Nero, the Circus Lion Part 7

And, oh, how good it was!

It was not like the air of the jungle, for it was cooler, and Nero had been used to being very hot nearly all the time. But he did not mind being a bit cool.

Nero's cage was hoisted out of the hold, the deep, black hold of the s.h.i.+p, and slung on a big automobile truck with some boxes and barrels.

Nero was the only wild animal, and people pa.s.sing along on the dock stopped to look into the big wooden cage at the tawny yellow lion who had been brought all the way from the jungle.

Away started the auto-truck, giving Nero a new kind of ride. He would much rather have walked, but of course a lion can't go about loose in the streets of New York, though they do let the elephants and camels walk in a circus parade. But Nero was not yet in a circus.

Nero looked out through the bars of his cage as he was carted through the streets of New York.

"My, this is a queer jungle!" thought the lion. "Where are the trees and the tangled vines and the snakes and monkeys and other animals? All I see are men and other queer creatures. This isn't at all like my jungle!"

And of course it was not, being a big city. There are not many places for trees in a city, you know.

So Nero cowered down in the corner of his cage until he was put in a freight car to be sent to a place called Bridgeport, Connecticut, where some circus men keep their wild animals, to train them, and have them safe during the winter when it is too cold to give shows in the big, white tents.

"Well, this is a new sort of motion," thought Nero, as the train started off. "I don't know that I like it, but still it is better than being made to turn somersaults all the while."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Nero looked out through the bars of his cage. _Page 62_]

Indeed it was easier riding on a train than in a s.h.i.+p; at least for Nero. He knew nothing about railroads, nor where he was being taken.

But, after a while, during which he did not get much to eat or drink, once more his cage was put on a big auto-truck.

A little later, after being lifted about, and slung here and there, Nero suddenly saw one end of his cage open. The wooden bars, which had been around him ever since he had left the jungle, seemed to drop away.

"Ha! Now, maybe, I can get loose!" thought Nero.

He sprang forward, but, to his surprise, he found himself in very much the same sort of place. But this new cage was larger, and the bars were of iron instead of wood.

Looking through them Nero could see many other just such cages. He sniffed, and he smelled the smell of many wild animals which he knew. He smelled lions, buffaloes, and elephants.

Nero looked around him. He was in a big wooden building, and over to one side were some elephants. At first Nero could not believe it. He rubbed his eyes with his paw and looked again.

Yes, surely enough, they were elephants. They were swaying slowly to and fro, as elephants always sway, and they were stuffing hay into their mouths with their curling trunks.

"Oh, am I back in the jungle?" asked Nero aloud, speaking in animal talk.

"The jungle? No, I should say not!" cried a big jolly-looking elephant.

"This isn't the jungle."

"Then what is it?" asked Nero.

"It's a circus," said the elephant. "This is a circus, and we are glad to have you with us, jungle lion. My name is Tum Tum, what is yours?"

"Nero," was the answer. "And so this is a circus!" went on the lion.

"Well, well! I never thought I'd be here!"

CHAPTER VII

NERO LEARNS SOME TRICKS

Nero thought the circus a very queer place indeed. It was as queer to him as the wild jungle would be to you if you saw it for the first time.

But strange as it was, the circus, where he now found himself, seemed much nicer to Nero than being cooped up in the dark s.h.i.+p or in the freight car.

For there were many wild animals in the circus--other lions, tigers, elephants, camels, giraffes, several cages of monkeys, some wolves, a bear or two, and others that Nero did not see until later. And there was also a queer, wild-animal smell, which Nero liked very much. It was almost like the smell of the jungle, and it made him homesick when he thought of the deep tangle of green vines, the thick trees and the silent pools of water.

"We are glad to have you in our circus," said the elephant, who had called himself Tum Tum, speaking to Nero. "Of course it isn't very lively now, but wait until we get out on the road, giving a show every day in a new place, and traveling about! Then you'll like it!"

"Doesn't the circus stay here every day?" asked Nero, as he looked across to another lion in a cage. Nero hoped this lion would speak to him, but the big fellow seemed to be asleep.

"The circus stay here? I should say not!" cried Tum Tum, speaking through his long trunk. "Why, this is only the winter barn, where we stay when the weather is cold. We don't have any shows in winter. The people don't come in to see us, and we don't do any of our tricks. It is only when the show goes on the road in summer, with the big white tent, all covered with gay flags, and the bands playing music, that we have the good times. Here we just rest, eat, and sometimes learn new tricks."

"Tricks!" exclaimed Nero. "Tricks? Are they something good to eat?"

"Tricks good to eat!" laughed Tum Tum in his jolly voice. "No indeed!

Tricks are things you do. But often, after we do ours well, the trainer gives us good things to eat."

"I fell into a big hole in the jungle once," said Nero. "Is that a trick?"

"Not exactly," answered Tum Tum. "Here, I'll show you what a trick is.

This is only one of my easy ones, though," and then suddenly the big elephant stood on his hind legs, waving his trunk in the air.

"Oh, so that's a trick," said Nero. "Well, I could do that."

But when he tried to stand up on his hind legs in his cage he could not.

He had not learned how to balance himself.

"So you do tricks in a circus, do you?" went on Nero. "That reminds me.

In the jungle I heard some monkeys speak of a circus, and also of a chap named Mappo. Is he here?"

"He used to be," said Tum Tum. "Mappo was one of our merriest monkeys.

We all liked him, but he went to live with some people. I don't know where he is now. But he was in this circus. And to think of your meeting some of his friends in the jungle! Tell me, did you see any of mine?"

"Well, I met lots of elephants," answered Nero, "but I didn't have much time to stop and talk with them. I met a rhinoceros, though, and he said something about Chunky, a happy hippo, who used to live in the jungle near him."

"Oh, Chunky is here, in this very circus!" cried Tum Tum. "But he stays in a water-tank, so we don't very often see him. He'll be glad to know you met his rhinoceros friend. I'll tell him the first time I get a chance. But, speaking of tricks, there's a chap over there who does some fine ones," and Tum Tum pointed with his trunk to a cage in which was a s.h.a.ggy, black animal.

"Who is it?" asked Nero.

"Dido, the dancing bear," answered the elephant. "He dances on a platform, which is strapped to my back out in the circus rings; he jumps through a hoop of blazing fire; and he turns somersaults."

"I turned some somersaults too, after they put me in a cage and brought me from the jungle," said Nero, as he thought of his voyage on the s.h.i.+p.

"Well, maybe you can learn to do them here, and that will be a trick,"

returned Tum Tum. "But you should see Dido, the dancing bear. He surely can dance!"