CHAPTER XII

NERO AND THE TRAMP

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, 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 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 h