Nero, the Circus Lion Part 2

"I don't know, Ma," answered Nero. "But I got in the spring!"

"There! I told you to keep away from the water hole in the daytime!"

said Mrs. Lion. "I knew something would happen if you played with that Switchie. That lion cub will get into trouble some day. He is too bold!"

"A crocodile knocked me into the water," explained Nero. "It wasn't Switchie's fault."

"It was the fault of both you lion boys for going where you ought not to," said Nero's mother. "Now you see what happened. But I'm sorry your side is hurt. Go into the cave and lie down. I'll bring you a nice piece of goat meat to eat, and get some soft gra.s.s to make you a bed. You'll be all right in a few days, but after this--mind me!"

"I will," promised Nero.

The soft gra.s.s, which his mother pawed into a bed for him with her sharp claws, felt very comfortable to his sore side. And the goat's meat, which lions eat when they can get it, tasted very good. Nero soon became dry and then he went to sleep.

When he awakened his brother Chet and his sister Boo were in the cave looking at him.

"Mother says you got into mischief!" exclaimed Boo. "Tell us all about it, Nero."

So Nero did, and when his story was ended Chet said enviously:

"I wish I had been there. If I had, I'd have scratched that crocodile with my claws!"

"You couldn't have hurt him that way," said Mr. Lion, who came into the cave just then. "Crocodiles have a very hard, thick skin on their backs and tails, much harder and thicker than our skin, and even that of an elephant. You can't hurt a crocodile by scratching his back. The only way to hurt them is to turn them over, and while you are trying to do that they'll knock you about with the big tail. So keep away from the crocodiles, children."

"I will," said Nero, and Boo and Chet said the same thing.

"Now hurry and get well," said Nero's father to him, as the lion boy lay in the cave. "You are growing large and strong, and soon you will have to learn to go hunting."

"What's hunting?" asked Nero.

"It is learning how to get your own things to eat," said his father.

"When you were little, your mother and I hunted the goats and other animals that we have to eat. But now you are getting big enough to go hunting for yourself. Only I must give you a few lessons."

"Can't I learn to hunt, too?" asked Chet.

"And I?" Boo wanted to know.

"Yes," said their father. "After I teach Nero I'll teach you. One at a time. The jungle is full of danger, and I can teach only one of you at a time how to be careful. So get good and well and strong, Nero, and soon I'll take you on a hunt."

Nero thought he would like this, so he stayed quietly in the cave for a day or two, until his side, where the crocodile had struck him with the sharp-ridged tail, felt much better.

One day, about a week after Nero had been tossed into the spring, he noticed his father sharpening his claws on the bark of a tree.

"What's he doing that for?" Nero asked his mother.

"To get ready for the jungle hunt to-night," answered Mrs. Lion. "I heard him say something about taking you, so perhaps you had better sharpen your claws, also."

"I will," answered Nero, and he did, making the bits of bark fly as he pulled it from a tree in the jungle, not far from the cave where he lived.

When it began to get dark, which it does very early in the big African forest, as the thick trees shut out the light of the sun, Nero said to his mother:

"Aren't we going to have any supper?"

"Not to-night--that is, not right away," said Mr. Lion. "You are going to hunt for your supper, Nero."

"But I am very hungry," returned the little lion boy, who was growing bigger and stronger every day.

"Then you will hunt all the better," growled his father. "There is nothing like being hungry to make a good hunter-lion. Come, now is the time I have long waited for--to teach you to hunt in the jungle. Your mother and Chet and Boo are going to have supper with Switchie and his folks. You and I are going to hunt for ourselves. Come, we will go into a part of the jungle where you have never yet been."

And Nero felt very much excited when he heard his father say this. The lion cub felt brave and strong, and he knew that his teeth and claws were very sharp.

Suddenly, through the jungle, which was now quite dark, there came a distant sound as if of thunder. There was a rumble and a roar, and the very ground seemed to shake.

"What's that?" asked Nero, looking at his father.

CHAPTER III

NERO IS SHOT

Once again, as Nero stood with Mr. Lion at the front door of the jungle cave, the roaring sound echoed among the trees.

"What is that?" asked the boy lion once more.

"That is the roaring of other lions, who are also going out to hunt to-night," said Nero's father. "There will be many of us lions in the jungle; perhaps others, like you, who are going out for the first time.

You must be brave and strong. Remember the lessons your mother and I have taught you. Crouch down and jump hard. Strike hard with your paws and dig deep with your sharp claws. That is what they are for--to help you hunt so that you may get things to eat. Now we will start."

By this time the jungle around the cave where Nero lived seemed filled with the roarings of other lions. The very ground seemed to tremble.

Nero was excited, but he was sure he could hunt well. He was a brave lion, and he knew he was strong and nearly full grown now, and he knew his teeth were sharp, as were his claws, and his paws were strong, both for striking and leaping, for that is how a lion hunts.

"Boom! Boom!" rolled out the lions' roars in the jungle.

"Ah, we shall have a grand hunt to-night!" said Nero's father. "I hope you are still hungry."

"Yes I am, very," answered the boy lion.

"That is good," returned the father. "Now we will start. At first stay close to me, but when you see a goat or a sheep or some other animal you think you would like to eat, spring on it and strike it with your claws."

Of course this sounds cruel, but lions must get their food this way; there is no other.

Suddenly Nero opened his mouth and gave a great roar, the loudest he had ever uttered. It shook the ground on which he stood. The trembling of the earth seemed to tickle the pads of skin and flesh of his paws, pads which were the same to him as your shoes are to you.

"Ha, that was a fine roar, Nero!" said his father. "Roar again!"

And Nero did, louder than at first.

"That's the way!" cried Mr. Lion. "That will tell the other jungle folk to keep out of our way when we are having a night-hunt."