, I'm in a terrible fix!" thought the tramp. "This is the first time
I was ever caught by a lion! It's worse than half a dozen dogs! Oh, what
shall I do?"

There really did not seem to be anything for him to do except just sit
there. And Nero sat looking at him, waiting to be fed some more meat, as
he had been used to being fed in the circus.

And then something else happened. Back to the house came the farmer and
his wife, and their little girl was with them. They had returned from
their visit.

"Why, look, Mother!" cried the little girl, as she went up on the back
porch. "The kitchen door is open!"

"It is?" cried her mother. "I'm sure we locked it when we went away."

"We did," said the farmer, who was the little girl's father. "Some one
must have gone in--a tramp, maybe. I'll see about this!"

The farmer walked quickly to the kitchen door and opened it wide. It had
swung partly shut after Nero had gone in. And when the farmer saw the
frightened tramp sitting in the chair at the table, too scared to move,
and the lion between him and the door, on guard, it seemed, the farmer
was so surprised and frightened himself that he cried:

"Oh my! There's a lion in our kitchen, and a tramp! Oh, I must get my
gun! I must send for the constable!"

"The constable won't be any good for a lion," said the farmer's wife.

"No, but my gun can shoot the lion," said the farmer. "I'll go for it."

"Oh, let me see the lion!" begged the little girl. "I saw one in the
circus the other day, and he was tame. Maybe this is the same one. The
circus lion I saw wouldn't bite any one, even when the man put his head
in the big mouth. Let me look!"

She pushed past her father and mother, and looked in the kitchen. The
little girl saw the frightened tramp, who had been caught by the lion,
and the little girl also saw Nero. And then she laughed and shouted:

"Why, that's the very same nice, tame lion I saw in the circus! I'm sure
it's the very same one, for it looks just like him. But I can soon
tell."

"Gracious goodness, child!" cried her mother. "Don't dare go near him!
Besides, it may not be a tame, circus lion."

"Well, if he is he can do tricks," said the little girl. "The lion I saw
in the circus sat up on a stool when the trainer told him to. We haven't
any stool big enough, but maybe I can make the lion sit on his hind legs
on the table. That will hold him."

And then the little girl, doing just as she had seen the trainer do