NERO GOES HUNTING
The first thought of Nero, the little lion cub boy, as he felt himself
falling into the spring of water, was that Switchie had played a joke
and pushed him in.
"And when I get out I'll push _him_ in," thought Nero. But that was all he
had time to think, just then, for his head went away under the water--as
the spring was deep--and Nero had to think of getting out. So he
splashed and scrambled his way to shore, clawing and spluttering and
half choking, for lions are not good swimmers. Indeed few animals of the
cat family are, and lions belong to the cat family, you know, as do
tigers and jaguars.
So, with his eyes and nose and mouth full of water, Nero scrambled to
shore, a very wet and bedraggled lion boy indeed. On the shore he saw
Switchie standing looking at him. Switchie was nice and dry.
"What did you do that for?" growled Nero to Switchie, as soon as our
friend had shaken some of the water off his shaggy, tawny-yellow coat.
"I'll fix you for that! Fun is all right, but you know I don't like
jumping into the water, however much I like a drink from the spring. Now
I'm going to push you in!" and Nero started to run toward Switchie.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" cried Switchie, raising his paw to push Nero away
if the younger lion cub should come too near. "I didn't do anything to
you."
"Yes, you did!" growled Nero. "You pushed me into the water!"
"No, I didn't!" answered Switchie. "I was taking my second drink, when I
heard a noise, and I looked up and saw you sliding down into the water.
But I didn't push you in."
"Who did, then?" asked Nero, looking around, quite fiercely for a little
lion boy. "Who did? If I find out, I'll push him in! If it was one of
the monkeys--"
"Oh, it wasn't any of them," said Switchie quickly. "They won't come
near the spring when we lions are drinking."
"But it was some one!" said Nero. "I heard some one say I couldn't drink
on his edge of the spring, and then I was pushed in. Who did it? I want
to know that!"
"I did it!" said a grumbling sort of voice, and up out of the spring
came something which, at first, looked like a log of wood. It was dark,
and had knobs, or warts, on it, as has the trunk of a tree.
"Who--who are you?" asked Nero, in surprise. "Are you a log of wood that
can speak?"
"Look out! Gracious no! That's a crocodile!" cried Switchie. "I forgot
about their being here. Come on! Run!"
And as Nero saw what he had thought was a log of wood open a big mouth
with many sharp teeth in it, the little lion boy ran after Switchie, who
scampered off along the jungle path as fast as he could go.
"What's the matter? What was that thing which looked like a log floating
in the water?" asked Nero, when he and Switchie stopped to rest in the
shadow of a big tree.
"That's a crocodile, I told you!" said Switchie. "They are very big and
strong, and if they get hold of your soft and tender nose, when you are
drinking at the pool, they can pull you under water and drown you. You
want to be careful about crocodiles."
"Well, I will," said Nero. "Only I didn't know about them before. Was it
the crocodile who knocked me into the water?"
"Yes," answered Switchie, "it was. A crocodile has a long and very
strong tail, with knobs and sharp ridges on it. They can knock you into
the water with their tail, and then they bite you. I didn't know there
were crocodiles at our spring, or I wouldn't have gone there in the
daytime for a drink. At night it's all right, for then they can't see
you so plainly."
[Illustration: Nero saw what he had thought was a log of wood open a big
mouth. _Page 18_]
"Well, this one saw me all right," said Nero. "My side is sore where he
knocked me into the spring."
"It's lucky your nose isn't sore where he might have bitten you,"
growled Switchie. "That was a mean crocodile! We had just as good right
to drink on that side of the spring-pool as he had!"
"Well, maybe we had," said Nero. "But he was stronger than I, and so he
knocked me in. Now I'm all wet!"
And so Nero learned one of the first lessons of the jungle, that it is
the strongest and fiercest animals that have the best of it.
The elephants of the jungle, which are the largest animals, crash their
way through, afraid of nothing except the men hunters. And the lions,
when the elephants are not near, are the real kings of the jungle. Few
animals stay to drink at the spring when the lion roars, to say he is
coming.
But this was in daylight and Switchie and Nero were only lion cubs, so,
I suppose, the crocodile was not afraid of them. And, being big and
strong, he just knocked Nero into the water, and claimed that as his
side of the pool, though he had no right to.
"Come on," said Switchie to Nero, after they had gone a little way
further through the jungle and back from the spring. "Come on; I know
how we can have some more fun."
