Part 8 (1/2)

”Who is talking about me?” asked the s.h.a.ggy creature in the other cage.

”We are, Dido,” answered Tum Tum. ”I was just telling the new lion how you dance on a platform over my back.”

”Oh, yes,” said the bear, opening wide his mouth and showing his red tongue. ”And I wish I could soon start to doing that again. I am getting tired of the circus barn. I want to be out in the tent.”

”It will soon be warm enough,” said Tum Tum. ”Summer will soon be here, and then we shall have hot weather.”

”Does it get as hot as in the jungle?” Nero asked.

”Sometimes,” answered the jolly elephant. ”But here comes your keeper, I guess. He is going to give you some meat.”

And, surely enough, along came a circus man with a big chunk of meat on a large, iron fork. He poked the meat in through the bars of the cage to Nero, and the lion was so hungry that he began eating at once.

The man who had fed him stood in front of the cage, looking at Nero.

”You look like a fine chap,” said the man, talking partly to himself and partly to the jungle animal. ”I think we shall be good friends, and I will teach you some tricks. Then the boys and girls who come to the circus will want to watch you. Yes, I'll teach you some tricks. Come, let's be friends.”

Slowly and carefully the circus trainer reached his hand toward Nero's paw, which was between two bars and partly outside the cage. Nero, looking out of the corners of his eyes as he gnawed the bone and chewed the meat, did not know what the man was trying to do. Perhaps the lion thought that the man was trying to take away the meat.

Whatever he thought, Nero suddenly jumped up and struck with all his force at the man's hand. But the man was too quick. He pulled his hand out of the way, and Nero's paw hit the iron bars. And as it happened to be the paw that had been struck by the bullet, Nero felt great pain, for the bullet was still in the flesh, though healed over.

”Ouch!” cried Nero, in lion language.

”That will teach you not to strike at me when I am only trying to pat you and be kind to you,” said the man with a laugh. ”You are beginning to learn things, my lion friend.”

The man stayed for some time in front of Nero's cage, talking kindly to the lion, but Nero paid no attention to him. He only ate the meat. Then, when it was all gone, Nero felt thirsty.

”I'll get you some water,” said the man, and he did.

”Well, you are kind to me, anyhow,” thought Nero, ”even if you did try to take away my bone,” but of course the man had not tried to do that.

For about a week Nero lived in his circus cage in the big barn, where the animals were kept warm all winter. Nothing much happened, except that the same man, every day, brought food and water to the wild jungle lion. And by this time Nero was not so wild as he had been at first. He gave up trying to break the iron bars with his paws, and no longer tried to bite them with his teeth. They were too strong for him.

Then, one day, the trainer man came again to the lion's cage, with a nice, sweet piece of meat.

”My, how good that is!” said Nero to himself, as he ate it.

As Nero was chewing away, the man slowly put out his hand toward the lion's paw, which was out between the bars. But Nero saw him, and again the old fear came back that the man was going to take away the meat, and Nero did not want that to happen.

”Look out!” roared Nero, in lion talk. ”Look out or I'll scratch you!”

”Don't do that!” said another voice. A voice that Nero knew came from the other lion cage, that had recently been moved up near his. ”Don't be silly, Nero!” said the other circus lion, whose name was Leo. ”I used to be as wild as you are, and live in the jungle. But they caught me and brought me here to the circus; and now I like it very much. I, too, tried to scratch the man when he wanted to touch my paw, but I learned better. So must you. The man is your friend. He will feed you and give you water to drink. So don't scratch him. He only wants to pat you and rub you.”

”Oh, well, if he only wants to do that, all right,” said Nero. ”He can do that. I thought he wanted to take my meat.”

And then, when the man saw that Nero was quieting down, he reached out his hand again, and this time he touched Nero's big paw, with its sharp claws. One blow of it would have broken the man's arm, but Nero did not strike the blow. He had learned that the man would not hurt him.

And a few days after this Nero and the trainer had become such good friends that the man could open the iron door and go inside Nero's cage and the lion would only blink his big eyes, and not even growl. He had learned that the man would not hurt him.