Nero, the Circus Lion | Page 3

I came over for," Nero answered. "Only my mother said I wasn't to get into any mischief."
"Oh, no, we won't do anything like that!" replied Switchie. "We'll just go along in the jungle and have some fun. I know where there is some soft grass, and we can roll over and over in that and scratch our backs."
"Fine!" said Nero. "We'll go there."
So Switchie led the way along another jungle path to a place where very few trees grew. In the midst of these few trees was a grassy place. That is, it had been green and grassy once when it was raining, which it does for several months at a time in the jungle. But the rains had stopped, the hot sun had come out from behind the clouds and dried the grass up, so that it was now like hay.
"And it's just fine to roll in. It scratches your back just hard enough," said Switchie, making his tail, with the tuft of hair on the end, swing about in a funny way.
"I like to have my back scratched," said Nero.
So the two boy lions went to have some fun and roll in the dried grass. It was just as if you had gone to roll and tumble on the hay in Grandpa's barn. The lion boys leaped about, jumped over one another, made believe bite one another and played tag with their paws.
As Switchie had said, the dried, curled grass tickled their backs just enough when they rolled over and over in it. But at last Switchie said:
"Say, aren't you thirsty?"
"Yes," answered Nero, "I am."
"Then let's go to the spring and get a drink," went on Switchie.
"Oh no! My mother said I wasn't to go to the spring in the daytime!" exclaimed Nero. "There may be hunters there, waiting to shoot us."
"Oh, I don't believe there are," said Switchie. "I'll tell you what we can do. My mother didn't tell me not to go to the spring, so I'll walk on ahead until we come to it. Then I can look and see if there are any hunters. If there aren't you can come out of the jungle and get a drink. Won't that be all right?"
"Yes, I guess it will," said Nero. "Mother wouldn't want me not to have a drink. All she's afraid of are the hunters."
"Then come on!" growled Switchie. "We'll go to the spring, and we'll have some fun on the way."
So the two boy lions walked along the jungle path to the spring where all the animals drank. On the way they fell down and rolled over and cuffed one another with their paws--the way all lions do to have fun. Nero was having a very good time, and he never gave a thought about not minding his mother.
At last Switchie and Nero came close to the spring.
"Now you stay behind this bush until I look out and see if there are any hunters," said Switchie.
"All right," answered Nero.
Carefully the older lion boy peeped through the bushes. There was no one at the spring except some little monkeys, getting a drink, and as soon as they saw the lion boy away they scampered, chattering, for the monkeys were afraid of the lions.
"Everything is all right!" called Switchie to the hiding Nero. "There are no hunters! Come on and get a drink."
Nero was very thirsty, after having played and had fun in the hot jungle sun, and he very much wanted a drink. So he rushed down to the spring, which was quite a large one, and began to lap up the water, just as your dog or cat drinks milk from a dish.
"Isn't this fun?" growled Switchie, as he stopped drinking for a moment. "Aren't we having fun, Nero?"
"Lots of fun!" answered the other lion cub.
And just then something happened. There was a rattle of the dried leaves in the jungle back of the spring. Something very hard hit Nero in the side, and a voice cried:
"There! I'll teach you to drink from my edge of the spring! Take that!"
And the next moment Nero felt himself sliding down the slippery bank of the spring, and into the water he went with a big splash!
CHAPTER II
NERO GOES HUNTING
The first thought of Nero, the little lion cub boy, as he felt himself falling into the spring of water, was that Switchie had played a joke and pushed him in.
"And when I get out I'll push him in," thought Nero. But that was all he had time to think, just then, for his head went away under the water--as the spring was deep--and Nero had to think of getting out. So he splashed and scrambled his way to shore, clawing and spluttering and half choking, for lions are not good swimmers. Indeed few animals of the