"No, I've had enough for to-day," said Nero. "I'm going home and lie
down in the cave. My side hurts where the crocodile struck me with his
tail."
"Oh, come on! Play tag!" begged Switchie.
"No," said Nero. "I'm going home."
And home he went. As soon as his mother saw him, wet and muddy as he
still was, Mrs. Lion said:
"Well, Nero, what happened to you? Did you get into mischief?"
"I don't know, Ma," answered Nero. "But I got in the spring!"
"There! I told you to keep away from the water hole in the daytime!"
said Mrs. Lion. "I knew something would happen if you played with that
Switchie. That lion cub will get into trouble some day. He is too bold!"
"A crocodile knocked me into the water," explained Nero. "It wasn't
Switchie's fault."
"It was the fault of both you lion boys for going where you ought not
to," said Nero's mother. "Now you see what happened. But I'm sorry your
side is hurt. Go into the cave and lie down. I'll bring you a nice piece
of goat meat to eat, and get some soft grass to make you a bed. You'll
be all right in a few days, but after this--mind me!"
"I will," promised Nero.
The soft grass, which his mother pawed into a bed for him with her sharp
claws, felt very comfortable to his sore side. And the goat's meat,
which lions eat when they can get it, tasted very good. Nero soon became
dry and then he went to sleep.
When he awakened his brother Chet and his sister Boo were in the cave
looking at him.
"Mother says you got into mischief!" exclaimed Boo. "Tell us all about
it, Nero."
So Nero did, and when his story was ended Chet said enviously:
"I wish I had been there. If I had, I'd have scratched that crocodile
with my claws!"
"You couldn't have hurt him that way," said Mr. Lion, who came into the
cave just then. "Crocodiles have a very hard, thick skin on their backs
and tails, much harder and thicker than our skin, and even that of an
elephant. You can't hurt a crocodile by scratching his back. The only
way to hurt them is to turn them over, and while you are trying to do
that they'll knock you about with the big tail. So keep away from the
crocodiles, children."
"I will," said Nero, and Boo and Chet said the same thing.
"Now hurry and get well," said Nero's father to him, as the lion boy lay
in the cave. "You are growing large and strong, and soon you will have
to learn to go hunting."
"What's hunting?" asked Nero.
"It is learning how to get your own things to eat," said his father.
"When you were little, your mother and I hunted the goats and other
animals that we have to eat. But now you are getting big enough to go
hunting for yourself. Only I must give you a few lessons."
"Can't I learn to hunt, too?" asked Chet.
"And I?" Boo wanted to know.
"Yes," said their father. "After I teach Nero I'll teach you. One at a
time. The jungle is full of danger, and I can teach only one of you at a
time how to be careful. So get good and well and strong, Nero, and soon
I'll take you on a hunt."
Nero thought he would like this, so he stayed quietly in the cave for a
day or two, until his side, where the crocodile had struck him with the
sharp-ridged tail, felt much better.
One day, about a week after Nero had been tossed into the spring, he
noticed his father sharpening his claws on the bark of a tree.
"What's he doing that for?" Nero asked his mother.
"To get ready for the jungle hunt to-night," answered Mrs. Lion. "I
heard him say something about taking you, so perhaps you had better
sharpen your claws, also."
"I will," answered Nero, and he did, making the bits of bark fly as he
pulled it from a tree in the jungle, not far from the cave where he
lived.
When it began to get dark, which it does very early in the big African
forest, as the thick trees shut out the light of the sun, Nero said to
his mother:
"Aren't we going to have any supper?"
"Not to-night--that is, not right away," said Mr. Lion. "You are going
to hunt for your supper, Nero."
"But I am very hungry," returned the little lion boy, who was growing
bigger and stronger every day.
"Then you will hunt all the better," growled his father. "There is
nothing like being hungry to make a good hunter-lion. Come, now is the
time I have long waited for--to teach you to hunt in the jungle. Your
mother and Chet and Boo are going to have supper with Switchie and his
folks. You and I are going to hunt for ourselves. Come, we will go into
a part of the jungle where you have never yet been."
And Nero felt very much excited when he heard his father say this. The
lion cub felt brave and strong, and he knew that his teeth and claws
were very sharp.
Suddenly, through the jungle, which was now quite dark, there came a
distant sound as if of thunder. There was a rumble and a roar, and the
very ground seemed to shake.
"What's that?" asked Nero, looking at his father.