Nero, the Circus Lion Part 14

And then, all of a sudden, that bad, ragged tramp, who had come in to steal, looked up from the table where he was sitting, eating ham, and saw the lion.

"Oh, my! Oh, my goodness me!" cried the tramp, and he was so surprised and frightened that he just slumped down in his chair and didn't dare move. The piece of meat he had been eating dropped from his hand to the floor, and Nero picked it up and ate it, licking his jaws for more.

"Oh, this is terrible!" gasped the tramp. "I didn't know this farmer kept a trained lion as a watchdog. I knew he had a black cat, but not a lion. Oh, what am I to do?"

Of course Nero didn't in the least know what the man was talking about.

But the lion smelled the meat and he wanted some more; so he sat down in front of the kitchen door and looked at the ragged man.

"I don't know who you are," said Nero to himself, "and you are certainly not as nice as my circus trainer.

"But you have some more meat there," Nero thought on, for he could still smell the ham on the table. "I think you might give me a bit more. That little piece was hardly enough."

And so Nero sat there looking at the tramp, who was too frightened to move. He couldn't get out of the door, because the lion was in the way, and he didn't dare turn his back, to go over to open a window and jump out, for fear the lion would spring on him.

"Oh, I'm in a terrible fix!" thought the tramp. "This is the first time I was ever caught by a lion! It's worse than half a dozen dogs! Oh, what shall I do?"

There really did not seem to be anything for him to do except just sit there. And Nero sat looking at him, waiting to be fed some more meat, as he had been used to being fed in the circus.

And then something else happened. Back to the house came the farmer and his wife, and their little girl was with them. They had returned from their visit.

"Why, look, Mother!" cried the little girl, as she went up on the back porch. "The kitchen door is open!"

"It is?" cried her mother. "I'm sure we locked it when we went away."

"We did," said the farmer, who was the little girl's father. "Some one must have gone in--a tramp, maybe. I'll see about this!"

The farmer walked quickly to the kitchen door and opened it wide. It had swung partly shut after Nero had gone in. And when the farmer saw the frightened tramp sitting in the chair at the table, too scared to move, and the lion between him and the door, on guard, it seemed, the farmer was so surprised and frightened himself that he cried:

"Oh my! There's a lion in our kitchen, and a tramp! Oh, I must get my gun! I must send for the constable!"

"The constable won't be any good for a lion," said the farmer's wife.

"No, but my gun can shoot the lion," said the farmer. "I'll go for it."

"Oh, let me see the lion!" begged the little girl. "I saw one in the circus the other day, and he was tame. Maybe this is the same one. The circus lion I saw wouldn't bite any one, even when the man put his head in the big mouth. Let me look!"

She pushed past her father and mother, and looked in the kitchen. The little girl saw the frightened tramp, who had been caught by the lion, and the little girl also saw Nero. And then she laughed and shouted:

"Why, that's the very same nice, tame lion I saw in the circus! I'm sure it's the very same one, for it looks just like him. But I can soon tell."

"Gracious goodness, child!" cried her mother. "Don't dare go near him!

Besides, it may not be a tame, circus lion."

"Well, if he is he can do tricks," said the little girl. "The lion I saw in the circus sat up on a stool when the trainer told him to. We haven't any stool big enough, but maybe I can make the lion sit on his hind legs on the table. That will hold him."

And then the little girl, doing just as she had seen the trainer do in the circus, held up her hand, pointed at the lion in the kitchen, and then at the table, and cried:

"Up, Nero! Up! Sit on the table!"

And though Nero did not know the little girl, and did not remember having seen her before, the trained lion knew what the words meant. He had heard his trainer say them many, many times. So Nero slowly walked over to the table, got up on it with a jump, and then and there, right in front of the tramp and the little girl and her father and mother, Nero sat on his hind legs on the table, just as he was accustomed to sit on a stool in the circus ring.

"There! What did I tell you?" cried the little girl, clapping her hands.

"I knew he was the tame, circus lion! Doesn't he sit up nice?"

"Yes," said the farmer, "he does. But there is no telling how long he may sit there. He must have escaped from the circus, and I had better telephone the men that he is here. They'll be glad to get him back."

"It's a good thing he scared the tramp," said the farmer's wife, as she looked at the ragged man. "What are you doing here, anyhow?" she asked him.

"I--I just came in to get something to eat," he whined. "And then your lion wouldn't let me go."

"He isn't my lion," replied the farmer. "But he's done me a good turn.

I'll have the constable come here and take you away."

And a little later the constable, who had been telephoned for, came and took the tramp to jail. Nero looked on, wondering what it was all about, and wis.h.i.+ng some one would give him something to eat. And the little girl thought of this.

"The tramp has spoiled the ham for us, Mother," she said. "Can't I give the rest of it to Nero?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Nero sat on his hind legs on the table. _Page 122_]

"Oh, yes, I suppose so," said the farmer's wife.

So Nero got something to eat after all. And then, when he had fallen asleep in the woodshed where the farmer locked him, the circus men came to take the tame lion back with them.

"I'm very glad to get Nero again," said his trainer. "I guess he has had enough of running away."

And as they were bringing up the new cage which was to take the lion back to the circus, in came Blackie from the meadow where she had been catching gra.s.shoppers.

"Oh, so you did come to see me, after all!" she mewed to Nero.

"Yes," answered the lion, in animal talk, which none of the people could understand, "I came to see you."

"I'm sorry I was away," said Blackie.

"So am I. But I really had a pretty good time," said Nero. "And I scared a man who wore very ragged clothes, something like the funny clowns in our circus. And now I am going back there. I'm glad to have met you, Blackie."

"And I'm glad I met you, Nero. Maybe someday I'll come to your circus."

"Yes, do," growled Nero.

"Good-bye!" called the little girl to the circus lion, as he was hauled away in his cage. "Good-bye! I'm glad you did the sitting-up trick for me!"

Late that afternoon Nero was back in the circus tent again.

"Well, where in the world have you been?" asked Tum Tum.

"Oh, off having adventures, as I suppose you'd call them," answered the lion.

"Adventures!" exclaimed the jolly elephant. "Well, if that man hears about them he'll put you in a book."