en they were friends. Don and Dido had a nice visit together in the
circus tent before the show began. Don had simply slipped under the side
of the tent to get in. If any of the circus men saw him they did not
mind, for dogs often come around where circus shows are given. Perhaps
they like to see the elephants and other strange animals, as much as the
boys and girls do.

After awhile great crowds of people began coming into the circus tent.
The band played music in another tent, next door, and it was there that
the men and women performers would do their tricks--riding on the backs
of galloping horses, leaping about on trapezes, jumping over the backs
of elephants and so on.

Nero paced back and forth in his cage, wondering what was going to
happen, for this was his first day of real life in the circus. All the
other days had been just getting ready for the summer shows.

He had liked the parade through the city streets, when the elephants,
horses, and camels wore such bright and gaily colored blankets. Now
something else was going to happen.

The animal tent, in which stood Nero's cage and that of the other jungle
folk, was soon filled with boys and girls and their fathers and mothers,
all of whom had come to the circus. They moved from cage to cage,
stopping to toss popcorn balls to Dido, the dancing bear, and feed
peanuts to Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, and to the friends of Mappo and
some of the other merry monkeys.

Coming to the cage of the big lion, the boys and girls would stop and
look in, and perhaps some one would say:

"Oh, isn't he big and fierce! I wouldn't want to go into his cage!"

And perhaps some one else would answer:

"Pooh! I guess he's a trained lion! Maybe he does tricks! When I grow
up I'm going to be a lion tamer."

Of course Nero did not understand any of this talk, but he liked to look
at the boys and girls, and he was not nearly as wild as he had been when
he lived in the jungle. Nero was really quite tame, and he liked his
trainer very much, for the man was kind to Nero.

Pretty soon all the people--even the boys and girls--went out of the
animal tent, leaving the animals almost alone.

"Where have they gone?" asked Nero of Dido.

"Oh, into the other tent, where the music is playing and where the
performance is going on. You'll soon be going in there too, and so shall
I."

"What for?" asked Nero.

"To do your tricks," answered the bear. "That is why you were taught to
do t