NERO AND BLACKIE
The first thing any wild animal does when it runs away is to find some dark place and hide. Even though it may be hungry, an animal, when frightened, will nearly always hide until it can look about and make up its mind what to do.
Nero, the circus lion, who got loose from his cage when it rolled downhill in the storm and broke open, did this thing. When he had stood for a moment in the rain and darkness, feeling the soft mud squdge up between his claws, and when he had roared a bit, because he felt so wild and free, Nero sneaked off in the darkness toward some trees and bushes, which he had seen in a flash of lightning.
"That may be the jungle," he had said to himself.
But of course you and I know that it wasn't the jungle. That was far, far away—across the sea in Africa.
He stood for a moment, listening to the shouts of the circus men, who were standing about the broken cage. They could not see Nero in the darkness, nor even when the lightning flashed, for the lion crouched down behind some black bushes.
"Well, Nero got away all right," said one circus man.
"Yes, and we must get him back!" said the man who had trained Nero to do his tricks. "Folks don't like lions wandering about their farms and gardens. I must find my pet. Here, Nero! Nero! Come back!" called the trainer.
But though the lion liked the man who had been so kind to him, Nero was not yet ready to go back to the circus.
"I have just gotten out of my cage," said Nero to himself; "and it would be too bad to go back before I have had some fun. So I'll just run on and stay in the jungle awhile."