NERO MEETS DON
One day when Nero awoke in his circus cage, which stood in the big
winter barn, the lion saw that something very different was going on
from what had happened since he had been brought there from the jungle.
Men were running to and fro, and the first thing Nero noticed was that
Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, and all the other big animals with the long
trunks were gone.
"Why, where is Tum Tum?" asked Nero of Leo, his lion friend.
"Oh, he's out with the other elephants, pushing wagon cages about the
lot," said Leo.
"Pushing cages?" repeated Nero. "Is that a circus trick?"
"No, that is part of the circus work," answered Leo. "The elephants are
so big and strong that they are used instead of horses, sometimes, to
push the circus cages."
"But why is Tum Tum helping push the circus cages?" asked Nero. "Has
anything happened?"
"Well, something is going to happen," said Leo. "The circus is going to
start out on the road--we are going to travel from town to town. We are
going to travel on the railroad and live in a tent instead of this barn.
We shall see lots of people--boys and girls--who come to watch us eat,
and do tricks, and we shall hear the band music and--Oh, it's real
jolly!"
"I'm glad of that," said Nero. "I like to be jolly. But will Tum Tum
come back?" he asked, for he liked the big, jolly elephant, as, indeed,
all the circus animals did.
"Oh, yes, Tum Tum will come back," answered Dido, the dancing bear. "The
circus couldn't get along without him. And I couldn't do some of my best
tricks if Tum Tum didn't walk around the ring with the wooden platform
on his back for me to dance on. Oh, we couldn't get along without Tum
Tum!"
Nero was glad to hear this. Though he liked Leo, his lion friend, and
the other animals, even the queer-looking camels, Nero felt more
friendly toward Tum Tum than toward any one else in the circus except
his trainer. For, by this time, Nero had grown to like very much the man
who fed him, and who came into the cage every day to make the lion jump
over the stick.
But Nero had learned many more tricks than this first, easy one. He did
not learn the other tricks as quickly, for they were harder, but the
lion could sit up on a big wooden stool, he could stand up on his hind
paws, and he would open his mouth very wide when his trainer told him
to. In a way Nero had learned something of man-talk, too, for he knew
what certain words meant.
The trainer would call:
"Jump over the stick, Nero!"
The lion knew what that meant, and he knew it was different from the
words used when the trainer said:
"Sit on your stool!"
So, though of course Nero could not understand what the circus men said
when they talked to one another, the lion had learned some words. So he
could talk and understand animal language, and he could also understand
some words of man-talk. And that is pretty good, I think, for a lion who
had not been out of the jungle quite a year.
"Shall we have to push any of the cages?" asked Nero of his friend Leo,
as they both watched the circus men hurrying to and fro in the big barn.
"Oh, no," answered the older lion. "They never let us out of the cages."
"And a good reason, too," declared a humpy camel, near by. "If they let
you lions and tigers out of the cages, you'd run away. We wouldn't do
that. We camels are well-behaved, like the horses and the elephants."
Leo, the old lion, shook his head until his mane dangled in his eyes.
"No," he said, "if they opened my cage, I wouldn't run away. I wouldn't
even go out, unless it was to get something to eat and come right back
again."
"I would!" growled Nero. "I'd go out in a minute, if they opened my cage
door wide enough. I'd go out and run back to the jungle."
"Yes, that's what I used to think, at first," growled Leo. "But after
you've been in the circus awhile you get used to it. It's home to you.
"Why, I remember, Nero, we once had in this circus a lion just about
like you. He always said he'd run away if he got the chance. Well, one
day his cage was left open by accident, and he ran away."
"What happened?" asked Nero.
"Well, he ran back again, the next day, and a more sorry or sick-looking
lion you never saw! He was bedraggled and lame and hungry and thirsty!
He said he was glad to get back to his cage, and he never left it
again."
"What had happened to him?" asked the camel. "I guess that was before my
time."
"Oh, no sooner was he loose in the streets," said Leo, "than he was
chased by men and boys, who threw rocks and sticks at him. They were
afraid of him, and tried to drive him away. But the circus men tried to
catch the runaway lion, and, between both, poor Tarsus, which was his
name, had a bad time. He had enough of running away."
"He should have gone back to the jungle," said Nero. "That's what I'd do
if I could get loose."
"Oh, you think you would!" growled Leo. "But the jungle is far away from
here. You could never reach it. No, you had much better stay here in the
circus, Nero. Here you are in a cage, it is true, but you are warm, you
have a good place to sleep, you have plenty to eat and drink, and boys
can not throw stones at you."
But Nero only switched his tail to and fro, thought of the jungle where
he had played with Boo and Chet, and said to himself:
"That's all right. But, even though my trainer is kind to me, if ever I
get the chance I'll run away!"
And so the circus got ready to go out on the road. Tum Tum and the other
elephants pushed the animal cages about, and one day Nero saw the big
elephant come close up to the lion's cage.
