y never
saw him again, and, for a time, felt very sad. But so many things
happened in the jungle that Mr. and Mrs. Lion soon forgot Nero. That's
the way with animals. They are not like us. And so it was that Nero's
father and mother never really knew what happened to him. They might
find out if they could read this book, but that, of course, can't be
done.

Now we'll get back to Nero. There he was in the bottom of a big hole,
and up at the top was the black African trapper looking down on him.
Pretty soon other hunters and trappers came to see the lion that had
been caught alive.

"He's a fine big fellow, Chaki," said one black man to the trapper who
had been so pleased when Nero was caught. "What are you going to do with
him?"

"Oh, I am going to sell him to a white animal man who comes from across
the sea in a big boat called a ship," answered Chaki, the trapper.

"And what will the white animal man do with a live lion?"

"He buys him to sell to a circus," answered Chaki.

"And what is a circus?" asked the other black man.

"I don't know," answered Chaki, "except that far across the ocean white
people like to pay money to look at wild animals such as we have in our
jungle. That's all I know about a circus. The white animal man told me
that."

"Ha! A circus!" laughed the other black man. "And people pay money to
look at wild animals? Well, they should come to the jungle. They could
see all the animals they want for nothing."

And of course we could, I suppose, only very few of us can go to
jungles, and so we go to circuses instead.

Nero, down on the bottom of the hole, listened to the talk of the black
men up above. He did not understand any of it, or he might have
remembered that word "circus." The rhinoceros, who had knocked him away
from the drinking pool, had spoken of a "circus" where Chunky, the happy
hippo, went. But Nero was too frightened and in too much pain to pay any
heed to what the men said.

And then began a very unhappy time for our lion friend. It was such an
unhappy, sad time that I am not going to tell you very much about this
part of Nero's life. I'm going to skip over it and come to the funnier,
happier part.

For, after the lion had thrashed about on the bottom of the pit for some
time, the black African trapper let down ropes and tangled the lion all
up in them. Then Nero was hauled to the top of the pit and put into a
big wooden cage. He tried to get out, by striking the bars wi