUS 55
VII NERO LEARNS SOME TRICKS 67
VIII NERO MEETS DON 75
IX NERO SCARES A BOY 87
X NERO RUNS AWAY 97
XI NERO AND BLACKIE 107
XII NERO AND THE TRAMP 113
ILLUSTRATIONS
He jumped through a hoop covered with paper _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Nero saw what he had thought was a log of wood open a big mouth 18
He licked the place where his paw hurt 38
Nero looked out through the bars of his cage 62
His keeper rode in the cage with him 82
Then the trainer put his head in the lion's mouth 100
Nero sat on his hind legs on the table 122
NERO,
THE CIRCUS LION
CHAPTER I
NERO HAS SOME FUN
Far off in the jungle of Africa lived a family of lions.
Africa, you know, is a very hot country, and what we, in this land,
would call a forest, or woods, is called a "jungle" there. In the jungle
grew many trees, and the ground was covered with low vines and bushes so
that animals, creeping along, could scarcely be seen. That was why the
animals liked the jungle so much; they could roam about in it, play and
get their meals, and the black hunters and the white huntsmen who
sometimes came to the jungle, could not easily see to shoot the lions,
elephants and other beasts.
There were five lions in this jungle family, and I am going to tell you
the story of one of them, named Nero. Nero was a little boy lion, about
two years old, but please don't think he was a baby because he was only
two years old. Lions grow much faster than boys and girls, and a lion of
two years is quite large and strong, with sharp claws and sharper teeth.
Nero lived with his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Lion, and his
brother Chet and his sister Boo, in a cave in the African jungle. The
cave was among the rocks, and not far from a spring of water where the
lions went to drink each night. They drank only at night because that
was the safest time; the hunters could not so easily see the shaggy
lions with their big heads, and manes larger than those of a horse.
Nero was the largest of the three lion children, and he was called Nero
because that always seems to be the right name for some one large and
strong. Chet, who was Nero's brother, got his name because, when he was
a little baby lion cub, he used to make that sound when he cried for his
dinner.
As for Boo--well, I must tell you in what a funny way she got her name,
and then I'll go on with the story of Nero. When Boo, who was Nero's
sister, was a little baby lion, she was sitting in the front of the
jungle cave one day, waiting for her mother to come back. Mrs. Lion had
gone out a little way into the jungle to get something to eat.
All of a sudden Boo, who up to then had no name, heard some one coming
along the jungle path, stepping on twigs and tree branches and making
them crack. By this sound the little girl lion cub knew some one was
coming.
"That must be my mother," thought Boo. "I'll just hide behind this piece
of rock, and then I'll jump out and make believe to scare her. It will
be lots of fun."
So Boo hid behind the rock near the front door of the cave-house, and,
when the noise came nearer, the little girl lion jumped out and cried:
"Boo!" or something that sounded very much like it.
But the little girl lion had made a mistake. Instead of her mother who
was coming along the jungle path, it was a big prickly hedgehog with
sharp quills all over his back, and when Boo put out her paw she was
stuck full of stickery quills. The quills in a hedgehog's back are
loose, and come out easily.
"Boo! Boo!" roared the little lion cub girl, but this time she was
crying instead of trying to make believe scare some one. The hedgehog,
however, was very much frightened--almost all the jungle animals were
afraid of the lions--and this hedgehog ran away.
But the little girl lion's paw hurt her very much, and when a little
later, Mrs. Lion came back, with something to eat, and found out what
had happened, she said Boo had been very foolish.
And when Mr. Lion heard the story, and Nero and Chet had been told about
it, they all said that "Boo" would be a very good name for the little
sister lion.
"I don't care what you call me," said Boo, speaking in lion talk of
course. "I don't care what my name is, if you'll only get these hedgehog
stickers out of my paw."
Then they pulled the hedgehog spines out of the little girl lion's paw,
and she washed it in cool water at the spring, which made her foot feel
better.
For two years the lion cubs, Nero, Chet and Boo, had lived with their
father and mother in the jungle cave. They learned how to tread softly
on the leaves and twigs of the jungle path, so as to make no noise. They
learned how to creep quietly down to the spring at night to get a drink,
so that the hunters would not hear them.
All about them, in the jungle, lived other wild animals. There were
several families of lions in that same part of the forest, and very
often a herd of elephants would pass by, tramping and crashing their way
through the jungle. The lions never bothered the elephants.
"Where are you going, Nero?" asked his mother of the lion boy cub one
day, as she saw him starting out from the jungle cave. "Where are you
going?"
"Oh, just out to have some fun," he answered. "I'm going to play with
Switchie."
"Switchie," was the name of another lion boy cub, who lived in the cave
next to Nero's. He was about a year older than the lion chap about whom
I am going to tell you in this story. Switchie was called that because
he switched his tail about in such a funny way.
