"Well, I'm sure I don't know why in the world you are making so much noise. I just asked what your name was, and there you go acting as though you were a part of a thunderstorm. What's it all about, anyhow?"
"I was just telling you my name," said Nero, a little ashamed of himself for having made such a racket. "I'm a circus lion. At least I used to be in a circus, but I ran away last night, when my cage rolled downhill and broke."
"Oh, a circus lion!" mewed Blackie. "Why, I know some folks in a circus. There was Dido, a dancing bear, and—"
"Why, I know him too!" roared Nero, in delight. "He's in the same circus I came from!"
"You don't tell me!" exclaimed Blackie. "And then I knew Tum Tum, a jolly elephant, and—"
"Well, say now, isn't that queer?" laughed Nero—at least he laughed as much as a lion ever laughs. "Why, Tum Tum is in my circus, too! We are great friends. And once a dog named Don came to the show, but he did not stay very long."
"Oh, I know Don, too," said Blackie. "Once he ran away, and once he chased me. But that was before we were friends. Say, Nero, I feel as if I had known you a long time, since we know so many of the same friends. Tell me, have you ever been in a book?"
"There it goes again!" cried Nero. "Book! Book! Book! Tum Tum is in one, and so is Don, and Dido. I suppose, next, you'll be telling me that you have had a book written about you."
"Yes," said Blackie, rather slowly, as she waved her tail to and fro, "a man wrote a book about me. It tells how I got lost, how I was in a basket, and how I came home to find the family all away. And maybe I wasn't glad when they came back! But were you ever in a book?"
"No," answered the circus lion, "and I never expect to be."