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diff --git a/16956-h/16956-h.htm b/16956-h/16956-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dcabdce --- /dev/null +++ b/16956-h/16956-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6981 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus, by Laura Lee Hope</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; } + pre {font-size: 70%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing +Circus, by Laura Lee Hope, Illustrated by Florence England Nosworthy</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus</p> +<p>Author: Laura Lee Hope</p> +<p>Release Date: October 27, 2005 [eBook #16956]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Emmy,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (https://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><a href="./images/cover.jpg"><img src="./images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover" title="Cover" /></a></div> + +<h1>BUNNY BROWN</h1> + +<h1>AND HIS SISTER SUE</h1> + +<h1>PLAYING CIRCUS</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>LAURA LEE HOPE</h2> + +<div class="center"><br /><br /><br />AUTHOR OF<br /> +THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES, THE BOBBSEY<br /> +TWINS SERIES, THE OUTDOOR GIRLS<br /> +SERIES, ETC.</div> + + +<div class="center"><br /><br />Illustrated by</div> + +<div class="center"><big>Florence England Nosworthy</big></div> + + +<div class="center"><br /><br />NEW YORK<br /> +GROSSET & DUNLAP<br /> +PUBLISHERS<br /> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<h2>BOOKS</h2> + +<h2>By LAURA LEE HOPE</h2> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><i>12mo. Cloth, Illustrated. Price, per volume, 50 cents, postpaid.</i></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b>THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES</b></div> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Bunny Brown"> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> +<div class='center'><b>THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES</b></div> + +<div class='center'>For Little Men and Women</div> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Bobbsey Twins"> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES</b></div> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Outdoor Girls"> +<tr><td align='left'>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<div class='center'>GROSSET & DUNLAP<br /> +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class='center'>Copyright, 1916, by +GROSSET & DUNLAP</div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class='center'><i>Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus</i></div> +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="./images/001.jpg" alt="THEN BUNNY AND SUE JUMPED THROUGH HOOPS COVERED WITH PAPER." title="THEN BUNNY AND SUE JUMPED THROUGH HOOPS COVERED WITH PAPER." /></div> + +<div class='center'>THEN BUNNY AND SUE JUMPED THROUGH HOOPS COVERED WITH PAPER.<br /> +<i>Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus.</i> <i>Frontispiece</i> (<i>P.</i> <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>).</div> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='right'><span class="smcap">chapter</span> +</td><td align='left'></td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bunny Is Upside Down</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Let's Have a Circus!</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_10'>10</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Poor Old Hen</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Strange Boy</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Something Queer</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_40'>40</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ben Hall Helps</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bunny Has a Fall</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Doll in the Well</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_65'>65</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Striped Calf</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>X.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Old Rooster</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_82'>82</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Practice for the Circus</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Little Circus</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_102'>102</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Wild Animals</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XIV.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bunny and Sue Go Sailing</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_121'>121</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XV.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Splash Is Lost</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_131'>131</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XVI.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Getting the Tents</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XVII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bunny and the Balloons</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_152'>152</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XVIII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Storm</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_163'>163</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XIX.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Hard Work</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_174'>174</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XX.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Missing Mice</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_185'>185</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XXI.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Big Circus</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_194'>194</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XXII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bunny's Brave Act</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_206'>206</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XXIII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ben Does a Trick</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_215'>215</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XXIV.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ben's Secret</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'>XXV.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Back Home Again</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href='#Page_238'>238</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS</h2> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>BUNNY IS UPSIDE DOWN</h3> + + +<p>"Grandpa, where are you going now?" asked Bunny Brown.</p> + +<p>"And what are you going to do?" asked Bunny Brown's sister Sue.</p> + +<p>Grandpa Brown, who was walking down the path at the side of the +farmhouse, with a basket on his arm, stood and looked at the two +children. He smiled at them, and Bunny and Sue smiled back, for they +liked Grandpa Brown very much, and he just loved them.</p> + +<p>"Are you going after the eggs?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"That basket is too big for eggs," Bunny observed.</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't be—not for great, great, big eggs," the little girl said. +"Would it, Grandpa?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, Sue. I guess if I were going out to gather ostrich eggs I wouldn't +get many of them in this basket. But I'm not going after eggs. Not this +time, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?" asked Bunny once more.</p> + +<p>"What's a—a ockstritch?" asked Sue, for that was as near as she could +say the funny word.</p> + +<p>"An ostrich," answered Grandpa Brown, "is a big bird, much bigger than +the biggest Thanksgiving turkey. It has long legs, and fine feathers, +and ladies wear them on their hats. I mean they wear the ostrich +feathers, not the bird's legs."</p> + +<p>"And do ockstritches lay big eggs?" Sue wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"They do," answered Grandpa Brown. "They lay eggs in the hot sand of the +desert, and they are big eggs. I guess I couldn't get more than six of +them in this basket."</p> + +<p>"Oh-o-o-o!" exclaimed Bunny and Sue together, with their eyes wide open.</p> + +<p>"What big eggs they must be!" went on Bunny.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And is you going to get hens' eggs or ockstritches' eggs now, Grandpa?" +asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"Neither one, little brown-eyes, I'm going out in the orchard to pick a +few peaches. Grandma wants to make a peach shortcake for supper. So I +have to get the peaches."</p> + +<p>"Oh, may we come?" asked Sue, dropping the doll with which she had been +playing.</p> + +<p>"I'll help you pick the peaches," offered Bunny, and he put down some +sticks, a hammer and nails. He was trying to make a house for Splash, +the big dog, but it was harder work than Bunny had thought. He was glad +to stop.</p> + +<p>"Yes, come along, both of you," replied Grandpa Brown. "I don't believe +you can reach up to pick any peaches, but you can eat some, I guess. You +know how to eat peaches, don't you?" he asked, smiling again at Bunny +Brown and his sister Sue.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I love peaches!" said Sue.</p> + +<p>"And I do, too—and peach shortcake is awful good!" murmured Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Well, come along then. It's nice and shady and cool in the peach +orchard."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p>Grandpa Brown put the basket over his arm, and gave Bunny one hand to +clasp, while Sue took the other. In this way they walked down the path, +through the garden, and out toward the orchard.</p> + +<p>"Bunny! Sue! Where are you going?" called their mother to the children. +Mrs. Brown had come out on the side porch.</p> + +<p>"With Grandpa," answered Bunny.</p> + +<p>"I'll look after them," said Grandpa Brown.</p> + +<p>Bunny and his sister, with their papa and mamma, were spending the +summer on the farm of Grandpa Brown away out in the country. The +children liked it on the farm very much, for they had good fun. A few +days before they had gone to the circus, and had seen so many wonderful +things that they talked about them from morning until night, and, +sometimes, even after they got to bed.</p> + +<p>But just now, for a little while, they were not talking or thinking +about the circus, though up to the time when Grandpa Brown came around +the house with the basket on his arm, Bunny had been telling Sue about +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>the man who hung by his heels from a trapeze that was fast to the top +of the big tent. A trapeze, you know, is something like a swing, only it +has a stick for a seat instead of a board.</p> + +<p>"I could hang by a trapeze if I wanted to," Bunny had said to Sue.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny Brown! You could not!" Sue had cried.</p> + +<p>"I could if I had the trapeze," he had said.</p> + +<p>Then along had come Grandpa Brown.</p> + +<p>"How many peaches do you think you can eat, Bunny?" asked Grandpa, as he +led the children toward the orchard.</p> + +<p>"Oh, maybe seven or six."</p> + +<p>"That's too many!" laughed Grandpa Brown. "We should have to have the +doctor for you, I'm afraid. I guess if you eat two you will have enough, +especially with shortcake for supper."</p> + +<p>"I can eat three," spoke up Sue. "I like peaches."</p> + +<p>"But don't eat too many," said Grandpa. "Now I'll see if I can find a +little, low tree, with ripe peaches on it, so you children can pick some +off for yourselves."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>They were in the orchard now. It was cool and shady there, and the +children liked it, for the sun was shining hot outside the orchard. On +one edge of the place, where grew the peach trees, ran a little brook, +and Bunny and Sue could hear it bubbling as it rippled over the green, +mossy stones. The sound of running water made the air seem cooler.</p> + +<p>A little farther off, across the garden, were grandpa's beehives, where +the bees were making honey. Sue and her brother could hear the bees +buzzing as they flew from the hives to the flowers in the field. But the +children did not want to go very close to the hives, for they knew the +bees could sting.</p> + +<p>"Now here's a nice tree for you to pick peaches from," said Grandpa +Brown, as he stopped under one in the orchard.</p> + +<p>"You may pick two peaches each, and eat them," went on the childrens' +grandfather.</p> + +<p>"And don't you want us to pick some for you, like ockstritches' eggs, +an' put them in the basket?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"Well, after you eat your two, perhaps you can help me," answered +Grandpa Brown <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>with a smile. But I think he knew that by the time Bunny +and Sue had picked their own peaches he would have his basket filled. +For, though Bunny and Sue wanted to help, their hands were small and +they could not do much. Besides, they liked to play, and you cannot play +and work at the same time. But children need to play, so that's all +right.</p> + +<p>Leaving Bunny and Sue under the tree he had showed them, where they +might pick their own peaches, Grandpa Brown walked on a little farther, +looking for a place where he might fill his basket.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's a nice red peach I'm going to get!" exclaimed Sue, as she +reached up her hand toward it. But she found she was not quite tall +enough.</p> + +<p>"I'll get it for you," offered Bunny, kindly.</p> + +<p>He got the peach for Sue, and she began to eat it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny!" she cried. "It's a lovely sweet one. I hope you get a nice +one."</p> + +<p>"I will," Bunny said. Then as he looked at his sister he cried: "Oh, +Sue! The juice is running all down your chin on your dress."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh-oh-o-o-o!" said Sue, as she looked at the peach juice on her dress. +"Oh-o-o-o!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind," remarked Bunny. "We can wash it off in the brook."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Sue, and she went on eating her peach. "We'll wash it."</p> + +<p>Bunny was looking up into the tree for a peach for himself. He wanted to +get the biggest and reddest one he could find.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see a great big one!" Bunny cried, as he walked all around the +tree.</p> + +<p>"Where is it?" asked Sue. "I want a big one, Bunny."</p> + +<p>"I'll get you another one. I see two," and Bunny pointed to them up in +the tree.</p> + +<p>"You can't reach 'em," asserted Sue. "They're too high, Bunny."</p> + +<p>"I—I can climb the tree," said the little boy. "I can climb the tree +and get them."</p> + +<p>"You'll fall," Sue said.</p> + +<p>"No, I won't, Sue. You just watch me."</p> + +<p>The peach tree was a low one, with branches close to the ground. And, as +Bunny Brown said, he did know a little bit about climbing. He found a +box in the orchard, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>and, by standing on this he got up into the tree.</p> + +<p>Up and up he went, higher and higher until he was almost within reach of +the two peaches he wanted. Grandpa Brown was busy picking peaches at a +tree farther off, and did not see the children.</p> + +<p>"Look out, Sue. I'm going to drop a peach down to you," called Bunny +from up in the tree.</p> + +<p>"I'll look out," said Sue. "I'll hold up my dress, and you can drop the +peach in that. Then it won't squash on the ground."</p> + +<p>She stood under the tree, looking up toward her brother. Bunny reached +for one of the two big, red peaches, but he did not pick it. Something +else happened.</p> + +<p>A branch on which the little boy was standing suddenly broke, and down +he fell. He turned over, almost like a clown doing a somersault in the +circus, and the next moment Bunny's two feet caught between two other +branches, and there he hung, upside down, his head pointing to the +ground.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>LET'S HAVE A CIRCUS!</h3> + + +<p>"Bunny! Bunny! What are you doing?" cried Sue, as she saw her brother +hanging, head down, in such a funny way from the peach tree branches. +"Don't do that, Bunny! You'll get hurt!"</p> + +<p>"I—I didn't mean to do it!" cried Bunny, and his voice sounded very +strange, coming from his mouth upside down as it was. Sue did not know +whether to laugh or cry.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Bunny, is you playing circus?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"No—no! I'm not playing circus!" and Bunny wiggled, and wiggled again, +trying to get his feet loose. Both of them were caught between two +branches of the peach <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original text has a blank space instead of this word">tree</ins> where the limbs grew close together.</p> + +<p>And it is a good thing that Bunny could not get his feet loose just +then, or he would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>have wiggled himself to the ground, and he might have +been badly hurt, for he would have fallen on his head.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Bunny! You <i>is</i> playing circus!" cried Sue again. She had +finished her first peach, and now, dropping the stone, from which she +had been sucking the last, sweet bits of pulp, she stood looking at her +brother, dangling from the tree.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not playing circus!" and Bunny's voice sounded now as though he +was just ready to cry. "Run and tell grandpa to help me down, Sue!" he +begged. "I—I'm choking—I can't hardly breathe, Sue! Run for grandpa!"</p> + +<p>Bunny was almost choking, and his face, tanned as it was from the sun +and wind, was red now—almost as red as the boiled lobster, the hollow +claw of which Bunny once put over his nose to make himself look like Mr. +Punch, of the Punch and Judy show. For when boys, or girls either, hang +by their feet, with their heads upside down, all the blood seems to run +there if they hang too long. And that was what was happening to Bunny +Brown.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Are you <i>sure</i> you isn't playin' circus?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"No—I—I'm not playing," answered Bunny. "Hurry for grandpa! Oh, how my +head hurts!"</p> + +<p>"You look just like the circus man," said Sue. For one of the men in the +circus Bunny and Sue had seen a few days before had hung by his toes +from a trapeze, upside down, just as Bunny was hanging, with his head +pointing toward the ground, and his feet near the top of the tent.</p> + +<p>But of course the circus man was used to it, and it did not hurt his +head as it did Bunny's.</p> + +<p>"Hurry, Sue!" begged the little boy.</p> + +<p>"All right. I'll get grandpa," Sue cried, as she ran off toward the tree +where Grandpa Brown was picking peaches.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Grandpa!" cried the little girl. "Come—come hurry up. +Bunny—Bunny—he——"</p> + +<p>Sue was so out of breath, from having run so fast, and from trying to +talk so fast, that she could hardly speak. But Grandpa Brown knew +something was the matter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What is it, Sue?" he asked. "What has happened to Bunny? Did a bee +sting him?"</p> + +<p>"No, Grandpa. But he—he's like the circus man, only he says he isn't +playin' he is a circus. He's upside down in the tree, and he's a +wigglin' an' a wogglin' an' he can't get down, an' his face is all red +an' he wants you, an'—an'——"</p> + +<p>"My goodness me!" exclaimed Grandpa Brown, setting on the ground his +basket, now half full of peaches. "What is that boy up to now?"</p> + +<p>For Bunny Brown, and often his sister Sue, did get into all sorts of +mischief, though they did not always mean to do so. "What has Bunny done +now, I wonder?" asked grandpa.</p> + +<p>"He—he couldn't help it," said Sue. "He slipped when he went up the +tree, and now he's swinging by his legs just like the man in the circus, +only Bunny says he isn't."</p> + +<p>"He isn't what?" asked Grandpa Brown, as he hurried along, taking hold +of Sue's hand. "What isn't he, Sue? I never did see such children!" and +Grandpa Brown shook his head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Bunny says he isn't the man in the circus," explained Sue.</p> + +<p>"No, I shouldn't think he would be a man in the circus," said grandpa.</p> + +<p>"He <i>looks</i> just like a circus man, though," insisted Sue. "But he says +he isn't playin' that game."</p> + +<p>Sue shook her head. She did not know what it all meant, nor why Bunny +was hanging in such a queer way. But Grandpa Brown would make it all +right. Sue was sure of that.</p> + +<p>"There he is! There's Bunny upside down!" cried Sue, pointing to the +tree in which Bunny was hanging by his feet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my!" cried Grandpa Brown. Then he ran forward, took Bunny in his +arms, and raised him up. This lifted Bunny's feet free from the tree +branches, between which they were caught, and then Grandpa Brown turned +the little boy right side up, and set him down on his feet.</p> + +<p>"There you are, Bunny!" cried grandpa. "But how did it happen? Were you +trying to be a circus, all by yourself?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>"N—n—no," stammered Bunny, for he could hardly get his breath yet. +"I—I slipped down when I was reaching for a big, red peach for Sue. But +I didn't slip all the way, for my feets caught in the tree."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a good thing they did, or you might have been hurt worse +than you were," said Grandpa Brown. "But I guess you're not hurt much +now; are you?"</p> + +<p>Bunny looked down at his feet. Then he felt of his own arms and legs. He +took a long breath. His face was not so red now.</p> + +<p>"I—I guess I'm all right," he answered, at last.</p> + +<p>"Well, don't climb any more trees," said Grandpa Brown. "You are too +little."</p> + +<p>Bunny thought he was quite a big boy, but of course grandpa knew what +was right.</p> + +<p>"I—I won't climb any more <i>peach</i> trees," said Bunny Brown.</p> + +<p>"No, nor any other kind!" exclaimed his grandfather. "Just keep out of +trees. Little boys and girls are safest on the ground. But now you had +better come over where I can keep my eyes on you. I have my basket +nearly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>filled. We'll very soon go back to the house."