"So you are going to play with Switchie, are you?" asked Mrs. Lion, as
she looked at a place where a sharp stone had cut her foot, though the
sore was now getting better. "Well, if you go to play with that lion boy
don't get into mischief."
"What's mischief, Ma?" asked Nero.
"Mischief is trouble," his mother answered, speaking in lion talk, just
as your dog or your cat speaks its own kind of language. "So don't get
into trouble. Don't go to the spring now to get a drink, for the hunters
may be watching, and may shoot you with an arrow, or with a queer lead
stone, from a thing called a gun, which is worse. So don't get into
mischief."
"I won't," promised Nero, and he meant to keep his word, but then he
didn't count on Switchie. That chap was a bold little lion cub, larger
than Nero, and always up to some trick.
"Hello, Nero!" growled Switchie, when he saw his friend coming along the
jungle path.
"Hello!" growled Nero.
Now please don't imagine, just because these lions growled, that they
were cross. They weren't anything of the sort. That was just their way
of talking. Your dog barks and growls, and that is his way of speaking.
Your cat mews and sometimes growls or "spits," and often purrs,
especially when you tickle her ears. And a lion always growls when he
talks. When he is angry he roars--that's the difference. And, I almost
forgot, lions can purr, too, only it sounds like a buzz saw instead of
the way your cat purrs. But then a lion's throat is very big, and so his
purr has to be big also.
"Want to have some fun?" asked Switchie, as Nero lay down in the jungle
shade.
"That's what I came over for," Nero answered. "Only my mother said I
wasn't to get into any mischief."
"Oh, no, we won't do anything like that!" replied Switchie. "We'll just
go along in the jungle and have some fun. I know where there is some
soft grass, and we can roll over and over in that and scratch our
backs."
"Fine!" said Nero. "We'll go there."
So Switchie led the way along another jungle path to a place where very
few trees grew. In the midst of these few trees was a grassy place.
That is, it had been green and grassy once when it was raining, which it
does for several months at a time in the jungle. But the rains had
stopped, the hot sun had come out from behind the clouds and dried the
grass up, so that it was now like hay.
"And it's just fine to roll in. It scratches your back just hard
enough," said Switchie, making his tail, with the tuft of hair on the
end, swing about in a funny way.
"I like to have my back scratched," said Nero.
So the two boy lions went to have some fun and roll in the dried grass.
It was just as if you had gone to roll and tumble on the hay in
Grandpa's barn. The lion boys leaped about, jumped over one another,
made believe bite one another and played tag with their paws.
As Switchie had said, the dried, curled grass tickled their backs just
enough when they rolled over and over in it. But at last Switchie said:
"Say, aren't you thirsty?"
"Yes," answered Nero, "I am."
"Then let's go to the spring and get a drink," went on Switchie.
"Oh no! My mother said I wasn't to go to the spring in the daytime!"
exclaimed Nero. "There may be hunters there, waiting to shoot us."
"Oh, I don't believe there are," said Switchie. "I'll tell you what we
can do. My mother didn't tell me not to go to the spring, so I'll walk
on ahead until we come to it. Then I can look and see if there are any
hunters. If there aren't you can come out of the jungle and get a drink.
Won't that be all right?"
"Yes, I guess it will," said Nero. "Mother wouldn't want me not to have
a drink. All she's afraid of are the hunters."
"Then come on!" growled Switchie. "We'll go to the spring, and we'll
have some fun on the way."
So the two boy lions walked along the jungle path to the spring where
all the animals drank. On the way they fell down and rolled over and
cuffed one another with their paws--the way all lions do to have fun.
Nero was having a very good time, and he never gave a thought about not
minding his mother.
At last Switchie and Nero came close to the spring.
"Now you stay behind this bush until I look out and see if there are any
hunters," said Switchie.
"All right," answered Nero.
Carefully the older lion boy peeped through the bushes. There was no one
at the spring except some little monkeys, getting a drink, and as soon
as they saw the lion boy away they scampered, chattering, for the
monkeys were afraid of the lions.
"Everything is all right!" called Switchie to the hiding Nero. "There
are no hunters! Come on and get a drink."
Nero was very thirsty, after having played and had fun in the hot jungle
sun, and he very much wanted a drink. So he rushed down to the spring,
which was quite a large one, and began to lap up the water, just as your
dog or cat drinks milk from a dish.
"Isn't this fun?" growled Switchie, as he stopped drinking for a moment.
"Aren't we having fun, Nero?"
"Lots of fun!" answered the other lion cub.
And just then something happened. There was a rattle of the dried leaves
in the jungle back of the spring. Something very hard hit Nero in the
side, and a voice cried:
"There! I'll teach you to drink from my edge of the spring! Take that!"
And the next moment Nero felt himself sliding down the slippery bank of
the spring, and into the water he went with a big splash!