said Nero's mother. "Now you see what happened. But I'm sorry your
side is hurt. Go into the cave and lie down. I'll bring you a nice piece
of goat meat to eat, and get some soft grass to make you a bed. You'll
be all right in a few days, but after this--mind me!"

"I will," promised Nero.

The soft grass, which his mother pawed into a bed for him with her sharp
claws, felt very comfortable to his sore side. And the goat's meat,
which lions eat when they can get it, tasted very good. Nero soon became
dry and then he went to sleep.

When he awakened his brother Chet and his sister Boo were in the cave
looking at him.

"Mother says you got into mischief!" exclaimed Boo. "Tell us all about
it, Nero."

So Nero did, and when his story was ended Chet said enviously:

"I wish I had been there. If I had, I'd have scratched that crocodile
with my claws!"

"You couldn't have hurt him that way," said Mr. Lion, who came into the
cave just then. "Crocodiles have a very hard, thick skin on their backs
and tails, much harder and thicker than our skin, and even that of an
elephant. You can't hurt a crocodile by scratching his back. The only
way to hurt them is to turn them over, and while you are trying to do
that they'll knock you about with the big tail. So keep away from the
crocodiles, children."

"I will," said Nero, and Boo and Chet said the same thing.

"Now hurry and get well," said Nero's father to him, as the lion boy lay
in the cave. "You are growing large and strong, and soon you will have
to learn to go hunting."

"What's hunting?" asked Nero.

"It is learning how to get your own things to eat," said his father.
"When you were little, your mother and I hunted the goats and other
animals that we have to eat. But now you are getting big enough to go
hunting for yourself. Only I must give you a few lessons."

"Can't I learn to hunt, too?" asked Chet.

"And I?" Boo wanted to know.

"Yes," said their father. "After I teach Nero I'll teach you. One at a
time. The jungle is full of danger, and I can teach only one of you at a
time how to be careful. So get good and well and strong, Nero, and soon
I'll take you on a hunt."

Nero thought he would like this, so he stayed quietly in the cave for a
day or two, until his side, where the crocodile had struck him with the
sharp-ridged tail, felt much better.

One day, about a week after Nero had been tossed into the spring, he
noticed his father sharpening his claws