</p> + +<p>Bunny Brown was all right now. So he and Sue went over to the tree where +grandpa was picking. They helped to fill the basket, for some of the +peaches grew on branches so close to the ground that the children could +reach up and pick them without any trouble.</p> + +<p>Bunny Brown and his sister Sue had been on grandpa's farm since early +summer. Those of you who have read the first book in this series do not +need to be told who the children are. But there are some who may want to +hear a little about them.</p> + +<p>In the first book, named "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue," I told you +how the children, with their father and mother, lived in the town of +Bellemere, on Sandport bay, near the ocean. Mr. Brown was in the boat +business, and many fishermen hired boats from him.</p> + +<p>Aunt Lu came from New York to visit Mrs. Brown, the mother of Bunny and +Sue, and while on her visit Aunt Lu lost her diamond ring. Bunny found +it in an awfully funny way, when he was playing he was Mr. Punch, in the +Punch and Judy show.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the second book, "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm," +I told you how the Brown family went to the country in a big automobile, +in which they lived just as Gypsies do. They even slept in the big +automobile van.</p> + +<p>And when Bunny and Sue reached grandpa's farm, after a two days' trip, +what fun they had! You may read all about it in the book. And Bunny and +Sue did more than just have fun.</p> + +<p>The children helped find grandpa's horses, that had been taken away by +the Gypsies. The horses were found at the circus, where Bunny and Sue +went to see the elephants, tigers, lions, camels and ponies. They also +saw the men swinging on the trapeze, high up in the big tent.</p> + +<p>Bunny Brown and his sister Sue always wanted to be doing something. If +it was not one thing it was another. They often got lost, though they +did not mean to. Sometimes their dog Splash would find them.</p> + +<p>Splash was a fine dog. He pulled Sue out of the water once, and she +called him Splash <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>because he "splashed" in so bravely to get her.</p> + +<p>In Bellemere, where Bunny and Sue lived, they had many friends. Every +one in town loved the children. Even Wango, the queer monkey pet of Mr. +Winkler, the old sailor, liked Bunny and Sue.</p> + +<p>But they had not seen Wango for some time now; not since coming to the +farm in the country. They had seen a trained bear, which a man led +around by a string. The bear climbed a telegraph pole, and did other +tricks. Bunny and Sue thought he was very funny. But they did not like +him as much as they did the cunning little monkey at home in Bellemere.</p> + +<p>Carrying the basket of peaches on his arm, and leading the children, +Grandpa Brown walked back to the house. Mrs. Brown, the mother of Bunny +and Sue, watched them come up the walk.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sue!" cried her mother. "Look at your dress! What did you spill on +it?"</p> + +<p>"I—I guess it's peach juice, Mother. It dripped all over. But Bunny +hung upside down in the tree, just like the man in the circus, only he +wasn't."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<p>I guess Sue was glad to talk about something else beside the peach juice +stains on her dress.</p> + +<p>"What—what happened?" asked Mother Brown, looking at grandpa. "Did +Bunny——?"</p> + +<p>"That's right," he said, laughing. "Bunny was hanging, upside down, in a +tree. But he wasn't hurt, and I soon lifted him down."</p> + +<p>"Oh, what will those children do next?" asked their mother.</p> + +<p>"I—I didn't mean to do it," said Bunny. "It—it just—happened. I—I +couldn't help it."</p> + +<p>"No, I suppose not," said his mother. "But you must go and wash now. +Sue, I'll put a clean dress on you, and then I'll see if I can get the +peach stains off this one. You ought to have on an old apron."</p> + +<p>A little later, Bunny and Sue, now nice and clean, were sitting on the +side porch. It was almost time for supper.</p> + +<p>"Bunny," asked Sue, "did it hurt when you were playin' you were a circus +man only you weren't?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, it didn't exactly <i>hurt</i>," he said slowly. "But it felt funny. Did +I really look like a circus man, Sue?"</p> + +<p>"Yep. Just like one. Only, of course, you didn't have any nice pink suit +on, with spangles and silver and gold."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, of course not," agreed Bunny. "But did I swing by my feet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Bunny, you did."</p> + +<p>For a moment the little chap said nothing. Then he cried out:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sue! I know what let's do!"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Let's have a circus! It will be lots of fun! We'll get up a circus all +by ourselves! Will you help me make a circus?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE POOR OLD HEN</h3> + + +<p>Sue looked at Bunny with widely-opened eyes. Then she clapped her hands. +Sue always did that when she felt happy, and she felt that way now.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny!" she cried. "A circus? A real circus?"</p> + +<p>"Well, of course not a <i>real</i>, big one, with lions and tigers and all +that," said the little boy. "We couldn't get elephants and camels and +bears. But maybe grandpa would let us take his two horses, that he got +back from the Gypsies. They have lots of horses in the circus."</p> + +<p>"I'd be afraid to ride on a horse," objected Sue, shaking her head.</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't if Bunker Blue held you on; would you?"</p> + +<p>"No, maybe not then."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, we'll get Bunker Blue to hold us on the horse's back," said +Bunny.</p> + +<p>Bunker Blue was a big, red-haired boy—almost a man—and he worked for +Mr. Brown. Bunker was very fond of Bunny and Sue. Bunker had steered the +big automobile in which the Brown family came to grandpa's farm, and he +was still staying in the country.</p> + +<p>"Do you think we could really get up a circus?" asked Sue, after +thinking about what Bunny had said.</p> + +<p>"Of course we can," answered the little boy. "Didn't we get up a Punch +and Judy show, when I found Aunt Lu's diamond ring?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but that wasn't as big as a circus."</p> + +<p>"Well, we need only have a little circus show, Sue."</p> + +<p>"Where could we have it, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>The little boy thought for a moment.</p> + +<p>"In grandpa's barn," he answered. "There's lots of room. It would be +just fine."</p> + +<p>"Would you and me be all the circus, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. We'd get some of the other boys and girls. We could get Tom +White, Nellie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>Bruce, Jimmie Kenny, Sallie Smith and Ned Johnson. They'd +be glad to play circus."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess they would," said Sue. "It will be lots of fun. But what +can we do, Bunny? You haven't any lobster claw to play Mr. Punch now, +'cause it's broke."</p> + +<p>"No, we don't want to give a Punch and Judy show, Sue. We want to make +this just like a circus, with trapezes and wild animals and——"</p> + +<p>"But you said we couldn't have any lions or tigers, Bunny. 'Sides, I'd +be afraid of them," and Sue looked over her shoulder as if, even then, +an elephant might be reaching out his trunk toward her for some peanuts.</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course we couldn't have any real wild animals," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"What kind, then?" Sue wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Make believe kind. I could put some stripes on Splash, and make believe +our dog was a tiger, Sue."</p> + +<p>"How could you put stripes on him, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"With paint."</p> + +<p>"No!" cried Sue, shaking her head. "Splash <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>is half my dog, and I don't +want him all painted up. You sha'n't do it, Bunny Brown!"</p> + +<p>"All right, then. I'll only paint <i>my</i> half of Splash," said the little +boy. "<i>My</i> half can be a striped tiger, and <i>your</i> half can be just a +plain dog."</p> + +<p>"That would be a funny wild animal," Sue said. "A half tiger and half +dog."</p> + +<p>"Lots of folks would like to see an animal like that," Bunny said. "I'll +just stripe my half of Splash, and leave your half plain, Sue."</p> + +<p>"All right. But is you only going to have one wild make-believe animal, +Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"No, Ned Johnson has a dog. We can make a lion out of him."</p> + +<p>"But Ned's dog hasn't any tail," said Sue. "I mean he has only a little +baby tail, like a rabbit. Lions always have tails with tassels on the +end."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Bunny, slowly. "We could make believe this lion had his +tail bit off by an elephant."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Sue.</p> + +<p>"Or else maybe I could tie a cloth tail on Ned's dog," went on Bunny.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And lions have manes, too. That's a lot of hair on their neck, like a +horse," went on Sue.</p> + +<p>"Well, we could take some carpenter shavings and tie them on Ned's dog's +neck," said Bunny. "We could make believe that was the lion's mane."</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Sue, "we could do that. Oh, I think a circus is nice, +Bunny. But what else can we have besides the wild animals?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can make a trapeze from the clothes-line and a broom handle. I +could hang by my feet from the trapeze."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Wouldn't you be afraid?"</p> + +<p>"Pooh! No! Didn't I hang in the tree? And I was only a little scared +then. I'll get on the trapeze all right."</p> + +<p>"And what can I do, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you can ride a horse when Bunker Blue holds you on. We'll get +mother to make you a blue dress out of mosquito netting, and you can +have a ribbon in your hair, like a real circus lady."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny, do you s'pose mother will let us have the circus?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I guess so. We'll tell her about it, anyhow. But we'll have to get some +other boys and girls to help us. And we'll have to make a cage to keep +Splash in. He's going to be the wild tiger, you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I don't want Splash shut up in a cage!" cried Sue. "I sha'n't +let you put my half of him in a cage! And I do own half of him, right +down the middle; half his tail is mine, too. You can't put my half of +him in any old cage!"</p> + +<p>Bunny did not know what to say. It was easy enough to put make-believe +tiger stripes on one side, or on half a dog, but it was very hard to put +half a dog in a cage, and leave the other half outside. Bunny did not +see how it could be done.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it won't hurt Splash," said the little boy. "Come on, Sue. Please +let me put your half with my half of Splash in a cage."</p> + +<p>"No, sir! Bunny Brown! I won't do it! You can't put my half of Splash in +a cage. He won't like it."</p> + +<p>"But, Sue, it's only a make-believe cage, just as he's a make-believe +tiger."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, well, if it's only a make-believe cage, then, I don't care. But you +mustn't hurt him, and you can't put any paint stripes on my half."</p> + +<p>"No, I won't, Sue. Now let's go out to the barn and look to see where we +can put up the trapezes and rings and things like that, and where I can +hang by my feet and by my hands."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Are you going to do that?"</p> + +<p>"Sure!" cried the little boy, as though it was as easy as eating a piece +of strawberry shortcake. "You just watch me, Sue."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't want to do that," said Sue. "I'm just going to be a +pretty lady and ride a white horse."</p> + +<p>"But grandpa hasn't any white horses, Sue. They're brown."</p> + +<p>"Well, I can sprinkle some talcum powder on a brown horse and make him +white," said the little girl. "Can't I?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" cried Bunny. "That will be fine! But it will take an awful +lot of talcum powder to make a big horse all white, Sue."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll just make him spotted white then. I've got some talcum +powder of my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>own, and it smells awful good. I guess a horse would like +it; don't you, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"I guess so, Sue. But come out to the barn."</p> + +<p>Grandpa Brown had two barns on his farm. One was where the horses and +cows were kept, and the other held wagons, carriages and machinery. It +was in the horse-barn where the children went—the barn where there were +big piles of sweet-smelling hay.</p> + +<p>"I can fall on the hay, 'stead of falling in a net, like the circus men +do," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, we haven't any circus net," suggested Sue.</p> + +<p>"No," agreed Bunny. "But the hay is just as bouncy. I'm going to jump in +it!"</p> + +<p>He climbed up on the edge of the hay-mow, or place where the hay is +kept, and jumped into the dried grass. For hay is just dried grass, you +know.</p> + +<p>Down into the hay bounced Bunny, and Sue bounced after him. The children +jumped up and down in the hay, laughing and shouting. Then they played +around the barn, trying to pretend that they were already having the +circus in it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, it will be such fun!" cried Sue.</p> + +<p>"Jolly!" cried Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Let's go and ask mother now," said Sue.</p> + +<p>The children started for the house. On the way they had to pass a little +pond of water. On the edge of it stood a hen, clucking and making a +great fuss. She would run toward the water and then come back again, +without getting her feet wet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the poor old hen!" cried Sue. "What's the matter? Oh, see, Bunny! +All her little chickens are in the water. Oh, Bunny! We must get them +out for her. Oh, you poor old hen!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>A STRANGE BOY</h3> + + +<p>Bunny Brown and his sister Sue stood on the shore of the little pond, +looking at the old hen, who was fluttering up and down, very much +excited, clucking and calling as loudly as she could.</p> + +<p>And, paddling up and down in the water in front of her, where the hen +dared not go, for <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'chicken's'">chickens</ins> don't like to get wet you know, paddling up +and down in front of the hen were some soft, fluffy little balls of +downy feathers.</p> + +<p>"Oh, her chickens will all be drowned!" cried Sue. "We must get them +out, Bunny. Take off your shoes and stockings and wade in. I'll help you +save the little chickens for the poor old hen."</p> + +<p>Sue sat down on the ground, and began to take off her shoes.</p> + +<p>Bunny began to laugh.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, what—what's the matter?" asked Sue, and she seemed rather +surprised at Bunny's laughter. "Don't you want to save the little chicks +for the hen?" Sue went on. "Maybe somebody threw them in the water, or +maybe they fell in."</p> + +<p>"Those aren't little chickens, Sue!" exclaimed Bunny, still laughing.</p> + +<p>"Not chickens? They aren't? Then what are they?"</p> + +<p>"Little ducks! That's the reason they went into the water. They know how +to swim when they're just hatched out of the eggs. They won't get +drowned."</p> + +<p>Sue did not know what to say. She had never before seen any baby ducks, +and, at first, they did look like newly hatched chickens. But as she +watched them she saw they were swimming about, and, as one little baby +duck waddled out on the shore, Sue could see the webbed feet, which were +not at all like the claws of a chicken.</p> + +<p>"But Bunny—Bunny—if they're little ducks and it doesn't hurt them to +go in the water, what makes the old hen so afraid?" Sue asked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I—I guess she thinks they are chickens. She doesn't know they are +ducks and can swim," said Bunny. "I guess that's it, Sue."</p> + +<p>"Ha! Ha! Yes, that's it!" a voice exclaimed behind Bunny and Sue. They +looked around to see their Grandpa Brown looking at them and laughing.</p> + +<p>"The old hen doesn't know what to make of her little family going in +swimming," he went on. "You see, we put ducks' eggs under a hen to +hatch, Bunny and Sue. A hen can hatch any kind of eggs."</p> + +<p>"Can a hen hatch ockstritches' eggs?" Sue wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe not the eggs of an ostrich," answered Grandpa Brown. "I +guess a hen could only cover one of those at a time. But a hen can hatch +ducks' or turkeys' eggs as well as her own kind."</p> + +<p>"So as we don't always have a duck that wants to hatch out little ones, +we put the ducks' eggs under a hen. And every time, as soon as the +little ducks find water, after they are hatched, they go in for a swim, +just as if they had a duck for a mother instead of a hen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And, of course, the mother hen thinks she has little chickens, for at +first she can't tell the little ducks from chickens. And when they go +into the water she thinks, just as you did, Sue, that they will be +drowned. So she makes a great fuss. But she soon gets over it."</p> + +<p>"I guess she's over it now," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the old mother hen was not clucking so loudly now, nor was she +rushing up and down on the shore of the pond with her wings all fluffed +up. She seemed to know that the little family she had hatched out, even +if they were not like any others she had taken care of, were all right, +and very nice. And she seemed to think that for them to go in the water +was all right, too.</p> + +<p>As for the little ducklings, they paddled about, and quacked and +whistled (as baby ducks always do) and had a perfectly lovely time. The +old mother hen stood on the bank and watched them.</p> + +<p>Pretty soon the ducks had had enough of swimming, and they came out on +dry land, waddling from side to side in the funny way ducks do when they +walk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh! How glad the old hen is to see them safe on shore again!" cried +Sue.</p> + +<p>And, indeed, the mother hen did seem glad to have her family with her +once more. She clucked over them, and tried to hover them under her warm +wings, thinking, maybe, that she would dry them after their bath.</p> + +<p>But ducks' feathers do not get wet in the water the way the feathers of +chickens do, for ducks feathers have a sort of oil in them. So the +little ducks did not need to get dry. They ran about in the sun, +quacking in their baby voices, and the mother hen followed them about, +clucking and scratching in the gravel to dig up things for them to eat.</p> + +<p>"They'll be all right now," said Grandpa Brown. "The next time the +little ducks go into the water the old hen mother won't be at all +frightened, for she will know it is all right. This always happens when +we let a chicken hatch out ducks' eggs."</p> + +<p>"And I thought the little chickens were drowning!" laughed Sue, as she +put on her shoes again.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's just what the mother hen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>thought," said Grandpa Brown. +"But what have you children been doing?"</p> + +<p>"Getting ready for a circus," answered Bunny Brown.</p> + +<p>"A circus!" exclaimed grandpa, in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes," explained Sue. "Bunny is going to get a trapeze, and fall down in +the hay, where it doesn't hurt. And he's going to paint his half of our +dog Splash, so Splash will look like a tiger, and we're going to have a +horse, and Bunker Blue is going to hold me on so I can ride +and—and——"</p> + +<p>But that was all Sue could think of just then.</p> + +<p>Grandpa Brown looked surprised and, taking off his straw hat, scratched +his head, as he always did when thinking.</p> + +<p>"Going to have a circus; eh? Well, where abouts?"</p> + +<p>"In your barn," said Bunny. "That is, if you'll let us."</p> + +<p>Grandpa Brown thought for a little while.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said slowly, "I guess I don't mind. I s'pose it's only a +make-believe circus; isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Bunny. "Just pretend."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, well, go ahead. Have all the fun you like, but don't get hurt. Are +you two going to be the whole circus?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bunny. "We're going to have Tom White and Ned +Johnson——"</p> + +<p>"And Nellie Bruce and Sallie Smith," added Sue.</p> + +<p>"All the children around here; eh?" asked grandpa. "Well, have a good +time. I used to have a trained dog once. He would do finely for your +circus."</p> + +<p>"What could he do?" Bunny wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he could pretend to say his prayers, make believe he was dead, he +could turn somersaults and climb a ladder."</p> + +<p>"Oh, if we only had him for our circus!" cried Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Where is that dog now, Grandpa?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he died a good many years ago. But I guess you can get your dog +Splash to do some tricks. Have a good time, but don't get into +mischief."</p> + +<p>"We won't!" promised Bunny Brown and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>his sister Sue. And they really +meant what they said. But you just wait and see what happens.</p> + +<p>The rest of that day Bunny and Sue talked about the circus they were +going to have. Grandma Brown, as well as father and Mother Brown, said +she did not mind if a circus was held in the barn, but she wanted Bunny +to be careful about going on the trapeze.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if I fall I'll fall in the hay," said the little fellow with a +laugh.