CHAPTER FIVE
It was several weeks later in the course of the summer that Joan nearly lost her life. She was feeding two of the lions, Andy and Mae, when she did a very foolish thing.
The two lions were the most tame of the big cats. And because Myrna was a very careful taskmaster she had insisted that Joan learn every aspect of circus life slowly and surely. She taught Joan to feed the lions with a watchful respect; for the first four days she instructed Joan to use a long pole with a hook on the end to shove the slabs of beef between the bars of the cage towards the two hungry lions.
Gradually, as Myrna recognized that the lions were coming to respect Joan themselves and that Joan in her turn was gaining confidence in handling them, she allowed Joan to dispense with the long pole. For
