in
the circus, held up her hand, pointed at the lion in the kitchen, and
then at the table, and cried:

"Up, Nero! Up! Sit on the table!"

And though Nero did not know the little girl, and did not remember
having seen her before, the trained lion knew what the words meant. He
had heard his trainer say them many, many times. So Nero slowly walked
over to the table, got up on it with a jump, and then and there, right
in front of the tramp and the little girl and her father and mother,
Nero sat on his hind legs on the table, just as he was accustomed to sit
on a stool in the circus ring.

"There! What did I tell you?" cried the little girl, clapping her hands.
"I knew he was the tame, circus lion! Doesn't he sit up nice?"

"Yes," said the farmer, "he does. But there is no telling how long he
may sit there. He must have escaped from the circus, and I had better
telephone the men that he is here. They'll be glad to get him back."

"It's a good thing he scared the tramp," said the farmer's wife, as she
looked at the ragged man. "What are you doing here, anyhow?" she asked
him.

"I--I just came in to get something to eat," he whined. "And then your
lion wouldn't let me go."

"He isn't my lion," replied the farmer. "But he's done me a good turn.
I'll have the constable come here and take you away."

And a little later the constable, who had been telephoned for, came and
took the tramp to jail. Nero looked on, wondering what it was all about,
and wishing some one would give him something to eat. And the little
girl thought of this.

"The tramp has spoiled the ham for us, Mother," she said. "Can't I give
the rest of it to Nero?"

[Illustration: Nero sat on his hind legs on the table. _Page 122_]

"Oh, yes, I suppose so," said the farmer's wife.

So Nero got something to eat after all. And then, when he had fallen
asleep in the woodshed where the farmer locked him, the circus men came
to take the tame lion back with them.

"I'm very glad to get Nero again," said his trainer. "I guess he has had
enough of running away."

And as they were bringing up the new cage which was to take the lion
back to the circus, in came Blackie from the meadow where she had been
catching grasshoppers.

"Oh, so you did come to see me, after all!" she mewed to Nero.

"Yes," answered the lion, in animal talk, which none of the people could
understand, "I came to see you."

"I'm sorry I was away," said Blackie.

"So am I. But I rea