TING 16

III NERO IS SHOT 27

IV NERO IN A CAVE 36

V NERO IN A TRAP 45

VI NERO IN A CIRCUS 55

VII NERO LEARNS SOME TRICKS 67

VIII NERO MEETS DON 75

IX NERO SCARES A BOY 87

X NERO RUNS AWAY 97

XI NERO AND BLACKIE 107

XII NERO AND THE TRAMP 113

ILLUSTRATIONS

He jumped through a hoop covered with paper _Frontispiece_

PAGE

Nero saw what he had thought was a log of wood open a big mouth 18

He licked the place where his paw hurt 38

Nero looked out through the bars of his cage 62

His keeper rode in the cage with him 82

Then the trainer put his head in the lion's mouth 100

Nero sat on his hind legs on the table 122

NERO,
THE CIRCUS LION

CHAPTER I

NERO HAS SOME FUN

Far off in the jungle of Africa lived a family of lions.

Africa, you know, is a very hot country, and what we, in this land,
would call a forest, or woods, is called a "jungle" there. In the jungle
grew many trees, and the ground was covered with low vines and bushes so
that animals, creeping along, could scarcely be seen. That was why the
animals liked the jungle so much; they could roam about in it, play and
get their meals, and the black hunters and the white huntsmen who
sometimes came to the jungle, could not easily see to shoot the lions,
elephants and other beasts.

There were five lions in this jungle family, and I am going to tell you
the story of one of them, named Nero. Nero was a little boy lion, about
two years old, but please don't think he was a baby because he was only
two years old. Lions grow much faster than boys and girls, and a lion of
two years is quite large and strong, with sharp claws and sharper teeth.

Nero lived with his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Lion, and his
brother Chet and his sister Boo, in a cave in the African jungle. The
cave was among the rocks, and not far from a spring of water where the
lions went to drink each night. They drank only at night because that
was the safest time; the hunters could not so easily see the shaggy
lions with their big heads, and manes l