"What are you going to do, Tum Tum?" asked Nero.
"It is time for your cage to be moved," said the elephant. "I am going
to push you out on the lot, and there horses will be hitched to your
cage and you will be given a ride."
"Well, I hope the ride will be nice," said the lion.
"You'll like it," said Tum Tum, trumpeting through his trunk.
Pretty soon Nero found himself, in his cage, out in the bright sunshine.
It was a warm day, and the lion stretched, opened his mouth as wide as
he could, and then lay down in his cage where the sun could warm his
back.
"It feels just as good as the jungle," thought Nero. "But of course
there aren't as many trees, and there are no pools of water, and I
haven't Switchie or Chet or Boo to play with. A circus may be nice, but
I'll run away the first chance I get."
Tum Tum pushed Nero's cage about until some horses could be hitched to
it to draw it to the railroad station. For the circus was to travel on a
train of cars to the city where it was first to give a show.
Nero's cage, as well as other cages, were put on a big flat car, and
when the engine started puffing and pulling away, and when Nero felt
the motion of the train, he called to Leo, who was on the same car:
"I remember riding like this once before."
"Yes," said Leo, "I suppose so. It was when you were brought here from
the big city where the ship landed. The same thing happened to me. But I
am used to riding on railroads now. I don't mind it any more. I like
it."
"I guess I'll like it, too," said Nero.
For the rest of that day and all the night the circus train traveled
onward, and it was nearly morning when it stopped. Peeping out between
the cracks of the wooden cover of his cage, Nero could see the sun just
coming up. It reminded him of the sunrise in the jungle, and he began to
feel lonesome and homesick again, even though he had new friends--Tum
Tum, Dido and Leo.
There was a great deal of noise when the circus train stopped. Men
shouted, horses kicked about in their wooden cars, the elephants
trumpeted, the tigers growled, the lions roared, while the monkeys
chattered.
Nero felt his cage being run down off the car, and then he heard Tum Tum
talking in elephant animal language.
"How are you, Nero? All right?" asked Tum Tum, as he pushed the lion's
cage about so the horses could be hitched to it again. "Are you ready to
do your tricks in the circus?"
"Oh, yes," answered Nero. "When do we begin?"
"Pretty soon," answered Leo from his cage. "We'll go to the circus lot,
then will come the parade, and then we'll be put in the big tent for the
boys and girls to look at. Then the bands will play and the performance
will start."
"My! that's a lot of things to happen," said Nero.
Pretty soon one side of his cage was opened, and Nero's trainer passed
by.
"Hello, Nero, old boy!" called the man. "Did you stand the ride all
right? Yes, I guess you did. Well, we'll soon be doing our tricks
together in the tent," and he patted the paw Nero held out to him, for
this was his way of shaking hands.
Soon after this Nero felt his cage being hauled along by a team of eight
horses. The wooden outside covers of the cage were still down, and Nero
could look out through the bars, and the people could look in. Then Nero
saw that many of the other cages of wild animals were in line with his,
some in front and some behind. There were many horses, elephants and
camels in line also, and a band was playing music.
[Illustration: His keeper rode in the cage with him. _Page 82_]
"What's all this about?" asked Nero of Tum Tum.
"We are going in the circus parade, through the streets of the town,"
answered the jolly elephant. "We always have a parade before the show.
You'll like it."
And Nero liked, very much indeed, his first parade. His keeper rode in
the cage with him, sitting on a chair, and now and then patting the big
head of the lion. Nero liked that, for he and his keeper were friends.
Through great crowds of people on the streets went the circus parade,
and then the procession went back to the circus lot where the big, white
tents, with their gaily colored flags, had been set up.
"Pretty soon the show will begin, Nero," said the keeper, as he got out
of the lion's cage. "The parade was only the first part. The people will
shortly be in here to look at you and the other animals, and, later on,
you and I will do some tricks."
All at once, as the trainer walked away, Nero looked out of his cage and
saw a big shaggy animal running along on the ground.
"Hello, Dido!" growled Nero, for at first he thought it was the dancing
bear he saw. But as the running animal turned, Nero saw that it was not
Dido. This animal was not so large as the dancing bear.
"I'm not Dido," said the new chap. "And I don't seem to know you, though
I know that bear in the cage back of you."
"Why, that's who I thought you were," said Nero. "And so you know Dido?"
"Oh, yes, I know him, and Dido knows me," said the new animal.
"Well, you'd better go back into your cage before the circus men see
you," said Nero. "How did you get loose? Tell me? I'd like to get out
myself."
"Ho! Ho! You're making a mistake!" was the laughing answer. "I am not a
circus animal. I'm Don, and I'm a runaway dog. At least I ran away once,
but I ran back again. I came down to see Dido, whom I met when I was
running away," and Don, the nice, big dog, wagged his tail at Dido, the
dancing bear.