loose.

Nero looked around him. He could see quite well in the dark. Off to one
side he saw some tangled bushes and a clump of trees.

"Maybe that is the jungle!" thought Nero. "I'm going to find out. I'm
going to leave the circus for a while. It was very nice, but I want to
be free. I want to feel the rain and the mud. Now that I am out of my
cage I'll stay loose for a time!"

And so Nero ran away!

CHAPTER XI

NERO AND BLACKIE

The first thing any wild animal does when it runs away is to find some
dark place and hide. Even though it may be hungry, an animal, when
frightened, will nearly always hide until it can look about and make up
its mind what to do.

Nero, the circus lion, who got loose from his cage when it rolled
downhill in the storm and broke open, did this thing. When he had stood
for a moment in the rain and darkness, feeling the soft mud squdge up
between his claws, and when he had roared a bit, because he felt so wild
and free, Nero sneaked off in the darkness toward some trees and bushes,
which he had seen in a flash of lightning.

"That may be the jungle," he had said to himself.

But of course you and I know that it wasn't the jungle. That was far,
far away--across the sea in Africa.

He stood for a moment, listening to the shouts of the circus men, who
were standing about the broken cage. They could not see Nero in the
darkness, nor even when the lightning flashed, for the lion crouched
down behind some black bushes.

"Well, Nero got away all right," said one circus man.

"Yes, and we must get him back!" said the man who had trained Nero to do
his tricks. "Folks don't like lions wandering about their farms and
gardens. I must find my pet. Here, Nero! Nero! Come back!" called the
trainer.

But though the lion liked the man who had been so kind to him, Nero was
not yet ready to go back to the circus.

"I have just gotten out of my cage," said Nero to himself; "and it would
be too bad to go back before I have had some fun. So I'll just run on
and stay in the jungle awhile."

Nero felt very happy. It was a long time since he had been able to roam
about as he pleased, and though he had no raincoat or umbrella, and not
even rubbers, he didn't mind the storm at all. Animals like to get wet,
sometimes, if the rain is not too cold. It gives them a bath, just as
you have yours in a tub.

"This certainly is fun!" said Nero to himself, as he trotted along
through the rain and darkn