</p> + +<p>"And what are you going to use to put stripes on your half of Splash?" +asked his mother.</p> + +<p>"Paint, I guess," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. Paint would spoil Splash's nice, fluffy hair. I'll mix you up +some starch and water, with a little bluing in, that will easily wash +off," promised Mother Brown.</p> + +<p>"Blue stripes!" cried Bunny. "A tiger doesn't have blue stripes, and my +half of Splash is going to be a tiger."</p> + +<p>"You can pretend he is a new sort of tiger," said Grandma Brown, and +Bunny was satisfied with that.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<p>That afternoon Bunny and Sue went to the homes of the neighboring +children to tell them about the circus. Nearly all the children said +they would come, and take part in the show in the barn.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll have a fine circus!" cried Bunny Brown that night when they +were all sitting on the porch to cool off, for it was quite hot.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess we'll all have to come and see you act," said Daddy Brown.</p> + +<p>"Hark! What's that?" suddenly asked Grandma Brown. They all listened, +and heard some one knocking at the back door.</p> + +<p>"I'll go and look," said grandpa. "Maybe it's a tramp. There have been +some around lately."</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue thought of the tramps who had taken the big +cocoanut-custard cake, about which I told you in the book before this +one. Perhaps those tramps had gotten out of jail and had come to get +more cake. Bunny and Sue sat close to mother and father while grandpa +went around the corner of the house to see who was knocking at the back +door.</p> + +<p>They all heard grandpa speaking to some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>one. And the answers came in a +boy's voice.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" asked grandpa.</p> + +<p>"If—if you please," said the strange boy's voice, "I—I'm very hungry. +I haven't had any dinner or supper. I'm willing to do any work you want, +for something to eat. I—I——"</p> + +<p>And then it sounded as though the strange boy were crying.</p> + +<p>"That isn't a tramp!" exclaimed Grandma Brown, getting up. "It's just a +hungry boy. I'm going to feed him."</p> + +<p>They all followed Grandma Brown around to the back stoop. There was a +light in the kitchen, and by it Bunny and Sue could see a boy, not quite +as big as Bunker Blue, standing beside grandpa. The boy had on clothes +that were dusty, and somewhat torn. But the boy's face and hands were +clean, and he had bright eyes that, just now, seemed filled with tears.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Grandma Brown.</p> + +<p>"It's a hungry boy, Mother. A strange, hungry boy!" said grandpa. "I +guess we'll have to feed him, and then we'll have him tell us his +story."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>SOMETHING QUEER</h3> + + +<p>"Come right in and sit down!" was Grandma Brown's invitation. And she +said it in such a kind, pleasant voice that the strange boy looked +around as though she were speaking to some one who had come up behind +him, that he could not see.</p> + +<p>"Come right in, and get something to eat," went on the children's +grandmother.</p> + +<p>"Do you—do you mean <i>me</i>?" asked the strange boy.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes. Who else do you s'pose she meant?" asked Grandpa Brown.</p> + +<p>"I—I didn't know, sir. You see I—I'm not used to being invited into +places that way. I thought maybe you didn't mean it."</p> + +<p>"Mean it? Of course I mean it!" said Grandma Brown.</p> + +<p>"You're hungry; aren't you?" asked Grandpa Brown.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hungry. Oh, sir—I—I haven't had anything since breakfast, and then it +was only a green apple and some berries I picked."</p> + +<p>"Land sakes!" cried Grandma Brown. "Why didn't you go up to the first +house you came to and ask for a meal?"</p> + +<p>"I—I didn't like to, ma'am. I thought maybe they'd set the dog on me, +thinking I was a tramp."</p> + +<p>By this time Splash, the big pet dog, had come around the path. The +strange boy looked around as though getting ready to run.</p> + +<p>"He won't hurt you," said Bunny quickly. "Splash is a good dog."</p> + +<p>Splash went up to the strange boy, rubbed his cold, wet nose on the +boy's legs, and then Splash began to wag his tail.</p> + +<p>"See, he likes you," said Sue. "He's going to be in our show; Splash is. +He's going to be half a blue-striped tiger when we have our circus."</p> + +<p>"Circus!" cried the strange boy. "Is—is there a circus around here?" +and he seemed much surprised, even frightened, Bunny thought afterward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, there isn't any circus," said Grandpa Brown. "It's only a +make-believe one the children are getting up. But we musn't keep you +standing here talking when you're half starved. Get him something to +eat, Mother. The idea of being afraid to go to a house and ask for +something!" said Grandpa Brown, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"That shows he isn't a regular tramp; doesn't it?" asked Mother Brown.</p> + +<p>"I should say so—yes," answered grandpa. "But there is something queer +about that boy."</p> + +<p>By this time Grandmother Brown had gone into the kitchen. She told the +strange boy to follow her, and soon she had set out in front of him some +bread and butter, a plate of cold meat and a big bowl of cool, rich, +creamy milk.</p> + +<p>"Now you just eat all you want," said Grandma Brown, kindly.</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue had come out into the kitchen, and they now stood staring +at the strange boy. He had a pleasant face, though, just now, it looked +pale, and all pinched up from hunger, like a rubber ball that hasn't any +air in it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>The boy looked around the kitchen, as though he did not know just what +to do. In his hand he held a ragged cap he had taken off his head when +he came in.</p> + +<p>"Did you want something?" asked Grandma Brown.</p> + +<p>"I—I was looking for a place to hang my hat. And then I'd like to wash. +I'm all dust and dirt."</p> + +<p>Grandma Brown smiled. She was pleased—Bunny and Sue could see that—for +Grandma Brown liked clean and neat boys and girls who hung up their hats +and bonnets, and washed their faces and hands, without being told to do +so.</p> + +<p>"Hang your cap over on that nail," said Grandpa Brown, pointing to one +behind the stove. "And you can wash at the sink to-night. Now you two +tots had better go to bed!" grandpa went on, as he saw Bunny and Sue +standing with their backs against the wall, watching the strange boy.</p> + +<p>"We—we want to stay and see him eat," objected Sue.</p> + +<p>The boy smiled, and Mrs. Brown laughed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>"This isn't a circus, where you watch the animals eat," she said. "You +come along with me, and, when this young man has finished his supper, +you can see him again."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but—if you please—you're very good. But after I eat this nice +meal I'll—I'll be going on," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"No you'll not!" said Grandpa Brown. "You'll just stay here all night. +We can put you up. I think it's going to storm. You don't want to be out +in the rain?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's very good of you," the boy said, "But I don't want to be a +trouble to you."</p> + +<p>"It won't be any trouble," Grandpa Brown said. Then he went out of the +kitchen with Mother Brown, Bunny and Sue, leaving Grandma Brown to wait +on the strange boy. Splash stayed in the kitchen too. Perhaps the big +dog was hungry himself.</p> + +<p>"That boy isn't a regular tramp," said Grandpa Brown. "But there is +something queer about him. He seems afraid. I must have a talk with him +after he eats."</p> + +<p>"He seems nice and neat," said Mother Brown.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, he's clean. I like him for that. Well, we'll soon find out what he +has to tell me."</p> + +<p>But the boy did not seem to want to talk much about himself, when +Grandpa Brown began asking questions, after the meal.</p> + +<p>"You have run away; haven't you?" Grandpa Brown asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes, sir, I did run away."</p> + +<p>"From home?"</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't had any home, that I can remember. I didn't run away from +home. I was working."</p> + +<p>"On a farm?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. I didn't work on a farm."</p> + +<p>"Where was it then?"</p> + +<p>"I—I'd rather not tell," the boy said, looking around him as though he +thought some one might be after him.</p> + +<p>"Look here!" said Grandpa Brown. "You haven't been a bad boy; have you?"</p> + +<p>"No—no, sir. I've tried to be good. But the—the people I worked for +made it hard for me. They wanted me to do things I couldn't, and they +beat me and didn't give me enough to eat. So I just ran away. They <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>may +come after me—that's why I don't want to tell you. If you don't know +where I ran from, you won't know what to tell them if they come after +me. But I'll go now."</p> + +<p>The boy got up from the table, as though to go out into the night. It +was raining now.</p> + +<p>"No, I won't let you go," said Grandpa Brown. "And I won't give you up +to the people who beat you. I'll look into this. You can stay here +to-night. You can sleep in the room with Bunker Blue. He'll look after +you. Now I hope you have been telling me the truth!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir. It's all true. I did work for—for some people, and they +half starved me and made me work very hard. I just had to run away, and +I hope they don't catch me and take me back."</p> + +<p>"Well, I hope so, too," Grandpa Brown said. "I can't imagine what sort +of work you did. You don't look very strong."</p> + +<p>"I'm not. But I didn't have to be so very strong."</p> + +<p>"Not strong enough to work on a farm, I guess."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm strong enough for that—yes, sir! Feel my muscle!" and the boy +bent up his arm. Grandpa Brown put his hand on it.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you have some muscle," he said. "Well, maybe you will be all +right. Anyhow you'll be better off for a good night's sleep. I'll call +Bunker and have him look after you."</p> + +<p>The strange boy, who said his name was Ben Hall, went up stairs with +Bunker Blue to go to bed. Bunny and Sue were also taken off to their +little beds.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you think of the new boy?" Bunny heard his father ask of +Grandpa Brown, just before the lights were put out for the night.</p> + +<p>"Well, I think there's something queer about him," Grandpa Brown said. +"I'd like to know where he was working before he came here. But I'll ask +him again to-morrow. He seems like a nice, clean boy. But he certainly +is queer!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>BEN HALL HELPS</h3> + + +<p>Early the next morning Bunny and Sue jumped out of bed, and ran down +stairs in their bath robes. Out into the kitchen they hurried, where +they could hear their grandmother singing.</p> + +<p>"Where is he?" asked Bunny, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Did he have his breakfast?" Sue wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Who?" asked Grandma Brown. "What are you children talking about? And +why aren't you dressed?"</p> + +<p>"We just got up," Bunny explained, "and we came down stairs right away. +Where is Ben Hall?"</p> + +<p>"Did he go away?" asked Sue, and she looked all around the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Bless your hearts!" exclaimed Grandma Brown. "You mean the strange, +hungry boy, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>who came last night? Oh, he's up long ago!"</p> + +<p>"Did he go away?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"I hope he didn't," cried Bunny. "I like him, and I hope he'll stay here +and play with us. He could help us with the circus."</p> + +<p>"Did he go away?" asked Sue again, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," Grandma Brown answered. "He went out to help Bunker Blue feed +the chickens and the cows and horses. He is very willing to work, Ben +is."</p> + +<p>"Is grandpa going to keep him?" Bunny asked.</p> + +<p>"For a while, yes," said his grandmother. "The poor boy has no home, and +no place to go. Where he ran away from he won't tell, but he seems badly +frightened. So we are going to take care of him for a little while, and +he is going to help around the farm. There are many errands and chores +to do, and a good boy is always useful."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad he's going to stay," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"So'm I," added Sue. "Maybe he can make boats, Bunny, and a water wheel +that we can fix to turn around at a waterfall."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Maybe," agreed Bunny. "Where is Ben, Grandma?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, now he's out in the barn, somewhere, I expect. But you two tots +must get dressed and have your breakfast. Then you can go out and play."</p> + +<p>"We'll find Ben," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Sue. "We'll have two boys to play with now—Ben and Bunker +Blue."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you two children mustn't expect the big boys to play with you all +the while," said Grandma Brown. "They have to work."</p> + +<p>"But they can play with us sometimes; can't they, Grandma?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sometimes."</p> + +<p>A little later the two children, having had their breakfast, ran to the +barn, to look for Ben and Bunker. They found them leading the horses out +to the big drinking trough in front. The trough was filled from a +spring, back of the barn, the water running through a pipe.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunker, give me a ride on Major's back!" cried Sue, as she saw her +father's red-haired helper leading the old brown horse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Put me on his back, Bunker!"</p> + +<p>"All right, Sue! Come along. Whoa, there, Major!"</p> + +<p>Major stood still, for he was very gentle. Bunker lifted Sue up on the +animal's broad back, and held her there while he led the horse to the +drinking trough.</p> + +<p>"Do you want a ride, too?" asked Ben Hall of Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the little boy.</p> + +<p>"Here you go then. We'll both ride this horse to water."</p> + +<p>Ben Hall did a strange thing. All at once he jumped up in the air, and +before Bunny or Sue knew what he was doing the strange boy was sitting +on the back of Prince, the other horse. He had jumped up as easily as a +bouncing, rubber ball.</p> + +<p>"Now then, come over here, and I'll lift you up in front of me!" called +Ben to Bunny, and soon the little fellow was sitting on the back of +Prince, while Ben guided him to the drinking trough.</p> + +<p>"Say, that's a good way to get up on a horse's back, Ben!" called Bunker +Blue, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>had seen what Ben had done. "Where did you learn that trick +of jumping up?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I—I just sort of learned it—that's all. It's easy when you +practise it."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm going to practise then," said Bunker. "I'd like to learn to +jump on a horse's back the way you did."</p> + +<p>When the horses had had their water Bunker lifted Sue down from the back +of Major.</p> + +<p>"But I want to ride back to the barn," the little girl said.</p> + +<p>"And in a minute so you shall," promised Bunker. "Only, just now, I want +to see if I can jump up the way Ben did."</p> + +<p>Bunker tried it, but he nearly fell.</p> + +<p>"I can't do it," he said. "It looks easy, but it's hard. You must have +had to practise a good while, Ben."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did."</p> + +<p>"How long?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, about five years!"</p> + +<p>Bunker Blue whistled in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Five years!" he cried. "I'll never be able to do that. Let me see once +more how you do it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ben lifted Bunny down, and once more the strange boy leaped with one +jump upon the back of the horse.</p> + +<p>"Why, he does it just like the men in the circus!" exclaimed Sue. "Oh, +Bunny, Ben will make a good jumper in our circus."</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed the little boy. "Do you think, Ben, you could show me how +to get on a horse's back that way?" Bunny asked.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm afraid not—not such a little boy as you," answered Ben, as +he lifted Bunny up on Prince's back once more for the ride to the barn.</p> + +<p>The horses were tied in their stalls again, after Bunny and Sue had been +lifted from the backs of the animals. Then Bunny said:</p> + +<p>"You are going to stay here and help work on the farm, Ben. My +grandmother said so. And, if you are, will you come out and look at the +barn where we are going to have our circus? Maybe you and Bunker can +help us put up the trapeze."</p> + +<p>"Not now, Bunny boy," said Bunker. "We have to go and pull weeds out of +the garden. We'll look at the barn right after dinner."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>And this Ben and Bunker did. Bunny and Sue showed Ben the mow, and the +pile of hay, into which the trapeze performers were to fall, instead of +into nets.</p> + +<p>"So they won't get hurt," Bunny explained. "We haven't any nets, +anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Do you think we could have a circus here?" Sue wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Why, I should think so," Ben answered, looking up toward the roof of +the barn. "Yes, you could have a good make-believe circus here."</p> + +<p>"Will you help?" asked Bunny eagerly.</p> + +<p>Ben Hall laughed, and looked at Bunny and Sue in a queer sort of way.</p> + +<p>"What makes you think I can help you make a play-circus?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess you can, all right," spoke up Bunker Blue. "I guess you +know more about a circus than you let us think. Don't you now?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, I've seen 'em," said Ben, slowly.</p> + +<p>"And the way you jumped on the horse—why, you must have been watching +pretty hard to see just how to do that," Bunker went <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>on. "I've seen +lots of circuses, but I can't jump up the way you can, Ben."</p> + +<p>"Then he can ride a horse in our circus," said Sue.</p> + +<p>"Can you hang on a trapeze?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe," the new boy answered. "But you haven't any trapeze here, +have you?"</p> + +<p>"We can make one, out of a broom stick and some clothes line," said +Bunny. "I've got 'em all ready," and he showed where he had put, in a +hole in the hay, the rope and stick.</p> + +<p>"Good! That's the idea!" exclaimed Ben Hall. "Now I'll just climb up to +the roof beams, and fasten the rope of the trapeze."</p> + +<p>Up climbed Ben, and he was making fast the ropes, when, all at once +Bunny, Sue and Bunker Blue, who were watching the strange boy, saw him +suddenly slip off the beam on which he was standing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, poor Ben!" sighed Sue. "He's going to get an awful hard bump, so he +is!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>BUNNY HAS A FALL</h3> + + +<p>Down and down, from the big beam near the top of the barn, fell Ben +Hall. And, as Bunny Brown and his sister Sue watched the new, strange +boy, something queer happened.</p> + +<p>For, instead of falling straight down, head first or feet first as you +would think any one ought to fall, Ben began turning over and over. Over +and over he turned, first his feet and then his head and then his back +being pointed toward the pile of hay on the bottom of the barn floor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, look! look!" cried Sue.</p> + +<p>"What—what makes him do that?" asked Bunny Brown.</p> + +<p>"I guess he wants to," answered Bunker Blue. Bunny and his sister +thought they were going to be frightened when they saw Ben slip and +fall. But when the children saw Bunker Blue laughing they smiled too.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was queer to see Ben turning over and over in that funny way.</p> + +<p>"I guess he likes to do it," said Bunker.</p> + +<p>"Whoop-la!" yelled Ben as he came somersaulting down, for that is what +he was doing; turning one somersault after another, over and over in the +air as he fell.</p> + +<p>And then, in a few seconds, he landed safely on his feet in a soft pile +of hay, so he wasn't hurt a bit.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" exclaimed Sue.</p> + +<p>"Oh my!" cried Bunny Brown.</p> + +<p>"Say, that was fine!" shouted Bunker Blue. "How did you do it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I—I just did it," answered Ben, slowly, for he was a little out of +breath. "I slipped, and when I found I was going to fall, I began to +turn somersaults to make it easier coming down."</p> + +<p>"I should think it would be harder," said Bunny Brown.</p> + +<p>"Not when you know how," answered Ben, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Where'd you learn how?" Bunker wanted to know.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, a man—a man showed me how," returned Ben. "But never mind about +that now. I must fasten the rope to the beam, and then we'll fix the +trapeze so Bunny can do some circus acts on it."</p> + +<p>"But not high up!" cried Sue. "You won't go on a high trapeze, will you, +Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Not very high," he answered. "But I would like to turn somersaults in +the air like you, Ben. Will you show me how?"</p> + +<p>"Some day, when you get bigger. You're too small now."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't want to turn somersaults," said Sue, shaking her head.</p> + +<p>"They aren't for girls, anyhow," flung forth Bunny.</p> + +<p>Bunker Blue looked at Ben sharply.