hile.
"Now for the hunt!" said Mr. Lion, as he led Nero into the jungle.
"Tread softly. Sniff with your nose until you smell something worth
hunting, and then spring on it."
Though lions, like cats, can see pretty well in the dark, they have to
depend a great deal in their hunting on what they can smell with their
nose, just as your dog can smell a bone, and tell, in that way, where he
has buried it in the garden.
So Nero and his father joined the other lions on their march through the
jungle in search of something to eat. And Nero kept getting hungrier and
hungrier, so that he looked eagerly around every side of him in the
darkness, and sniffed so that he might know when he came near anything
he could kill and eat.
The other lions were doing the same thing. They did not roar now, but
went quietly, slinking through the jungle as quietly as your cat creeps
through the grass when she is trying to catch a sparrow. The lions had
done enough roaring to scare away other animals who might bother them in
their hunt. Now they did not roar any longer, for they did not want to
scare away the smaller beasts which were food for them in their hunger.
"I'm going to leave you for a while now, Nero," said Mr. Lion, after a
bit. "You will have to get along by yourself. But don't forget the
lessons your mother and I taught you."
"Where are you going?" asked Nero.
"I am going to the front, to march along with the older men lions," said
Nero's father. "We are going to lead you young lions where there will be
good hunting."
"I shall like that," growled Nero, and he sprang on a tree trunk as he
passed, and dug deep into the soft bark.
"Hi! Quit that! You're scattering bark in my eyes!" said a voice behind
Nero. It was not a loud voice, for one has to be quiet when hunting in
the jungle.
"Who's there?" asked Nero, thinking for a moment it might be the
crocodile who had tossed him into the jungle pool.
"It is I--Switchie," was the answer.
"Oh, are you hunting, too?" asked Nero, glad to find that he knew some
one among the lions besides his father. "Have you killed anything yet?"
"No, not yet. But I shall pretty soon," answered Switchie. "This isn't
my first hunt. I've been out at night before."
"Isn't it great!" said Nero. "I hope I can kill a big buffalo. That
would make a fine meal!"
"Yes, I should say it would!" exclaimed Switchie. "But you had better
leave the buffaloes to your father and the other big men
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