Nero, the Circus Lion | Page 6

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."
And that, I suppose, is why lions roar. They do it to frighten away the
other animals who might spoil their hunt in the jungle.
For the lion's voice, when he roars, is frightfully loud. There is no other
animal who can make so much noise--not even the elephant, which is
larger than ten lions. If you have ever heard a lion roar, even in his
circus cage, or in a city park, you will never forget it.
And so Nero roared, and his father roared, and the other lions, all about
them in the jungle, roared until there was a regular lion chorus, and the
other beasts, hearing it, slunk back to their dens or caves, or crouched
under fallen trees, and one after another said to himself:
"The lions are out