</p> + +<p>"I think I can guess where you learned to turn those somersaults in the +air," said the boat-boy. "It was in a—"</p> + +<p>"Hush! Don't tell any one!" whispered Ben quickly. "I'll tell you all +about it after a while. Now help me put up the trapeze."</p> + +<p>Bunny heard what Ben and Bunker said, but he did not think much about it +then. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>little boy was looking up to see from what a height Ben had +fallen, and Bunny was wondering what he would ever do if he tumbled down +so far.</p> + +<p>Bunker and Ben climbed the ladder to the beam far above the hay pile, +and soon they had fastened up the ropes of the trapeze. They pulled hard +on them to make sure they were strong enough, so Bunny would not have a +fall.</p> + +<p>Then the piece of broom handle was tied on the two lower ends of the +ropes, and the trapeze was finished.</p> + +<p>"Now you can try it, Bunny," said Bunker, after he had swung on the +trapeze for a few times to make sure it was safe.</p> + +<p>Bunny walked across the barn floor where some hay had been spread to +make a sort of cushion.</p> + +<p>"We'll use hay, instead of a net as they do in a circus," Bunny said.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow we haven't got any net," put in Sue.</p> + +<p>"We can make believe the hay is a new kind," said her brother.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bunny hung by his hands from the wooden bar of the trapeze, just as he +had seen the men do in the circus. Then he began to swing slowly back +and forth.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue. "That's fine. Now turn yourself inside out, like +the circus man did."</p> + +<p>"No, Bunny can't do that yet," said Ben. "He must first do easy things +on the trapeze. Turning yourself inside out is too hard. Bunny is not +strong enough for those tricks."</p> + +<p>To and fro swung Bunny, but soon his arms began to get tired.</p> + +<p>"I—I want to get down!" he called. "Stop the swing—I mean the +trapeze," for the trapeze was very much like a swing, as I have told +you, only, instead of a board, it had only a stick to which the little +boy was holding by his hands. "I want to get down," Bunny called. "Stop +me, Bunker."</p> + +<p>"Let go and jump," advised Ben.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I—I'm afraid," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"You won't get hurt!" exclaimed the older boy. "You must learn to jump +from the trapeze into the soft hay. That's what they do <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>in a circus. +Jump while you're swinging. You won't get hurt."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure, Ben?"</p> + +<p>"Sure. Give a jump now, and see what happens."</p> + +<p>Bunny wanted to do some of the things he had seen the circus men do, and +one of them was jumping from the trapeze. The little boy looked down at +the pile of hay below him. It seemed nice and soft, but it also looked +to be a good distance off.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Bunny, jump!" called Bunker.</p> + +<p>"All right. Here I come!"</p> + +<p>Bunny let go of the trapeze bar. He shot through the air, and, for a +second or two, he was afraid he was going to be hurt. But, the next +thing he knew, he had landed feet first on a soft pile of hay and he +wasn't hurt a bit!</p> + +<p>"Good!" cried Bunker Blue.</p> + +<p>"You did that well!" said Ben Hall.</p> + +<p>"Just like in a circus," added Sue.</p> + +<p>"Did I do it good?" asked Bunny Brown.</p> + +<p>"You surely did. For the first time it was very good for such a small +boy," answered Ben. "Now try again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, I like it!" Bunny cried. "I'm going to do it lots and lots of +times, and then I'm going to turn somersaults."</p> + +<p>"Well, not right away," advised Ben. "Try the easy part for a while +yet."</p> + +<p>Bunny swung on the trapeze some more, and dropped into the soft hay. He +was not at all afraid now, and each time he did it he liked it more and +more.</p> + +<p>Sue, also, wanted to try it, and so she hung by her little hands. But +Bunker Blue put his strong arms under her so, in case she slipped, she +would be caught. Sue did not swing on the trapeze, nor jump, as Bunny +had done.</p> + +<p>Bunker and Ben put up more trapezes in the barn—big ones for +themselves. Ben could swing and turn somersaults and drop off into the +hay from away up near the roof of the barn. Bunker could not do quite as +well as this, but, for all that, he was pretty good.</p> + +<p>"Will you two act in our circus?" asked Bunny of Bunker and Ben.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, I guess I will, if your grandfather lets me stay here on this +nice farm," Ben answered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, he'll let you stay," Bunny said. "I'll tell him we want you in our +circus."</p> + +<p>"All right," laughed Ben. "Bunker and I will practise some trapeze acts +for your show."</p> + +<p>For a little while longer Bunny and Sue played about in the barn. Bunny +found an old strawberry crate, with a cover on.</p> + +<p>"This will make a wild animal cage," he said. "The slats are just like +the bars of a cage, and the animal can look through."</p> + +<p>"What wild animal will you put in there?" asked Bunker.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess I'll put in Splash. He is going to be half a blue striped +tiger."</p> + +<p>"No! No!" cried Sue. "That crate isn't big enough for Splash. You'll +squash him all up. I'm not going to have my half of Splash all squashed +up, Bunny Brown!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then I'll get a bigger cage for Splash. We can get a little dog, +and put him in here."</p> + +<p>Two or three days after this Bunny and Sue again went out to the barn to +look at the circus trapezes, and play. Bunker Blue and Ben <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>were not +with them this time, as the two older boys were weeding the garden for +Grandpa Brown.</p> + +<p>Bunny swung on his little, low trapeze, and then, after he had jumped +off into the hay as Ben had taught him, the little fellow began climbing +the ladder to the beam on which was fastened the big and high trapeze.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Where you going?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"Up here. I want to see how high it looks."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny Brown! You come right down, or I'll go and tell mamma! She +said you weren't to climb up high."</p> + +<p>"I—I'm not going very high, Sue."</p> + +<p>Bunny was half way up the ladder. And, just as he spoke to Sue, his foot +slipped, and down he fell, in between two rounds of the ladder.</p> + +<p>"Oh! oh!" cried Sue. "Oh, Bunny! You're going to fall!"</p> + +<p>But Bunny did not fall all the way. As he slipped, his hands caught hold +of a round of the ladder, and there he clung, just as if he had hold of +the bar of his swinging trapeze.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE DOLL IN THE WELL</h3> + + +<p>Bunny Brown hung there on the ladder, swinging to and fro. On the barn +floor below him, stood his sister Sue, watching, and almost ready to +cry, for Sue was afraid Bunny would fall.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Bunny!" she exclaimed. "Don't fall! Don't fall!"</p> + +<p>"I—I can't help it," Bunny answered. "My fingers are slipping off!"</p> + +<p>And indeed they were. He could not hold to the big round stick of the +ladder as well as he could to the smaller broom-handle stick of his +trapeze.</p> + +<p>Bunny Brown looked down. And then he saw something that frightened him +more than had Sue's cries.</p> + +<p>For, underneath him was the bare floor of the barn, with no soft hay on +which to fall—<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>on which to bounce up and down like a rubber ball.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sue!" cried Bunny. "I'm going to fall, and—and—"</p> + +<p>He did not finish what he started to say, but he wiggled his feet and +legs, pointing them at the bare floor of the barn, over which he hung.</p> + +<p>But Sue saw and understood.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute, Bunny!" she cried. "Don't fall yet! Wait a minute, and +I'll throw some hay down there for you to fall on!"</p> + +<p>"All—all right!" answered Bunny. He did not want to talk much, for it +took nearly all his breath and strength to hold on to the ladder. But he +was glad Sue had thought of the hay. He was going to tell her to get it, +but she guessed it herself.</p> + +<p>Putting her doll carefully in a corner, on a little wisp of hay, Sue ran +to the edge of the mow, where there was a big pile of the dried grass, +which the horses and cows eat.</p> + +<p>With both her chubby hands, Sue began to pull the hay out, and scatter +it on the barn floor under Bunny. Her brother hung right <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>over her head +now, clinging to the ladder.</p> + +<p>"Haven't you got 'most enough hay there now, Sue?" asked Bunny. "I—I +can't hold on much longer."</p> + +<p>"Wait just a minute!" called Sue, as she ran back to the mow. This time +she managed to gather up a lot of hay in her two arms. This she piled on +the other, and she was only just in time.</p> + +<p>"Look out!" suddenly cried Bunny. "Here I come!"</p> + +<p>And down he did come. Plump! Right on the pile of hay Sue had made for +him. And it was a good thing the hay was there, or Bunny might have hurt +his legs by his tumble. He did not try to turn a somersault as Ben did, +the time he fell. Bunny was glad enough just to fall down straight.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Bunny! Did you hurt yourself?" cried Sue, as she saw her +brother sit down in the pile of hay.</p> + +<p>Bunny did not answer for a minute. He looked all around, as though he +did not know exactly what had happened. Then he glanced up at the ladder +to which he had clung.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That—that was a big fall," he said slowly. "I—I'm glad the hay was +there, Sue. I'm glad you put it under me."</p> + +<p>"So'm I glad," declared Sue. "I guess you won't want to be in a circus, +will you, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Sure I will. Men fall in circuses, only they fall in nets. But hay is +better than a net, 'cept that it tickles you," and Bunny took from his +neck some pieces of dried grass that made him wiggle, and "squiggle," as +Sue called it.</p> + +<p>"Hello! What happened here?" asked a voice, and the children looked up +to see, standing in the door of the barn, Grandpa Brown. "What +happened?" asked the farmer. "Did you fall, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>I think he must have guessed that, from seeing the way Bunny was sitting +on the little pile of hay.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I—I slipped off the ladder," said the little boy. "But I didn't +get hurt."</p> + +<p>"'Cause I spread hay under him," said Sue. "I thought of it all by +myself."</p> + +<p>"That was fine!" said Grandpa Brown. "But, after this, Bunny, don't you +climb up on any ladders, or any other high places. If <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>you are going to +use my barn for your circus, you must not get hurt."</p> + +<p>"We won't!" Bunny promised.</p> + +<p>"Then keep off ladders. Your little low trapeze is all right, for you +will fall in the hay if you slip off that. But no more ladder-climbing!"</p> + +<p>"All right, Grandpa." Bunny got up. Sue picked up her doll, and Grandpa +Brown put back the hay into the mow, for he did not like his barn floor +covered with the dried grass, though, of course, he was very glad Sue +had put some there for Bunny to fall on.</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue went out of the barn, and walked around to the shady side. +It was only a little while after breakfast, hardly time to go in and ask +for something more to eat, which the children did every day about ten +o'clock. At that hour Grandma Brown generally had some bread and jam, or +jelly tarts, ready for them.</p> + +<p>"What can we do until jam-time?" asked Sue, of her brother.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he answered. "It's pretty hot."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was nothing more they could do about the circus just then. Bunker +and Ben were to make some more trapezes, put other things in the barn, +and make the seats. Several other boys and girls had been asked to take +part in the "show," but they were not yet sure that their mothers and +fathers would let them.</p> + +<p>So, for a few days, Bunny and Sue could do no more about the circus.</p> + +<p>"But we ought to do <i>something</i>," said Bunny. "It's so hot—"</p> + +<p>That gave Sue an idea.</p> + +<p>"We could go paddling in the brook, and get our feet cooled off," said +Bunny's sister.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but we wouldn't be back here in time to get our bread and jam."</p> + +<p>"That's so," Sue agreed.</p> + +<p>It would never do to miss "jam-time."</p> + +<p>"My doll must be hot, too," Sue went on. "I wonder if we could give her +a bath?"</p> + +<p>"How?" Bunny wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Why, down in the well," suddenly cried Sue. "We could tie a string +around her, and let her down in the well water. That would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>give her a +bath. She's a rubber doll, and a bath won't hurt her. It will do her +good."</p> + +<p>"We'll do it!" cried Bunny.</p> + +<p>The well was not far from the house. A little later, with a string he +had taken from his kite, Bunny was helping Sue lower her rubber doll +down the big hole, at the bottom of which was the cool water that was +pulled up in a bucket.</p> + +<p>"Splash!" went the doll down in the well. By leaning over the edge of +the wooden box that was built around the water-place, Bunny and Sue +could see the rubber doll splashing up and down in the water far below +them.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she likes it! She likes it!" cried Sue, jumping up and down in +delight. "Doesn't she just love it, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"I guess so," her brother answered. "But she can't talk and tell us so, +of course."</p> + +<p>"Course not!" Sue exclaimed. "My dolls can't talk, 'ceptin' my +phonograph one, and she says 'Mamma' and 'Papa,' only now she's broken, +inside, and she can't do nothin' but make a buzzin' sound, but I like +her just the same."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But if a doll can't talk, how do you know when she likes anything?" +asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Why, I—I just know—that's all," Sue answered.</p> + +<p>"All right," agreed Bunny. "Now it's my turn to pull her up and down, +Sue."</p> + +<p>There was a long string tied around the doll, and the two children were +taking turns raising and lowering Sue's play-baby, so the rubber doll +would splash up and down in the water.</p> + +<p>"All right. I'll let you do it once, and then it's my turn <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'agian'">again</ins>," Sue +said. "I guess she's had enough bath now. I'll have to feed her."</p> + +<p>"And we'll get some bread and jam ourselves, Sue."</p> + +<p>Just how it happened neither Bunny nor Sue could tell afterward, but +Bunny either did not get a good hold of the string, or else it slipped +through his fingers.</p> + +<p>Anyhow, just as Sue was passing the cord to him, it slipped away, and +down into the well went doll, string and all.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Bunny Brown!" cried Sue. "You've drowned my lovely doll! Oh, +dear!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE STRIPED CALF</h3> + + +<p>Bunny Brown was so surprised at seeing the rubber doll and string slip +back with a splash into the well, that, for a moment, he did not know +what to do or say. He just stood leaning over, and looking down, as +though that would bring the doll back.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue again. "Oh, Bunny!"</p> + +<p>"I—I didn't mean to!" pleaded Bunny sadly enough.</p> + +<p>"But I'll never get her back again!" went on Sue. "Oh, my lovely rubber +doll!"</p> + +<p>"Maybe—maybe she can swim up!" said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"She—she can not!" Sue cried. "How can she swim up when there isn't any +water 'cept away down there in the bottom of the well?"</p> + +<p>"If she was a circus doll she could climb up the bucket-rope, Sue."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, but she isn't a circus doll. Oh, dear!"</p> + +<p>"And if I was a circus man, I could climb down the rope and get her!" +Bunny went on.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't you dare do that!" Sue fairly screamed. "If you do you'll +fall in and be drowned. Don't do it, Bunny!" and she clung to him with +all her might.</p> + +<p>"I won't, Sue!" the little fellow promised. "But I can see your doll +down there, Sue. She's floating on top of the water—swimming, maybe, so +she isn't drowned.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know what let's do!" Bunny cried, after another look down the +well.</p> + +<p>"What?" Sue wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Let's go tell grandpa. He'll get your doll up with the long-handled +rake."</p> + +<p>"With the rake?" cried Sue.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Don't you remember grandpa told us how once the bucket of the well +got loose from the rope, and fell into the water. He fished the bucket +up with the rake, tied to a long pole. He can do that to your doll."</p> + +<p>"But he might stick her with the teeth of the rake," said Sue. She knew +the iron teeth of a rake were sharp, for once she had stepped <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>on a rake +when Bunny had left it in the grass, after raking the lawn at home.</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe grandpa can tangle the rake in the string around the doll, +and pull her up that way. It wouldn't hurt then."</p> + +<p>"No," agreed Sue. "That wouldn't hurt."</p> + +<p>"Then let's go tell grandpa," urged Bunny once more.</p> + +<p>Leaving the doll to swim in the well as best she could, the two children +ran toward the house. They saw their grandpa coming from it, and at once +they began to cry:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Grandpa, she fell in!"</p> + +<p>"Come and get her out of the well!"</p> + +<p>"Bring the long-handled rake, Grandpa!"</p> + +<p>Grandpa was so surprised, at first, that he did nothing except stand +still and look at the children. Then he managed to ask:</p> + +<p>"Who is it? What is it? What happened? Who fell down the well? Did Bunny +fall in? Did Sue?"</p> + +<p>Then as he saw the two children themselves standing and looking at him, +Grandpa Brown knew nothing had happened to either of them.</p> + +<p>"But who is in the well?" he asked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My rubber doll," answered Sue. "Bunny let the string slip when we gave +her a bath."</p> + +<p>"But I didn't mean to," Bunny said. "I couldn't help it. But you can get +her out with the rake; can't you, Grandpa. Same as you did the bucket."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess maybe I can," Grandpa Brown answered. "I'll try anyhow. +And, after this, you children must keep away from the well."</p> + +<p>"We will," promised Bunny.</p> + +<p>The well bucket often came loose from the rope, and grandpa had several +times fished it up with the rake, which he tied to a long clothes-line +pole. In a few minutes he was ready to go to the well, with Bunny and +Sue. Grandpa Brown carried the rake, and, reaching the well, he looked +down in it.</p> + +<p>"I don't see your doll, Sue," he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, then she's drowned! Oh, dear!"</p> + +<p>"But I see a string," went on Grandpa Brown. "Perhaps the string is +still fast to the doll. I'll wind the string around the end of the rake, +and pull it up. Maybe then I'll pull up the doll too."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>And that is just what grandpa did. Up and up he lifted the long-handled +rake. Around the teeth was tangled the end of the string. Carefully, +very carefully, Grandpa Brown took hold of the string and pulled.</p> + +<p>"Is she coming up, Grandpa?" asked Sue anxiously.</p> + +<p>"I think she is," said grandpa slowly. "There is something on the end of +the string, anyhow. But maybe it's a fish."</p> + +<p>Grandpa smiled, and then the children knew he was making fun.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" said Sue. "I hope my doll hasn't turned into a goldfish."</p> + +<p>But nothing like that had happened. Up came the rubber doll, safely, on +the end of the string. Water ran from the round hole in the doll's +back—the hole that was a sort of whistle, which made a funny noise when +Sue squeezed her doll, as she did when "loving" her.</p> + +<p>"There you are! Your doll's all right," said Grandpa Brown. "Now you +children must not come near the well again. When you want to give your +doll a bath, Sue, dangle her in the brook, where it isn't deep. And if +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>you put a cork in the hole in her back, she won't get full of water and +sink."</p> + +<p>"That's so," said Bunny Brown. "The water leaked in through that hole. +We'll stop it up next time, Sue."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" Sue cried. "That hole is where she breathes. But I'll only +wash her in a basin after this, so she can't get drowned."</p> + +<p>It was now time for bread and jam, and Sue and Bunny were soon eating it +on the shady back porch. Mother Brown told them, just as their grandpa +had done, to keep away from the well, and they said they would.</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue then went wading in the brook until dinner time. And then +they had a little sleep in the hammocks in the shade, under the apple +tree.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do now, Bunny!" asked Sue when she awoke from her little +nap, and saw her brother looking over at her from his hammock. Sue +always wanted to be doing something, and so did Bunny. "What can we do?" +asked the little brown-eyed girl.</p> + +<p>"Let's go out to the barn again," said Bunny. "Maybe Bunker Blue, or +Ben, is out <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>there now, making some more circus things."</p> + +<p>But when Bunny and Sue reached the place where they were going to have +their show in a few weeks, they saw neither of the big boys. They did +see something that interested them, though.</p> + +<p>This was the hired man who, with a big pot of green paint, was painting +the wheelbarrow.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Henry!" exclaimed Bunny to the man, who was working in the shade +at one side of the barn.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Bunny!" answered Henry. "How are you this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"Good. How is yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, fine."</p> + +<p>Henry went on putting green paint on the wheelbarrow. Then Bunny said:</p> + +<p>"I couldn't do that; could I, Henry? I mean you wouldn't let me paint; +would you?"</p> + +<p>"No, Bunny. I'm afraid not. You'd get it all over your clothes. I +couldn't let you."</p> + +<p>"I—I thought you couldn't," returned Bunny with a sigh. "But I just +asked, you know, Henry."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the hired man with a smile. "I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>know. But you'd better go +off and play somewhere else."</p> + +<p>It was more fun, though, for Bunny Brown and his sister Sue to watch +Henry paint, and they stood there for some time. Finally the hired man +stopped painting.</p> + +<p>"Guess I'll go and get a drink of water," he said, putting the brush in +the pot of green paint. "Now don't touch the wheelbarrow."</p> + +<p>"We won't!" promised Bunny and Sue.</p> + +<p>Just then, inside the barn, there sounded a loud:</p> + +<p>"Baa-a-a-a-a!"</p> + +<p>"What's that, Bunny?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"One of the new little calves. Want to see them?"</p> + +<p>Of course Sue did, and soon she and Bunny were petting one of the +calves. They were in little pens, by themselves, near the mother cows, +and the children could reach over the sides of the pens, inside the +barn, and pat the little animals.</p> + +<p>All at once Bunny cried:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sue. I know what we can do!"</p> + +<p>"What?" she asked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We can stripe a calf green, with the green paint, and we'll have a +zebra for our circus."</p> + +<p>"What's a zebra?" Sue wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"It's a striped horse. They have 'em in all circuses. We'll make one for +ours."</p> + +<p>"Does zebras have green stripes, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. But green paint is all we have, so we'll use that. A +green striped zebra would be pretty, I think."</p> + +<p>"So do I, Bunny. But Henry told us not to touch the paint."</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't, Sue. He only told us to keep away from the wheelbarrow, +and I am. I won't go near it. But we'll get the pot of paint, and stripe +the calf green."</p> + +<p>"All right," agreed Sue. "I'll hold the paint-pot, and you can dip your +brush in."</p> + +<p>Not meaning to do anything wrong, of course, Bunny and Sue hurried to +get the pot of paint. Henry had not come back. Leaning over the edge of +the calf's pen, Bunny dipped the brush in the paint, and began striping +the baby cow.</p> + +<p>"Baa-a-a-a-a!" went the little animal, and the old cow went: "Moo!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE OLD ROOSTER</h3> + + +<p>Again and again Bunny Brown dipped the brush in the green paint the +hired man had left, and stripe after stripe did the little fellow put on +the calf.</p> + +<p>"She'll be a regular circus zebra when I'm done," said Bunny Brown to +his sister Sue. Both children laughed in glee.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to paint both sides of the calf, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"I am if I can reach. Maybe I can't. Anyhow, a zebra ought to be painted +on both sides. Not like we're going to do our dog Splash; only on one +side, to make a pretend blue-striped tiger of him."</p> + +<p>Sue seemed to be thinking of something.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't he look nice?" asked Bunny of his sister. "Isn't he going to be +a fine zebra?"</p> + +<p>He stood back from the box-stall where the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>calf was kept, so Sue could +see how the little animal looked.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't he look pretty, Sue? Just like a circus zebra, only of course +they're not green. But isn't he nice?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Sue, "he is pretty."</p> + +<p>The calf, after jumping around some when Bunny first put the paint on, +was now standing very still, as though he liked it. Of course the calf +did not know that the paint would not wear off for a long time. Then, +too, the cow mother had put her head over from the next stall, where she +was tied, and she was rubbing her big red tongue on the calf's head. The +calf liked its cow mother to rub it this way, and maybe that is why the +little calf stood still.</p> + +<p>"It's going to look real nice, Bunny," said Sue, as she looked at the +green stripes Bunny had put on. "I—I guess I'll let you put blue +stripes on my half of Splash, too. Then he'll look all over like a +tiger; won't he, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Sure. I'm glad you'll let me, Sue. 'Cause a dog, only half striped, +would look funny. Now I'll see if I can put some stripes on the other +side of the calf."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bunny tried to reach the side of the little animal he had not yet +painted, but he could not do it from where he stood.</p> + +<p>"I'm going over in the stall with it," Bunny said. "You hand me the pail +of paint when I get there, Sue."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Are you going right in with the calf?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"He—he'll bite you!"</p> + +<p>"No, he won't. Calves haven't any teeth. They only eat milk, and they +don't have to chew that. They don't get teeth until they're big.</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid," said Bunny Brown, as he climbed over into the calf's +pen. Sue stood as near as she could, so Bunny could dip his brush in the +green paint. Bunny was careful not to get any on his own suit, or on +Sue's dress. That is he was as careful as any small boy could be. But, +even then, he did splash some of the paint on himself and on Sue. But +the children did not think of this at the time. They were so busy having +fun, turning a calf into a circus zebra.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="./images/090.jpg" alt="THEY WERE BUSY TURNING A CALF INTO A CIRCUS ZEBRA." title="THEY WERE BUSY TURNING A CALF INTO A CIRCUS ZEBRA." /></div> + +<div class='center'>THEY WERE BUSY TURNING A CALF INTO A CIRCUS ZEBRA.<br /> + +<i>Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus.</i> (<i>P.</i> <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>).</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bunny had put a number of green stripes on one side of the calf, and now +he was ready to put some on the other. But the calf did not stand as +still with Bunny inside the stall with her, as when he had been outside. +The calf seemed frightened.</p> + +<p>"Baa-a-a-a-a!" it cried. "Baa-a-a-a-a! Baa-a-a-a-a!"</p> + +<p>And the old mother cow cried:</p> + +<p>"Moo! Moo! Moo!"</p> + +<p>She did not like to see Bunny so close to her baby calf, I guess. But +the old cow did not try to hook Bunny with her horns. She only looked at +him with her big, brown eyes, and tried to reach her tongue over and +"kiss" the calf, as Sue called it.</p> + +<p>"Stand still!" Bunny said to the calf, but the little animal did not +want to. Perhaps it thought it had had enough of the green paint. It +moved about, from one side of the box to the other, and Bunny had hard +work to put on any more stripes.</p> + +<p>"Isn't that enough?" asked Sue, after a bit. "It looks real nice Bunny. +You had better save some green paint for the other calf."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, but I'm only going to stripe one," answered Bunny. "It's too hard. +One zebra is enough for our circus. We'll make the other calf into a +lion. A lion doesn't have any stripes."</p> + +<p>"All right," agreed Sue. "Then come on out, Bunny, 'cause I'm tired of +holding this paint for you."</p> + +<p>"In a minute, Sue. I'll be right out. I just want to put some stripes on +the calf's legs. They have to be striped same as the sides and back."</p> + +<p>And that was where Bunny Brown made one of his mistakes. He should have +let the calf's legs alone. For, no sooner did the little animal feel the +tickling of the paint brush on its legs than it gave a loud cry, and +began to kick.</p> + +<p>Out with its hind legs it kicked, and, as Bunny happened to be stooping +down, just then, near the calf's feet, the little boy was kicked over. +Right over he went, spilling some of the paint on himself, but the most +of it, I am glad to say, went on the straw in the calf's box-stall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue. "Oh, Bunny Brown!"</p> + +<p>Her brother did not answer. He had fallen down on his face, and his +mouth was full of straw. And when he did get up he saw that the calf had +kicked open the gate of its stall, and was running around the barnyard, +all green striped and spotted.</p> + +<p>"Moo! Moo!" cried the mother cow, when she saw her little one break out. +Then the old cow pushed very hard on the gate that shut her in. Open +went the gate, and out ran the cow to be with her little calf.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Look!" cried Sue. "Our circus zebra-cow will run away!"</p> + +<p>Bunny jumped to his feet, and, leaving the overturned pot of paint +behind him, out he ran into the barnyard.</p> + +<p>"Whoa! Whoa there, bossy-calf!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"You don't say whoa to cows, you say that to horses!" called Sue to her +brother.</p> + +<p>"What do you say to cows?" Bunny wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"You call 'Co boss! Co boss! Co boss'!" answered Sue. "I know 'cause I +heard grand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>ma call them to be milked. Call 'Co boss!' Bunny."</p> + +<p>The little boy did, but there was no need to, for the little calf, once +it found that the mother cow was with it, did not run any farther. The +mother cow put out her red tongue and "kissed" her little calf some +more. She did not seem to mind the green paint, though perhaps if she +had gotten some in her mouth she might not have liked it.</p> + +<p>"Well, anyhow," said Bunny Brown, "we have a striped zebra for our +circus. And when I get some blue paint I'll paint our dog Splash, and +make a tiger of him, Sue."</p> + +<p>"Did the calf-zebra hurt you when she kicked you over, Bunny?" Sue +wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"No, hardly any. Her feet are soft, and I fell on the straw. But all the +paint is spilled."</p> + +<p>"Maybe there's a little left so Henry can finish the wheelbarrow," +suggested Sue.</p> + +<p>"I'll go and look," offered Bunny. But he did not get the chance. For +just then Henry came into the barnyard.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen my pot of green paint," he asked. "I left it—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then he saw the green striped calf. At first he laughed and then he +said:</p> + +<p>"Oh, this is too bad! That's one of your grandpa's best calves, and he +won't like it a bit, painting him that way."</p> + +<p>"He's a zebra," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"No matter what he is," and Henry shook his head, "it's too bad. I +shouldn't have left the paint where you could get it. I'll have to tell +Mr. Brown."</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue felt bad at this. They had not thought they were doing +anything wrong, but now it seemed that they were.</p> + +<p>"Will—will grandpa be very sorry?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he'll be very sorry and angry," answered the hired man, "he'll not +like it to see his calf all streaked with green paint."</p> + +<p>But Grandpa Brown was not as angry at Bunny and Sue as he might have +been. Of course he said they had done wrong, and he felt bad. But no one +could be angry for very long at Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. They +were so jolly, never meaning to be bad. They just didn't think.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<p>But of course you know that not thinking what you are doing often makes +as much trouble as though you did a thing on purpose.</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess I'll have to forgive you youngsters this time," said +Grandpa Brown. "But don't paint any more of my farm animals without +asking me. Now I'll see if we can get the green paint off the calf."</p> + +<p>"Oh, can't you leave it on, Grandpa?" asked Bunny. "It was awful hard to +make him striped like a zebra, and we want him in our circus to be one +of the wild animals. Let the stripes stay on."</p> + +<p>And grandpa had to, whether he wanted to or not, for they would not come +off. The hired man tried soap and water. But the calf would not stand +still long enough to let him scrub her.</p> + +<p>"I guess we'll just have to let the green paint wear off," said Grandpa +Brown. "But never do such a thing again, Bunny."</p> + +<p>"I won't," promised the little boy.</p> + +<p>The calf and the mother cow were put back in their stalls. Bunny and Sue +were cleaned of the green paint that had splattered on them, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>and Henry +found enough paint left in the can to finish the wheelbarrow.</p> + +<p>"Well, we've got a start for our circus, anyhow," said Bunny to Sue a +few days after he had painted the calf. The green stripes had dried now, +and made the calf look very funny indeed. Some of the other cows and +calves seemed frightened at the strange, striped one, but the mother cow +was just as fond of her little one as before.</p> + +<p>"You'll need other animals besides a striped calf, and your dog Splash, +in the circus," said Bunker Blue to Bunny one day.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess we will. I'll go and ask Sue about it."</p> + +<p>Bunny always liked to talk matters over with his sister. He found her on +the side porch, making a doll's dress.</p> + +<p>"Sue," said Bunny, "we have to have more make-believe wild animals for +our show."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" asked Sue. "What kind?"</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe we ought to have a camel."</p> + +<p>"Camels is too hard to make," said Sue. "Their humps might fall off. Why +don't you make a ockstritch, Bunny? An ockstritch <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>what lays big eggs, +and has tail feathers for ladies' hats. Make a ockstritch."</p> + +<p>"How?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>Sue thought for a minute. Just then the old big rooster strutted past +the porch.</p> + +<p>"He would make a good ockstritch, Bunny," said Sue. "He has nice long +tail feathers. Can you catch him?"</p> + +<p>"Maybe," hesitated Bunny. "Oh, I know what I'll do!" he exclaimed. "I'll +get the clothes line for a lasso, and I'll pretend to be a Wild West +cowboy. Then I can lasso the rooster and make an ostrich of him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, fine!" cried Sue, clapping her hands. The rooster, who did not in +the least guess what was going to happen to him, flapped his wings and +crowed loudly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>PRACTICE FOR THE CIRCUS</h3> + + +<p>Bunny Brown took a piece of clothes line that hung down from one of the +posts. He was sure his grandma or his mother would not want this end, so +he could take it.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, it isn't wash-day," said Bunny to Sue, "and as soon as I lasso +the rooster I can put the line back again. I can tie on what I cut off."</p> + +<p>Bunny had an old knife Bunker Blue had given him. It was a knife Bunker +had used to open clams and oysters, and was not very sharp. That was the +reason Bunker gave it to Bunny. Bunker did not want the little boy to +cut himself. With this old knife Bunny cut off a bit of clothes line. He +had to saw and saw back and forth with the dull blade of the knife +before he could cut the line.</p> + +<p>But at last he had a long piece of rope.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now I'll make a lasso just like the cowboys have in the Wild West," +said Bunny.</p> + +<p>Bunny had once seen a show like that, so he knew something of what the +cowboys did with their lassos, which are long ropes, with a loop in one +end. They throw this loop around the head, or leg, of a cow or a horse, +and catch it this way, so as not to hurt it.</p> + +<p>"Now see me catch the rooster, Sue!" called Bunny.</p> + +<p>"I'll help you," offered the little girl. "You stand here by the rose +bush, I'll shoo the rooster up to you, then you can lasso him."</p> + +<p>"All right!" cried Bunny, swinging the piece of clothes line around his +head as he had seen the cowboys do in the show.</p> + +<p>"Cock-a-doodle-do!" crowed the rooster, and then he made a funny +gurgling noise, as he saw Sue running toward him. The old rooster was +not used to children, as, except when Bunny Brown and his sister Sue +came to their grandpa's farm, there were no little ones about the place. +And when the old rooster saw Sue running toward him, he did not know +what to make of the little girl.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Shoo! Shoo!" cried Sue, waving her hands. "Shoo! Scat!"</p> + +<p>"Cock-a-doodle-do!" crowed the rooster, and it sounded just as if he +said, "I don't know what to do!"</p> + +<p>"Shoo! Shoo!" cried the little girl, and she tried to drive the rooster +over toward Bunny, so he could lasso the big crowing bird.</p> + +<p>But the rooster was not going to be caught as easily as that. He ran to +one side, around the rose bush and off toward the garden.</p> + +<p>"Get him, Bunny! Get him!" cried Sue.</p> + +<p>"I will!" shouted the little make-believe cowboy. After the rooster he +ran, swinging his lasso. "Whoa there! Whoa!" called Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Shoo! Shoo!" exclaimed Sue.</p> + +<p>"No—no! Don't do that!" begged Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Don't do what?" Sue asked.</p> + +<p>"Don't shoo him that way. That makes him run. I want him to stand still +so I can catch him."</p> + +<p>"But you said cowboys catched things when they were running, like this +rooster is," objected Sue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Bunny, "but I haven't been a cowboy very long you see. I +want the rooster to stand still so I can lasso him. So don't <i>shoo</i> +him—just whoa him!"</p> + +<p>Then Bunny called:</p> + +<p>"Whoa! Whoa there!"</p> + +<p>"That's what you say to a horse—not to a rooster," said the little +girl.</p> + +<p>"I know," Bunny answered. "But I guess this rooster knows horse talk, +'cause there's horses around here. Whoa there!"</p> + +<p>But even if the rooster did understand horse talk, he was not going to +stop and let Bunny lasso him. That was sure. On and on the rooster ran, +crowing and cackling. The hens and other roosters heard the noise, and +crowed and cackled too, wondering what it was all about.</p> + +<p>"Here he comes, Bunny! Here he comes!" cried Sue, as the big old +rooster, having run toward a fence, until he could go no farther, had to +turn around and run back again. "Get him, Bunny!"</p> + +<p>"I will!" cried the little boy. "I'll get him this time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the rooster was running very fast now, for he was very much scared. +Back and forth he went, from one side to the other. He did come close to +Bunny, but when the little boy threw his clothes line rope lasso it fell +far away from the rooster.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you missed him!" cried Sue, much disappointed.</p> + +<p>"But I'll get him next time," said Bunny, as he picked up his lasso and +ran after the rooster.</p> + +<p>Back and forth around the garden, under the lilac and rose bushes, ran +Bunny and Sue after the old rooster. The rooster was getting tired now, +and could not go so fast. Neither could Bunny nor Sue, and Bunny's arm +was so tired, from having thrown his lasso so much, that he wanted to +stop and rest. But still he wanted to catch the rooster.</p> + +<p>"Here he comes now—get him, Bunny!" cried Sue, as she went around one +side of the currant bush, while Bunny came around the other side. The +rooster was right between the two children, and as there was a fence on +one side of him, and the bush on the other, it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>looked as if he would be +caught this time.</p> + +<p>"Oh, get him, Bunny!" Sue called. "Get him!"</p> + +<p>"I—I will!" answered her brother. "I'll just grab him in my arms. I can +put the lasso on him afterward."</p> + +<p>The rooster was running away from Sue who was right behind him, and the +rooster was heading straight for Bunny. The little boy put out his arms +to grab the big fowl, when the rooster, with a loud crow and cackle, +flew up over Bunny's head, over the fence and into the meadow beyond.</p> + +<p>And Bunny was running so fast, and so was Sue, that, before they could +stop themselves, down they both fell, in the soft grass. For a moment +they sat there, looking at one another. Then Sue smiled. She was glad to +sit down and rest, even if she had fallen. And so was Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Well, we didn't get him," said Bunny slowly, as he looked at the +rooster, now safe on the other side of the fence.</p> + +<p>"No," said Sue. "But you can climb over the fence in the meadow."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I—I guess I don't want to," said the little fellow.</p> + +<p>"Hello! What's going on here? Who's been chasing my old rooster?" asked +Grandpa Brown, coming up just then, and looking at the two children.</p> + +<p>"We—we were chasing him Grandpa," said Bunny, who always told the +truth.</p> + +<p>"We was goin' to make a ockstritch of him," Sue explained. "A ockstritch +for our circus in the barn."</p> + +<p>"Oh, an ostrich!" laughed Grandpa Brown. "Well, I'd rather you wouldn't +take my best big rooster. I have some smaller, and tamer ones, you may +take for your circus."</p> + +<p>"Really?" asked Bunny. "And can we pretend they are ostriches?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you can put them in wooden cages and make believe they are +anything you like," said Grandpa Brown. "Only, of course, you must be +kind to them."</p> + +<p>"Sure!" said Bunny Brown. "We won't hurt the roosters."</p> + +<p>"When are you going to have your show?" asked Grandpa Brown.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, next week," Bunny answered. "Some of the boys and girls are coming +over to-day, and we're going to practise in the barn."</p> + +<p>"Well, be careful you don't get hurt," said their grandpa.</p> + +<p>"And can we have the green-striped calf for a zebra?" Bunny wanted to +know.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess so; yes. The stripes haven't worn off him yet, and they +won't for some time. So you might as well play with him."</p> + +<p>"We don't want to play with him," Bunny explained. "He—he jumps about +too much. We just want to put him in a cage and make believe he is a +wild animal."</p> + +<p>"Like a ockstritch," added Sue. The ostrich seemed to be her favorite.</p> + +<p>"An ostrich isn't an animal," carefully explained Bunny. "It's a big +bird, and it hides its head in the sand, and they pull out its tail +feathers for ladies' hats."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's wild, anyhow," said Sue.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's wild," admitted Bunny.</p> + +<p>Grandpa Brown showed the children two tame roosters, that would let +Bunny and Sue stroke their glossy feathers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You may put them in a box, and make believe they are any sort of wild +bird or animal you like," said the farmer.</p> + +<p>The children promised to be kind to the roosters. They did not put them +in cages that day, as it was too soon.</p> + +<p>That afternoon Tom White, Nellie Bruce, Jimmie Kenny, Sallie Smith and +Ned Johnson came over to see Bunny and Sue. They all went out to the +barn, and there they got ready for the circus. Bunny and Sue, as well as +the other children, were to be dressed up in funny clothes, which their +mothers said they would make for them.</p> + +<p>Bunny was to do some "acts" on the trapeze, and fall down in the hay. +Then he and Sue were to do part of a little Punch and Judy show they had +once given, though Bunny, this time, had no big lobster claw to put on +his nose.</p> + +<p>"All ready now!" called Bunny, when his friends were in the barn. "All +ready to practise for the circus!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE LITTLE CIRCUS</h3> + + +<p>"Bunny! Bunny Brown! What am I going to be in the circus? I want to be a +clown!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I want to be a clown, too, and throw water over another clown, +like I saw in a circus once!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you're not going to throw any water on me!"</p> + +<p>"Yes I can if Bunny Brown says so! It's <i>his</i> circus!"</p> + +<p>Tom White, Jimmie Kenny and Ned Johnson were talking together in one +corner of the barn. Ned wanted to be a clown, and throw water on some +one else. Jimmie did not want to be the one to get wet, nor did Tom +White.</p> + +<p>"Bunny, can't I be a clown?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to be a wild animal trainer—make-believe!" exclaimed Sue, +"and I'm go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>ing to be near the cage where the blue-striped tiger is. I'm +going to make him roar."</p> + +<p>Sallie Smith looked a bit scared.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's only make-believe," Sue explained.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," said Sallie. "But—Oh, dear! a blue-striped tiger!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's only our big dog Splash," went on Sue. "First I was only going +to let Bunny stripe his half of Splash. But a half a blue-striped tiger +would look funny, so I said he could make my half of Splash striped too. +It will wash off, for it's only bluing, like mother puts on the +clothes."</p> + +<p>"And we're going to have a striped zebra, too," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Oh, let's see it!" begged the three boys.</p> + +<p>"It's only one of grandpa's calves," cried Sue, "but it really has green +stripes on it. Bunny put them on, and they're green paint, and they +won't come off 'till they wear off, grandpa says, and the calf ran away, +and kicked Bunny over and——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sue, don't tell everything!" cried Bunny. "You'll spoil the show."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Let's see the striped calf!" begged the three boys.</p> + +<p>"No, we've got to practise for the circus," Bunny insisted. "Now I'll do +my trapeze act," and he climbed up to the bar that hung by the long +ropes from the beam in the barn.</p> + +<p>"I want to do a trapeze act, too!" cried Tom White.</p> + +<p>"Say, we can't all do the same thing!" Bunny said. "That isn't like a +real circus. It's got to be different acts."</p> + +<p>"Oh, say!" cried Ned Johnson. "I know what I can do! I can ride you in a +wheelbarrow, Tom, and upset you. That will make 'em all laugh."</p> + +<p>"It won't make me laugh, if you upset me too hard!" declared Tom.</p> + +<p>"I'll spread some hay on the floor, like the time I did when Bunny +fell," said Sue. "Then you won't be hurt. It doesn't hurt to fall on +hay; does it, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Nope."</p> + +<p>"All right. Ned can upset me out of the wheelbarrow if he does it on the +hay," agreed Tom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>So those two boys began to practise this part of the circus, while Bunny +swung from the trapeze. Jimmie Kenny said he would climb up as high as +he could and slide down a rope, like a sailor.</p> + +<p>"I'll have some hay under me, too, so if I slip I won't be hurt," he +said.</p> + +<p>Indeed, if it had not been for the big piles of soft hay in grandpa's +barn I don't know what the little circus performers would have done.</p> + +<p>While the boys were practising the things they were going to do, Sue and +her little girl friends made up a little act of their own.</p> + +<p>Each one had a doll, and they practised a little song which they had +sung in school. It was about putting the dollies to sleep in a cat's +cradle, and a little mouse came in and awakened them, and then they went +out to gather flowers for the honey bees.</p> + +<p>Just a simple little song, but Sue and her friends sung it very nicely.</p> + +<p>"And I know something else you can do, Sue, besides being a keeper of +wild animals," said Bunny.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What?" asked his sister.</p> + +<p>"You can ride in the wheelbarrow and drive Ned and Tom for your +horses—make-believe, you know."</p> + +<p>"But I don't want to be upset, even on the hay!" Sue said.</p> + +<p>"No, we won't upset you," promised Ned.</p> + +<p>Then they practised that little act with Sue.</p> + +<p>"When we give our real circus," said Bunny, "we can cover the +wheelbarrow with flowers, and nobody will know what it is you're riding +in, Sue."</p> + +<p>"That will be nice!"</p> + +<p>As the days went on, Bunny and Sue found they would have to have more +children in their little circus, so others were invited. One boy brought +an old rocking horse, and another had one almost like it, so they gave a +"pretend" horse race around the barn floor.</p> + +<p>Bunker Blue made a big sea-saw for the children, and every one who came +to the show was to have a free ride on this.</p> + +<p>"We ought to have a merry-go-'round," said Bunny one day.</p> + +<p>"I'll make you one," offered Ben Hall, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>strange boy, who was still +working on grandpa's farm.</p> + +<p>"Oh, will you! How?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>Ben took some planks and nailed them together, criss-cross, like an X. +Then he put them on a box, and on the ends of the planks that stuck out +he fastened some wagon wheels. When four children sat down on the +planks, and some one pushed them, they went around and around as nicely +as you please, getting a fine ride around the middle of the barn floor.</p> + +<p>"But we ought to have music," said Sue.</p> + +<p>"I'll play my mouth organ," offered Bunker Blue.</p> + +<p>At last the day of the little circus came. Bunny and Sue had decided +that it was to be free, as they did not want pins, and none of the +country children had any money to spend. So the circus was free to old +folks and young folks alike.</p> + +<p>"You'll come; <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'wont'">won't</ins> you, Mother?" asked Bunny the morning of the circus.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, of course."</p> + +<p>"And will you, Daddy?" Sue wanted to know.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, little girl. I want to see you ride in your chariot, as you call +it." For Bunny had named the wheelbarrow that was to be covered with +flowers, a chariot, which is what they use to race with in a real +circus.</p> + +<p>Splash had been most beautifully striped with blue, and, though he did +not like being shut up in a box, with slats nailed in front to serve as +iron bars, still the big dog knew it was all in fun, so he stayed +quietly where Bunny put him.</p> + +<p>The striped calf was in another cage, and he was given a nice pail full +of milk to keep him quiet, so he would not kick his way out. Calves like +milk, you know.</p> + +<p>The two roosters, which Sue said were the wild "ockstritches," behaved +very nicely, picking up the corn in their cage as though they had been +in a circus many times before. Grandpa also let the children take the +old turkey gobbler and put him in a box.</p> + +<p>"What shall we call him?" asked Sue, just before the show was about to +begin.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he'll be the elephant," said Bunny. "See, he's got something +hanging down in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>front like an elephant's trunk. And we didn't get time +to dress the pig up like an elephant."</p> + +<p>"But a elephant has four legs, Bunny, and the turkey has only two."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, we can pretend he was in a railroad wreck, and lost two of +his legs. Circuses do get wrecked sometimes."</p> + +<p>"All right, Bunny."</p> + +<p>All the children who were to take part in Bunny's and Sue's show were in +the barn, waiting for the curtain to be pulled back. For grandmother and +Mother Brown had made a calico curtain for the children. Bunker Blue and +Ben said they would stand, one on either side, to pull the curtain back +when the show started.</p> + +<p>Bunker was going to play his mouth organ, while Ben said he would make +what music he could by whistling and blowing on a piece of paper folded +over a comb. You can make pretty good music that way, only, as Ben said, +it tickles your lips, and you have to stop every once in a while.</p> + +<p>Many children from nearby farms came to the little circus in the barn, +and some of their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>fathers and mothers also came. It was a fine day for +the show.</p> + +<p>"Are you all ready, Bunny?" asked Bunker, who, with Ben, stood behind +the curtain.</p> + +<p>"All ready," answered the little boy.</p> + +<p>"Here we go!" cried Bunker. Then he played on his mouth organ, Ben +tooted on the comb and the curtain slid back on the wires by which it +was stretched across the stage, or platform, in the barn.</p> + +<p>"Welcome to our show!" cried Bunny Brown, making a bow to the audience +which was seated on boxes and boards out in front. "We will now begin!" +he went on. "And after the show you are all invited to stay and see the +wild animals. We have a blue-striped tiger, a wild zebra and an——"</p> + +<p>"An elephant, only he lost two legs in a accident," said Sue in a shrill +whisper, fearing Bunny was going to forget about the turkey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE WILD ANIMALS</h3> + + +<p>Everyone laughed when Sue said that, and Sue herself blushed as red as +the ribbon on her hair, and the sash her mother had pinned around her +waist.</p> + +<p>"Does your elephant eat peanuts?" asked Daddy Brown, smiling.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't guess so," answered Sue. "He likes corn better."</p> + +<p>"Now the show's going to begin!" cried Bunny Brown. "Get ready +everybody. The first will be a grand trapeze act! Come on, boys! Play +some music, please, Bunker!"</p> + +<p>Bunker played a new tune on his mouth organ. Then Bunny, Ned Johnson and +Tom White got on the trapezes, for Bunny had decided that his one act, +like this, was not enough. It would look more like a real circus with +three performers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + +<p>Back and forth on the flying trapezes swung Bunny and his two friends. +Of course such little fellows could not do many tricks, but they did +very well, so all the grown folks said. They hung by their hands, and by +their legs, and Ned Johnson, who was quite strong for his age, "turned +himself inside out," as he called it, by pulling up his legs and putting +them over his head, and under the trapeze bar.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Bunny Brown gave a call.</p> + +<p>"All ready now for our big swing!"</p> + +<p>"I'm ready!" answered Tom.</p> + +<p>"So am I," added Ned.</p> + +<p>The three boys swung back and forth. All at once Bunny cried:</p> + +<p>"Let go!"</p> + +<p>Away they sailed through the air.</p> + +<p>"Oh, they'll be hurt! They'll fall and be hurt!" cried Grandma Brown.</p> + +<p>"No, this is only part of the show," said Mother Brown.</p> + +<p>And so it was. For Bunny, Ned and Tom landed safely on a big pile of +hay, having jumped into the mow when they let go of the trapeze bars.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How was that?" cried Bunny, laughing while Bunker and Ben played the +music.</p> + +<p>"Fine!" cried Daddy Brown.</p> + +<p>"It's almost as good a show as the one I paid real money to see," +laughed grandpa.</p> + +<p>"What's next?" asked Jimmie Kenny's mother, who had come with her +neighbor, Mrs. Smith.</p> + +<p>"It's your turn now, Sue," whispered Bunny to his sister. "Do your act."</p> + +<p>So Sue, and her little girl chums, sang their doll song. It was very +much liked, too, and the people clapped so that the little girls had to +sing it over again.</p> + +<p>The curtain was now pulled across the stage while Ned and Tom got ready +for one of the clown acts. They were dressed in queer, calico suits, +almost like those worn by real clowns in a circus, and the boys had +whitened their faces with chalk, and stuck on red rose leaves to make +red dots.</p> + +<p>Ned came out in front, with Tom in a wheelbarrow, for they had decided +this between themselves. Ned wheeled Tom about, at the same time singing +a funny song, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>then, out from behind a barrel, rushed Jimmie Kenny. +Jimmie had a pail, and he began crying:</p> + +<p>"Fire! Fire! Fire!"</p> + +<p>So loudly did he shout, and so much in earnest did he seem, that some of +the farmers began to look about as though they were afraid Grandpa +Brown's barn was on fire.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry! It's only in fun," said grandpa.</p> + +<p>Ned and Tom did not seem to know what to make of Jimmie's act. He was +not supposed to come out when they did.</p> + +<p>"Now this is where I upset you, Tom," said Ned in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"Well, as long as you turn me over on the soft hay I don't mind," +answered the other boy, for they had made this up between them.</p> + +<p>Over went the wheelbarrow, and Tom was spilled out.</p> + +<p>"Fire! Fire! Fire!" cried Jimmie again, and then dashed a pail of water +over Tom and Ned.</p> + +<p>"Waugh! Ouch! Stop that!" spluttered Ned. "Stop it!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That—that wasn't in the show!" stammered Tom, for some of the water +went in his mouth.</p> + +<p>"I know it wasn't in it," laughed Jimmie, "but I thought I'd put it in!"</p> + +<p>At first Tom and Ned were a little angry, but when each looked at the +other, and saw how funny he was, with half the white and red spots +washed off his face, each one had to laugh.</p> + +<p>The audience laughed, too. The water did no harm, for it was a hot day, +and the boys had on old clothes. So they did not mind. But Tom and Ned +decided to play a little trick on Jimmie. So, while he was laughing at +what he had done to them, they suddenly ran at him, caught him, and put +him in the wheelbarrow. Before he could get out they began wheeling him +around the barn floor.</p> + +<p>"Now dump him!" suddenly cried Tom, and out shot Jimmie on a pile of +hay. Before he could get up Tom had dashed some water on him.</p> + +<p>"Now we're even!" cried Ned. "You're wet, too!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was all in fun, and no one minded getting wet. Then the circus went +on. Sue was ridden in the flower-covered wheelbarrow, driving Ned and +Tom. The boys acted like very nice horses indeed, and went slowly or +fast, just as Sue called to them. She had a wreath of daisies on her +hair, and looked like a little flower queen.</p> + +<p>After that Bunker Blue and Ben Hall played some music on the mouth organ +and comb, while Bunny and Sue were getting ready to give their little +Punch and Judy show, which they had played once before, back home.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you do some of your tricks, Ben?" asked Bunker of the new +boy, when Bunny and Sue were almost ready.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can't do any tricks," said Ben, turning away.</p> + +<p>"Yes you can! I guess you know more about a circus than you are willing +to tell; don't you?"</p> + +<p>But Ben did not answer, and then the curtain had to be pulled back to +let Bunny and Sue be seen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>I will not tell you about the Punch and Judy show here, as I have +written about it in the first book. Besides, it was not as well done by +Bunny and Sue as was the first one.</p> + +<p>Bunny forgot some of the things he should have said, and so did Sue. +Besides, Bunny had no big, red, hollow lobster claw to put over his +nose, to make himself look like Mr. Punch. But, for all that, the show +was very much enjoyed by all, especially the children.</p> + +<p>The race on the two rocking horses was lots of fun, and toward the end +one of the boys rocked his horse so much that he fell over, but there +was some straw for him to fall on, so he was not hurt. Up he jumped, on +to the back of his horse again, and away he rode. But the other boy won +the race.</p> + +<p>Then Bunny and Sue jumped from some carpenter horses, through hoops that +were covered with paper pasted over them, just like in a real circus.</p> + +<p>"Crack!" went the paper as Bunny and Sue jumped through.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's just like real; isn't it, Mother?" called a little girl in the +audience. It was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>very still when she said this, and everyone laughed so +loudly that Bunny Brown looked around. And, as he did not look where he +was jumping, he tumbled and fell off the saw-horse.</p> + +<p>But Bunny fell in a soft place, and as a saw-horse is only made of wood, +like a rocking horse, it did not kick, or step on, the little boy. So +everything was all right.</p> + +<p>The performing part of the circus came to an end with a "grand concert." +Bunny, Sue and all the others stood in line and sang a song, while +Bunker Blue played on the mouth organ, and Ben on the paper-covered +comb.</p> + +<p>"And now you are all invited to come and see the wild animals!" called +Bunny. "Señorita Mozara will show you the blue striped tiger that does +tricks. Señorita Mozara is my sister Sue," he explained, "but wild +animal trainers all have fancy names, so I made that one up for her."</p> + +<p>Everyone laughed at that.</p> + +<p>"Right this way, ladies and gentlemen, to see the wild animals!" cried +Sue. Ben Hall had told her what the circus men said, and Sue <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>tried, in +her childish voice, to do it as nearly like them as possible. "Right +this way!" she cried. "You will see the blue-striped tiger—of course +it's only our dog Splash, and he won't hurt you," said Sue quickly, as +she saw some of the little children hanging back.</p> + +<p>"He will eat meat from my hand, and stand up on his hind legs. He will +lie down and roll over. This way, everybody!"</p> + +<p>Splash did look funny, all striped with bluing as he was. But he did the +tricks for Sue, and everyone thought it was a very nice part of the +circus.</p> + +<p>"Over this way is the striped zebra," went on Sue, as she led the way to +where the green-painted calf was shut in a little pen. The men, women +and children were laughing at the queer animal, when something happened.</p> + +<p>Splash got out of his cage. Either some one opened the door, or Splash +pushed it open. And as Splash bounded out he knocked over the cage where +the turkey gobbler "elephant" was kept.</p> + +<p>"Gobble-obble-obble!" went the turkey, as it flew across the barn. +Children screamed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>and some of them backed up against the cage of +roosters, so it broke open and the crowing roosters were loose.</p> + +<p>"Baaa-a-a-a!" went the green striped calf, and giving a big jump, out of +the box it came, and began running around, upsetting both Bunny and Sue.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the wild animals are loose! The wild animals are loose!" cried a +little girl, while the big folks laughed so hard that they had to sit +down on boxes, wheelbarrows, boards or whatever they could find. It was +very funny.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>BUNNY AND SUE GO SAILING</h3> + + +<p>Certainly all the animals in the circus which Bunny and Sue had gotten +up, were loose, though of course they were not exactly "wild" animals. +The green-striped calf was wild enough when it came to running around +and kicking up its heels, but then calves do that anyhow, whether they +are striped like a zebra or not, so that doesn't count.</p> + +<p>"Look out! Look out, everybody!" cried Bunny Brown. For, just then, the +calf, having run to one end of the barn and finding the doors there +closed, had run back again, and was heading straight for the place where +they were all standing.</p> + +<p>"Somebody catch him!" cried Ben Hall.</p> + +<p>"It would take a cowboy to do that," spoke up Bunker Blue. "A cowboy +with a lasso!"</p> + +<p>"I'll catch him! I'll get him!" cried Bunny.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>"I had a lasso that I was +trying to catch the old rooster with. I'll lasso the calf!"</p> + +<p>"No, little man. You'll not do anything of the sort!" exclaimed Mr. +Brown, catching his son up in his arms. "You'd better stay away from +that calf. It would not mean to hurt you, perhaps, but it might knock +you down and step on you."</p> + +<p>The calf was now running back and forth, bleating and looking for some +place where it could get out of the barn. For it did not like being in a +circus, though, at first, it had been quiet enough.</p> + +<p>Splash thought it was great fun. He ran here and there, barking loudly, +and racing after the calf. The two roosters were crowing as loudly as +they could, fluttering here, there, everywhere. One nearly perched on +top of Grandma Brown's head.</p> + +<p>The horses could be heard neighing and stamping about in their stalls. +Perhaps they, too, wanted to join in the fun.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" cried Sue. "I don't like this. Let's go out, Bunny."</p> + +<p>But with the calf running back and forth in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>the barn, crossing this way +and that, it was not easy for Bunny, Sue and the others to keep out of +its way.</p> + +<p>"I guess I'll have to take a hand in this," said Grandpa Brown. He knew +how to handle cows, horses and calves you see. But there was no need for +him to do anything.</p> + +<p>Just then the hired man, who had been milking some of the cows, opened +the barn door to see what all the noise meant. He had a pail of milk in +his hand, and, no sooner had the calf seen this, than the striped +creature made a rush for the hired man.</p> + +<p>"Look out!" cried Grandpa Brown.</p> + +<p>"Come back here!" cried Sue, to the calf.</p> + +<p>Perhaps she thought the calf would mind her, since Sue had been the +make-believe wild animal trainer in the circus. But all the +green-striped calf thought of just then was the pail of milk it saw.</p> + +<p>Right at the hired man it rushed, almost knocking him down.</p> + +<p>"Here! Here! Look out! Stop it! That milk isn't for you!" cried the +hired man, trying to push the calf to one side.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the calf was hungry, and it had made up its little mind that it was +going to have that milk. And it did. Before the hired man could stop it, +the calf had its nose down in the pail of nice, warm, fresh milk.</p> + +<p>"Let him have it," said Grandpa Brown, with a laugh. "The milk will keep +him quiet, and we folks can get out. The circus is over; isn't it, +Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, Grandpa. But we didn't think the wild animals were going to +get loose. How did you like it?"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean how did I like the wild animals getting loose?" asked +Grandpa Brown, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"No, the circus," answered Bunny. "Was it good?"</p> + +<p>"It certainly was!" cried his grandfather. "I liked it very much!"</p> + +<p>"And so did I," said grandma. "But I was afraid you would be hurt when +you jumped that time, Bunny."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's just a circus trick," Bunny said. "You ought to see Ben +jump. Go on, Ben, show 'em how you can turn over in the air."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Not now, Bunny. I haven't time. I'm going to help Bunker clean up the +barn."</p> + +<p>There were many things to be put away after the circus, for Grandpa +Brown had said if the children used his barn they must leave it neat and +clean when they finished.</p> + +<p>By this time the grown people who had come to the circus, and the boys +and girls, too, began to leave. The calf was now standing still, +drinking the milk from the pail. Splash had stopped barking. The two +roosters had gotten out of the barn, and everything was quiet once more.</p> + +<p>The circus was over, and everyone said he had had a good time. Some of +the little folks wanted to see it all over again, but Bunny said that +could not be done. The grown folks said Bunny Brown and his sister Sue +were very clever to get up such a nice little show.</p> + +<p>"But of course we didn't do it all," explained Bunny, who like to have +others share in the praise. "We never could have done it if grandpa +hadn't let us take his barn, or if Bunker and Ben hadn't helped us. It +was as much their show as it was ours."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, Bunker and Ben were very good to help you," said Bunny's mother. +"And now I think it is time for you and Sue to wash and get ready for +supper."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to have a bigger show, in a tent Some day," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that would be nice," agreed Sue.</p> + +<p>"Well, if I'd known you wanted a tent instead of my barn, I could have +given you one," said Grandpa Brown.</p> + +<p>"Oh, have you really a tent?" asked Bunny, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's an old army tent. Not very big, though. When I used to go +camping with some old soldier friends of mine we took it with us. It's +up in the attic now, I guess. But your circus is over, so you won't want +a tent now."</p> + +<p>"Maybe we'll have another circus some day," suggested Bunny. "Then could +we take your army tent?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess so."</p> + +<p>And when Bunny, Sue and the children and the grown folks had left the +barn, Bunker Blue said to Ben Hall:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Say, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get up a circus among us big +boys; would it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it might be fun."</p> + +<p>"If Mr. Brown has a tent we could use that, and we might borrow another. +Would you like to do that, Ben?"</p> + +<p>"I might."</p> + +<p>"Say, look here!" exclaimed Bunker, "why don't you tell us more about +yourself? You know something about a real circus."</p> + +<p>"What makes you think so?" Ben asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, because I do. Were you ever in one?"</p> + +<p>Instead of answering Ben cried:</p> + +<p>"Look out! That plank is going to fall on your foot!"</p> + +<p>Ben and Bunker were putting away the boxes and boards that had been used +for seats in the circus. And, as Ben spoke, one of the boards slipped +off a box. Bunker pulled his foot away, but not in time to prevent being +struck by the board.</p> + +<p>"Ouch!" he cried, and then he forgot that he had asked Ben about that +boy's having been in a circus. Ben was glad he did not have to answer +that question.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Bunker and Ben had made the barn look as neat as it was before the +little circus was held, and when the blue stripes had been washed off +Splash, the two big boys sat and talked until supper was ready.</p> + +<p>"What do you think about getting up a larger circus?" asked Bunker.</p> + +<p>"Why, I guess we could do it," said Ben.</p> + +<p>"Are there some big boys around here?"</p> + +<p>"Lots of 'em. I've met some since I came here with Bunny, Sue and their +family. We could get the big fellows together, and give a real show, in +a tent."</p> + +<p>"Would we have any little folks in it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we'd have Bunny and Sue, of course, because they started this +circus idea. They're real cute; don't you think?"</p> + +<p>"They certainly are," agreed Ben. "I like 'em very much. Well, we'll +think about another circus. We'll need a larger tent than the one Mr. +Brown has. Can we get one?"</p> + +<p>"I think so. The folks around here used to have a county fair in a tent, +and we might get that. We could charge money, too, if we gave a good +show."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That would be nice," said Ben, with a laugh. "I'd like to earn some +money."</p> + +<p>That night after supper, when Bunny and Sue were getting ready for bed, +after having talked the circus all over again, they heard their +grandfather saying to Daddy Brown:</p> + +<p>"I can't make out what sort of boy that Ben Hall is."</p> + +<p>"Why, isn't he a good boy?" asked Bunny's father.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, he's a very good boy. I wouldn't ask a better. He does his +work on the farm here very well. But there is something strange about +him. He has some secret, and I can't find out what it is."</p> + +<p>That was all Bunny heard. Sue did not stop to listen to that much. But +Bunny wondered, as he was falling asleep, what Ben's secret was. It was +some time before he found out.</p> + +<p>"What are we going to do to-day, Bunny?" asked Sue, as she and her +brother went outdoors, after breakfast next morning.</p> + +<p>Bunny did not answer at first. He walked slowly down to the edge of the +little pond <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>where the ducks swam, and there he saw an old barn door +that had been laid down so Grandma Brown would not have to step in a wet +and muddy place when it rained.</p> + +<p>"What can we do to have some fun, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>Still Bunny did not answer. He went closer to the old door, and then he +suddenly said:</p> + +<p>"Sue, we're going sailing!"</p> + +<p>"Going sailing?"</p> + +<p>"Yep. This will be our ship. All we'll have to do will be to put a sail +on it and we'll sail across the duck pond. Come on."</p> + +<p>Bunny found an old bag that had held corn for the chickens. He nailed +this bag to a stick, and fastened the stick up straight in a crack in +the barn door, which lay down flat on the ground. Then he and Sue +managed to get the door in the duck pond, on the edge of which it had +been placed over a mud puddle.</p> + +<p>"There!" cried Bunny. "Get on the boat, Sue."</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue, who had taken off their shoes and stockings, stood up on +the big door. It floated nicely with them. A little wind blew out the +bag sail, and away they went.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>SPLASH IS LOST</h3> + + +<p>"Bunny! Oh, Bunny! We're sailing! We're sailing!" joyfully cried Sue, as +she felt the barn-door raft moving through the water.</p> + +<p>"Of course we're sailing," Bunny answered, as he stood up near the mast, +which is what the stick that holds the sail is called. The mast Bunny +had made was only a piece of a lima bean pole, and the sail was only an +old bag. But the children had just as much fun as though they were in +one of their father's big sail boats.</p> + +<p>The duck pond was not very wide, but it was quite long, and when Bunny +and Sue had sailed across it to the other side, they turned around to go +to the upper end.</p> + +<p>Bunny had found a piece of board, which he had nailed to another short +length of bean pole, and this made a sort of oar. This he put <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>in the +water at the back of the raft to steer with.</p> + +<p>Bunny Brown knew something about steering a boat, for he had often been +out with his father or Bunker Blue. And Bunny was quick to learn, though +he was not much more than six years old.</p> + +<p>Harder blew the wind on the bag-sail, and faster and faster went Bunny +and Sue to the upper end of the pond. There were many ducks swimming on +the water, or putting their heads down below, into the mud, to get the +weeds that grew there. Sometimes they found snails, which some ducks +like very much.</p> + +<p>But when the ducks saw the barn-door raft sailing among them, they were +afraid, and, quacking loudly, they paddled out of the way.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, as they sailed along, "there's the little ducks +that were hatched out by the hen mother."</p> + +<p>"So they are!" exclaimed the little boy. The little ducks were swimming +in the water, and the hen mother was clucking along shore. She would not +go in the water herself, but stayed as near to it as she dared, on +shore.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>Perhaps she wanted to make sure the little ducks would not +drown. Of course they would not, unless a big fish pulled them under +water, for ducks are made on purpose to swim. And there were no big fish +in the pond, only little minnows, about half as big as a lollypop stick.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, as she saw the hen mother watching the little +ducks paddle about, "Oh, Bunny, I know what we can do."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"We can give the hen mamma a ride on our boat. Poor thing! She never can +go paddling or swimming with her family. Let's take her on our boat, and +she can sail with her little ducks then, and not get wet."</p> + +<p>"That's what we'll do!" Bunny cried. "I'm glad you thought of it, Sue. +We'll give the old hen a sail, and the ducks can paddle around with us."</p> + +<p>Bunny steered the raft over to the shore where the hen was clucking +away, calling to her ducklings to come to dry land. Perhaps she thought +they had been in bathing long enough.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Can we catch her?" asked Sue. "You know it's hard work to catch a +chicken. You couldn't catch the old rooster."</p> + +<p>"Oh, this is easier," Bunny said. "The hen mother won't run away from +her little ducks."</p> + +<p>And, for a wonder, Bunny was right. But then, as Grandma Brown told him +afterward, the old hen was a very tame one, and was used to being picked +up and petted.</p> + +<p>So when Bunny and Sue reached the shore the hen did not run away. She +let Bunny pick her up, and she only clucked a little when he set her +down in a dry place on the door raft.</p> + +<p>"Now we'll go sailing again," Bunny said, as he pushed off from the +shore.</p> + +<p>The old hen clucked and fluttered her wings. She was calling to her +little ducks. And they came right up on to the raft, too. Perhaps they +wanted to see what sailing was like, and then, too, they may have had +enough of swimming and paddling for a time. At any rate, there the old +mother hen and her little ducks were on the raft, with the two children.</p> + +<p>"Now we'll give them a fine ride!" cried Sue. "Aren't they cute, +Bunny?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bunny. He steered the raft, while Sue picked up one of the +little ducks and petted it in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you dear, cute, sweet little thing!" murmured Sue. "I wish I had +you for a doll!"</p> + +<p>On and on sailed Bunny and Sue, and I think it was the first time the +old hen mother ever went sailing with her family of ducks. She seemed to +like it, too, Bunny and Sue thought.</p> + +<p>Finally, when the raft was in the middle of the pond, the little ducks +gave some quacks, a sort of whistle and into the water they fluttered +one after the other.</p> + +<p>"Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!" went the hen mamma, fluttering her wings. +"Cluckity-cluck-cluck!"</p> + +<p>I suppose that meant, in hen talk:</p> + +<p>"Come back! Come back! Stay on the boat and have a nice ride!"</p> + +<p>But the little ducks wanted to swim in the water. And they did.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Sue. "We'll keep on sailing, Bunny, and we'll sail +right after the little ducks, so the hen mamma can watch them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<p>And this the children did. The little ducks paddled around in the water +at the edge of the raft, and on the middle of it, in a dry place, +perched the hen mother. It was great fun, and Bunny and Sue liked it +very much.</p> + +<p>"She is just like a trained hen," said Bunny. "If we have another and +bigger circus, Sue, we can have this hen in it."</p> + +<p>"Are we going to have another circus?"</p> + +<p>"Maybe—a big one, in two tents. Bunker Blue and Ben are talking about +it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that would be fun!" cried Sue, clapping her hands.</p> + +<p>And then, all at once, as soon as Sue did this, the little ducks took +fright, and hurried toward the shore. Perhaps they thought Sue was +shooing them away, as her grandmother sometimes shooed the hens out of +the garden.</p> + +<p>Anyhow, the little ducks, half swimming and half flying, rushed for the +shore, and no sooner had the hen mother seen them go, than with a loud +cluck she raised herself up in the air, and flew to shore also. She had +had enough of sailing, and she wanted to be with her little duck +family.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't mean to scare them," said Sue.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," Bunny comforted her. "I guess they had ride enough. Now +we'll sail down to the other end of the pond."</p> + +<p>But the wind was quite strong now. It blew very hard on the bag-sail, +and the raft went swiftly through the water.</p> + +<p>All at once there was a cracking sound, and the raft turned to one side.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" cried Sue. "What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>Something flew down over her head, covering her eyes, and she could see +nothing.</p> + +<p>"Stop! Stop!" cried the little girl. "Is that you, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>But Bunny did not answer. Sue pulled the thing off her head. When she +could see she noticed that it was the bag sail. The beanpole mast had +broken off close to where it was stuck in a crack in the barn door, and +the sail had fallen on Sue.</p> + +<p>But where was Bunny Brown?</p> + +<p>Sue looked all around and then saw her brother, off the raft, standing +up in the water behind her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What—what's the matter, Bunny?" asked Sue. "Don't you want to sail any +more? What makes you be in the water? Oh, you're all wet!" she cried, as +she saw that he had fallen in, right over his head.</p> + +<p>"I—I couldn't help it," said Bunny. "I slipped in when the wind broke +the sail. I—I fell on my back, and a lot of water got in my nose and +mouth, but—but I got on my feet, and I'm all right now, Sue."</p> + +<p>Bunny's father had taught him a little about swimming, and Bunny knew +that the first thing to do, when you fall in water, is to hold your +breath. Then, when your head bobs up, as it surely will, you can take a +breath, and stand up, if the water isn't too deep.</p> + +<p>So Bunny stood up, with the muddy water dripping from him, looking at +Sue who was still on the raft, all alone.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny!" cried the little girl. "What shall I do? I—I'm afraid!"</p> + +<p>"You're all right," Bunny answered bravely. "I'll come and push you to +shore. I'm all wet so I might as well stay wading now."</p> + +<p>The duck pond was not very deep, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>Bunny was soon wading behind the +raft, pushing it, with Sue on it, toward shore. So his sister did not +get more than her feet wet, and, as she had on no shoes or stockings, +that did not matter.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! What happened?" asked his mother, when she saw how wet he +was, as, a little later, the two children came to the farmhouse. "What +happened, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mamma. We gave the old hen a ride, so she could be with her little +ducks," said Sue, "and the wind broke our sail, and it fell on me, and +the ducks flew away and so did the hen mother, and Bunny fell in. That's +what happened!"</p> + +<p>"Mercy me, sakes alive! I should think that was enough!" cried Grandma +Brown.</p> + +<p>"Yes, perhaps you had better keep away from the duck pond after this," +said Mother Brown. "Now I'll have to change all your clothes, Bunny."</p> + +<p>Bunny was sorry his mother had so much work to do for him, but, as he +said, he could not help it.</p> + +<p>Washed and clean, Bunny and Sue, a little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>later, went down the road to +the house of Nellie Bruce.</p> + +<p>"We'll take Splash with us," said Bunny. "Where is he? Here, Splash! +Splash!" he called.</p> + +<p>"I didn't see him all to-day," said Sue. "Maybe he didn't like being a +blue-striped tiger in a circus, and he's gone back to our home by the +ocean."</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't go that far," said Bunny. "Besides, he liked being in the +circus. He wagged his tail 'most all the while, and when he does that +he's happy. Here, Splash!" he called again.</p> + +<p>But Splash did not come, even when Sue called, and the two children went +off to play without him. For a time they did not think about their dog, +as they had such fun at the home of Nellie Bruce. They played tag, and +hide-and-go-seek, as well as teeter-tauter, and bean-bag.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Bruce gave them some cookies and milk, and they had a little +play-party. But, when it came time for Bunny and Sue to go home, they +thought of Splash again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I wonder if he'll be there waiting for us," said Sue, as they came +within sight of their Grandpa Brown's house.</p> + +<p>"I hope so," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>But no Splash was there, and he had not been seen since early morning, +before Bunny and Sue went sailing on the duck pond.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue. "Splash has run away. He's lost!"</p> + +<p>"Dogs can't get lost!" Bunny declared.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he is too lost," and tears came into Sue's eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>GETTING THE TENTS</h3> + + +<p>Bunny Brown himself thought it was strange that Splash was not about to +greet him and his sister as they came home from play. The big shaggy +dog, that had once pulled Sue from the water, was very fond of the +children, and if he did not go with them (which he did nearly every +time) he was always waiting for them to come back.</p> + +<p>But this time Splash was not to be seen. Bunny went about the yard, +whistling, while Sue called:</p> + +<p>"Splash! Here, Splash! I want you! Come here, Splash!"</p> + +<p>But the joyful bark of Splash was not heard, nor did he come bounding +around the side of the house, to play with Bunny Brown and his sister +Sue, when they called.</p> + +<p>"It is queer," said Mother Brown. "I saw <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>him early this morning, when I +gave him his breakfast, and I thought he went with you, Bunny, when you +and Sue went down to the duck pond."</p> + +<p>"No, Splash didn't go with us," said Bunny. And this was rather strange, +too, for the dog loved water, and played near it whenever he could, +dashing in to bring out sticks that Bunny or Sue would throw in for him.</p> + +<p>"And didn't he go down to Nellie Bruce's with you?" asked Grandma Brown. +She was as fond of Splash as anyone.</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't follow us," Sue answered. "We wanted him, too. But we +thought sure he'd be here waiting for us. But he isn't," and again the +little girl's eyes filled with tears.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll find him," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>But that was easier said than done. All about the house and barns in the +farmyard, down through the meadows and over the pasture they looked for +Splash. Mother and Grandmother Brown helped search, but Bunny and Sue, +with Bunker Blue and Ben Hall, went farther off to look. It was nearly +time for supper, but Bunny and Sue did not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>want to wash and get clean +ready for the meal until they had found Splash.</p> + +<p>But Splash, it seemed, was not to the found.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to ask some of the neighbors if they've seen him," said +Bunker. "We'll go down the road a way and ask everyone we meet."</p> + +<p>Splash, by this time, was pretty well known at the houses along the road +where Grandpa Brown lived, for the dog made friends with everyone, and +was fond of children.</p> + +<p>But Bunker, Ben, Bunny and Sue had to ask at a number of places before +they found anyone who had seen Splash.</p> + +<p>"Your dog lost; eh?" exclaimed Mr. Black, who lived about a mile from +Grandpa Brown's house. "Why, yes, I saw Splash this morning. He was +running over the fields back of my house. I called to him, thinking you +children might be with him, and there's an old ram, over in my back +pasture, that I didn't want to get after you.</p> + +<p>"But Splash wouldn't come when I called to him, and when I saw you two +youngsters weren't with him, I didn't worry about the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>ram. I knew +Splash could look out for himself."</p> + +<p>"Did you see him come back?" asked Bunker.</p> + +<p>"No. I didn't notice. I was too busy."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll go over and look for him," said Ben. "Maybe the old ram got +him after all."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe he did," said the farmer, "but I guess a dog like Splash +can run faster than a ram. Anyhow we'll have a look."</p> + +<p>"Are you going, Bunny?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"Sure. Aren't you? Don't you want to find Splash?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—but—but I don't want a old ram to hook me with his horns."</p> + +<p>"I'll take care of you, Sue," said Farmer Black. "I'll take a big stick +with me, and the ram is afraid of that. We'll find Splash for you."</p> + +<p>They all went over the field where Mr. Black had seen Splash trotting +early that morning. They saw the ram, who, at first, seemed about to run +toward them. But when Mr. Black shook the stick at him the ram turned +away and nibbled grass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No sign of Splash here," said the farmer, as he stood on the fence and +looked across the field.</p> + +<p>"Then he's just lost," said Bunny. He was glad the ram had not hurt his +dog. But where could Splash be?</p> + +<p>They went on a little farther, and Sue called:</p> + +<p>"Splash! Splash! Where are you?"</p> + +<p>But there was no answer. Then they went on a little farther, and Bunny +called:</p> + +<p>"Splash! Ho, Splash!"</p> + +<p>Hark! What was that?</p> + +<p>They all listened.</p> + +<p>From somewhere, a good way off, the faint barking of a dog could be +heard.</p> + +<p>"There he is!" cried Bunker Blue. "That's Splash!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Sue.</p> + +<p>"But why doesn't he come to us?" Bunny asked. "Splash always comes when +you call him. Why doesn't he come?"</p> + +<p>No one could answer this. They listened and waited. They could hear the +dog barking, but the sound was as far off as ever.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Maybe he can't come," said Ben. "Maybe he's caught, or hurt, and can't +walk. We'll have to go to him."</p> + +<p>"I guess that's right," said Farmer Black. "We'll find that dog of yours +after all."</p> + +<p>They listened in order to tell where the barking came from, and then +started off toward a little grove of trees. It seemed that Splash was +there. And, as they came nearer the barking sounded more plainly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Splash! Splash!" cried Sue.</p> + +<p>The dog barked and whined now.</p> + +<p>"He's hurt!" said Bunker Blue. "He must be caught in a trap!"</p> + +<p>And it was there they found poor Splash.</p> + +<p>He had stepped with one paw into a trap that was hidden under the +leaves, and there he was, held fast. For the trap, which was a string +spring one, was fastened by a chain to a heavy log. And as Splash could +not pull the log and trap too, he had had to stay where he was caught.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you poor, dear Splash!" cried Sue, putting her arms around the +dog's neck. Splash licked her face with his red tongue, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>and whined. +Bunny, too, put his arms around his pet.</p> + +<p>"Some boy must have set that trap here to catch musk rats," said Farmer +Black. "I've told 'em not to, but they won't mind. Let me see now if I +can't set Splash loose."</p> + +<p>This was soon done. The trap was not a sharp one, with teeth, as some +are made, and though one of the dog's paws was pinched and bruised, no +bones were broken, nor was the skin cut. But poor Splash was quite lame, +and could only walk on three legs.</p> + +<p>"Splash, what made you run away from home?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>Of course the dog could not answer. But he may have found some other dog +to play with, and run off to have some fun. Then he had stepped into the +trap, and there he was held until his little friends came to find him.</p> + +<p>"And it's a good thing you looked for him," said Bunker Blue, "or he +might have been out here all night, caught in the trap."</p> + +<p>"Poor Splash!" said Sue, as she hugged him again.</p> + +<p>As Splash could not walk along very well, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>on three legs, Mr. Black said +he would hitch up a wagon and take the dog, and everyone else, to +grandpa's place. And, a little later, this was done.</p> + +<p>Grandpa Brown put some liniment on the sore leg, and bound it up in soft +cloths. Then Splash went to sleep in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so glad he isn't lost!" sighed Sue, as she and Bunny went to +bed that night.</p> + +<p>"So am I," echoed her brother.</p> + +<p>For several days Splash had to go about on three legs, holding the lame +one, with the cloth on, up in the air. Then the pain and bruise of the +trap passed away, and he could run around the same as before, on four +legs, though he limped a little. Soon he was over that, and as well as +ever.</p> + +<p>"And you must keep out of traps," said Bunny, shaking a finger at his +pet.</p> + +<p>"Bow-wow!" barked Splash, and I guess that he meant he would.</p> + +<p>It was about a week after this that Bunny Brown and his sister Sue saw +Bunker Blue and Ben Hall out in a field with a big pile of white cloth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, maybe they're going to send up a balloon!" exclaimed Bunny, for he +had once seen this done at a park.</p> + +<p>"Let's go watch!" cried Sue.</p> + +<p>They found the two big boys stretching out the white cloth, to which was +fastened many ropes.</p> + +<p>"Is it a balloon?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"No," answered Bunker. "It's a tent."</p> + +<p>"A tent! What a big one!"</p> + +<p>"It's the army tent your grandfather used to sleep in when he went to +camp. He let us take it. We're going to put it up and see how many it +will hold."</p> + +<p>"What for?" Bunny wanted to know. "Are you going camping? Can Sue and I +come?"</p> + +<p>"No, we're not going camping," answered Ben. "But we want this tent, and +perhaps another one, bigger, for the circus we are going to give."</p> + +<p>"Oh, are you going to have a circus?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Well, we big boys are thinking of it," said Bunker. "You young ones +gave such a good one, that we want to see if we can't come <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>up to you. +That's why we're going to put up this tent."</p> + +<p>"We'll help," said Bunny. Then he and Sue began pulling on ropes and +hauling on the ends of the white canvas, of which the tent was made. The +children thought they were helping, but I guess Bunker and Ben could +have done better if left alone. Still they liked the children, and did +not want to send them away.</p> + +<p>But Bunny, who had gone away from Sue, soon grew tired of pulling on the +heavy ropes.</p> + +<p>"I guess I'll come back when you have the tent up," said the little +fellow. "Come on, Sue," and he looked around for his sister.</p> + +<p>But she was not in sight.</p> + +<p>"Sue! Sue!" called Bunny. "Where are you?"</p> + +<p>"Maybe she's gone home," said Ben.</p> + +<p>"No, she wouldn't go without me," Bunny declared. "Oh, maybe she's lost; +or caught in a trap, just like Splash was!" and Bunny began to cry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>BUNNY AND THE BALLOONS</h3> + + +<p>Bunker Blue, Ben, and some of the large boys from nearby farms, who had +been invited to come over and help put up the big tent, stopped pulling +on the ropes, or driving in stakes, and gathered around Bunny Brown.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" asked one big boy, who had a snub nose.</p> + +<p>"My—my little sister is lost," Bunny explained, half crying.</p> + +<p>"Who is your sister?" the big boy asked. He came from a farm a good way +off, and was somewhat of a stranger.</p> + +<p>"She's Sue—that's my sister," Bunny explained. "She was here a little +while ago, but now she's lost!"</p> + +<p>"This is Bunny Brown," explained Bunker to the other boys. "He and his +sister Sue are staying at Grandpa Brown's farm. Their grandfather let us +take this tent," he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, I see!" exclaimed the big boy. "Well, we'll help you hunt for your +sister, Bunny."</p> + +<p>They began looking all around the big tent, which was spread out on the +ground and not yet up on the poles, as it would be later, so the people +could come in it to see the show of the big boys. But Sue was not in +sight. Nor could she be seen anywhere in the field where the tent was to +be put up.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure she didn't go back to the house, Bunny?" asked Ben.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure she didn't," said the little boy. "She was here with me a +little while ago. If she'd gone she'd have told me so, and Splash would +have gone with her. He goes with her more than he does with me. And see, +here is Splash!"</p> + +<p>This was true. The big dog lay in the shade, watching what Bunny and the +others were doing, and wondering, I suppose, why people were so foolish +as to work in hot weather, when they could just as well lie down in the +shade, and stick out their tongues to keep cool—for that is what dogs +do.</p> + +<p>"Maybe Splash can find Sue," said Bunker.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hi there, Splash!" he called. "Where's Sue? Find her!"</p> + +<p>Splash jumped up with a bark, and ran to Bunny.</p> + +<p>"You tell him what to do," said Bunker. "He'll mind you better than he +will me."</p> + +<p>"Find Sue, Splash! Find Sue!" said Bunny.</p> + +<p>Splash barked again, looked up into Bunny's face, as if to make sure +what was wanted, and then, with a bark he ran to where a big pile of the +white canvas was gathered in a heap. It was a part of the tent the boys +had not yet unfolded, or straightened out.</p> + +<p>Splash stood near this and barked. Then he began poking in it with his +sharp nose.</p> + +<p>"He—he's found something," said Ben.</p> + +<p>"Maybe it's Sue," cried Bunker. "Come on!"</p> + +<p>Taking hold of Bunny's hand, Bunker ran with him toward the pile of +canvas. The other boys ran too. But before they got there Sue was +sitting up in the middle of it, and Splash was standing near her, +barking and jumping about now and then, as if he felt very happy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why—why, Sue!" Bunny cried. "Were you there all the while?"</p> + +<p>"How long is all the while?" asked Sue, rubbing her sleepy eyes. "I was +playing house here, Bunny, and I pulled a bed spread over me, and went +to sleep. Splash put his cold nose on me and woke me up. What are you +all lookin' at me for?" Sue asked, as she saw the circle of boys, her +brother among them, staring at her.</p> + +<p>"We—we thought you were lost, Sue," said Bunny. "And we came to find +you."</p> + +<p>"I—I wasn't losted at all!" Sue protested. "I was here all the while! I +just went to sleep!"</p> + +<p>And that was what had happened. When Bunny was busy helping Ben and +Bunker pull on some of the tent ropes, Sue had slipped off by herself, +and had lain down on the pile of canvas.</p> + +<p>Feeling sleepy, she had pulled a part of the tent over her. She made +believe it was a white spread, such as was on her bed in her Grandpa +Brown's house. This covered Sue from sight, so Bunny and none of the +others could see her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>And there she had slept, while the others looked. +And had not Splash known where to find the little girl, she might have +slept a great deal longer, and Bunny and the boys might not have found +her until dark.</p> + +<p>"But I've slept long enough, now," said Sue. "Is the tent ready for the +big circus?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet," answered Bunker Blue. "We've got to use the piece of canvas +you were sleeping on, so it's a good thing you woke up. But we'll soon +have the tent ready, and then we'll go and get the bigger one."</p> + +<p>"Oh, are you going to have two?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Ben. "Oh, we're going to give a fine show! And we want +you and your sister Sue in it, too, Bunny," went on the strange boy who +had come to Grandpa Brown's so hungry that night. "You'll be in the big +circus; won't you?"</p> + +<p>"To give the Punch and Judy show?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe that, and maybe some of the things you did in your own +little circus," Bunker said. "There's time enough to get up something +new if you want."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + +<p>"All right. That's what we'll do," said Bunny. "Come on, Sue, and we'll +practise a new act for the big boys' circus."</p> + +<p>The little circus, gotten up by Bunny and Sue, had made quite a jolly +time for the people in the country where Grandpa Brown lived. It was +talked of in many a farmhouse, and it was this talk of the little circus +that had made Bunker, Ben and the other big boys want to give a larger +show of their own.</p> + +<p>Some of the boys were quite strong, and they could do tricks on the +trapeze that Bunny and his little friends did not dare try. Then, too, +one of the boys had a trained dog, that had once been in a real city +theatre show, and another had some white mice that could do little +tricks, and even fire a toy cannon that shot a paper cap.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's going to be a real circus all right, in real tents," said +Bunker Blue.</p> + +<p>As I have told you, Grandpa Brown let the boys take his old army tent, +and they were to have another, and larger one, that had once been used +at a county fair.</p> + +<p>Leaving Bunker, Ben and the other big boys <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>to put up their tent, Bunny +and Sue, with Splash, their dog, went back to the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>"What trick can we do, Bunny?" asked Sue. "What can we do in the +circus?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll make up a surprise, so they'll all laugh," he said. "I wish I +had another big lobster claw, so I could put it on my nose, and look +funny."</p> + +<p>"Maybe you could find something else to put on your nose," said the +little girl. "Oh, Bunny, I know!" she suddenly cried. "I've just thought +of something fine!"</p> + +<p>"What?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>Sue looked all around, to make sure no one was listening, and then she +whispered to Bunny. And what it was she told him I'm not allowed to tell +you just now, though I will when the right time comes.</p> + +<p>Anyhow, Bunny and Sue were very busy the rest of the day. They were +making something out in the barn, and they kept the doors closed so no +one could see what they were doing.</p> + +<p>It was the day after this that Bunny and Sue were asked by their grandma +to go on a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>little errand for her. It was about half a mile down the +safe country road, to a neighbor's house, and as the two children had +been there before, they knew the way very well.</p> + +<p>Hand in hand they set off, with Splash following after them. They walked +slowly, for there was no hurry. Now and then they stopped to pick some +pretty flowers, or get a drink at a wayside spring. Once in a while they +saw a red, yellow or blue bird, and they stopped to watch the pretty +creatures fly to their nests, where their little ones were waiting to be +fed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't it just lovely in the country," said Sue. "Don't you just +love it, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered. "I do. And won't we have fun at our circus, Sue, +when I dress up like a——"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" exclaimed the little girl. "Don't tell anyone! It's a secret you +know."</p> + +<p>"Pooh! There's nobody here to tell!" laughed Bunny.</p> + +<p>In a little while they were at the house of the neighbor to whom Grandma +Brown had sent them. They gave in the little note <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>grandma had written, +and then Mrs. Wilson, to whom it was sent, after writing an answer, gave +Bunny and Sue each a cookie, and a cool glass of milk.</p> + +<p>"Sit down in the shade, on the porch, and eat and drink," said Mrs. +Wilson. "Then you will feel better when going home."</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue liked the cookies and milk very much. They were just +eating the last crumbs of the cookies, and drinking the last drops of +milk, when Bunny, looking out toward the road, saw, going past, a man +with a large number of balloons, tied to strings, floating over his +head. There were red balloons, and blue ones; green, yellow, purple, +white and pink ones.</p> + +<p>"Oh, look, Sue!" cried Bunny. "The balloons! That's just what we want +for our circus."</p> + +<p>"What do we want of balloons?" asked the little girl.</p> + +<p>"I mean we ought to have somebody sell them outside the tents," Bunny +went on. "It won't look like a real circus without toy balloons."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's so," agreed Sue. "But how can we get 'em?"</p> + +<p>"We'll ask the balloon man," said Bunny. He was not a bit bashful about +speaking to strangers.</p> + +<p>Setting down his empty milk glass, Bunny ran down the front path toward +the road, where the balloon man was walking along through the dust. Sue +ran after her brother.</p> + +<p>"Hey! Hi there!" called Bunny.</p> + +<p>The man stopped and turned around. Seeing the two children, he smiled.</p> + +<p>"You wanta de balloon?" he asked, for he was an Italian, just like the +one who had a hand organ, and whose monkey ran away, as I have told you +in the book before this one.</p> + +<p>"We want lots of balloons," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sure!" said the man, smiling more than ever.</p> + +<p>"We want all the balloons for our circus," Bunny explained.</p> + +<p>"Circus? Circus?" repeated the balloon man, and he did not seem to know +what Bunny meant. "What is circus?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"We're going to have a circus," Bunny ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>plained. "My sister Sue says we +must have toy balloons. You come to our circus and you can sell a lot. +You know—a show in a tent."</p> + +<p>"Oh, sure! I know!" The Italian smiled again. He had often sold balloons +at fairs and circuses. "Where your circus?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Come on, we'll show you," promised Bunny. Then he and Sue started back +toward Grandpa Brown's house, followed by the man with the balloons +floating over his head—red balloons, green, blue, purple, yellow, white +and pink ones.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE STORM</h3> + + +<p>"Bunny! Won't it be just grand!" whispered Sue to her brother, as they +walked along ahead of the balloon man.</p> + +<p>"Fine!" said Bunny. "We'll have him stand outside the tent, and sell his +balloons. It'll look just like a real circus then. It wouldn't without +the balloons; would it, Sue?"</p> + +<p>"No. And, oh, Bunny! I've thought of something else."</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Pink lemonade."</p> + +<p>"Pink lemonade?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we'll have the balloon man sell that, and peanuts. Then it will be +more than ever like a real circus."</p> + +<p>"But how can he sell pink lemonade and peanuts and balloons?" Bunny +wanted to know.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, he can do it," said Sue, who seemed to think it was very easy. "He +can tie his bunch of balloons to the lemonade and peanut stand, and when +anybody wants one they can take it and put down the five cents. Then the +balloon man will have one hand to dish out the hot peanuts, and the +other to pour out the pink lemonade."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess he could do that," said Bunny. "We'll ask him, anyhow. +Maybe he won't want to."</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue stopped and waited for the balloon man to catch up with +them. The man, seeing the children waiting for him, hurried forward, and +stopped to see what was wanted.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he asked, looking at his balloons to make sure none of them +would break away, and float up to the clouds.</p> + +<p>"Can you sell pink lemonade?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Penk leemonade," repeated the Italian, saying the words in a funny way. +"Whata you calla dat? Penk leemonade?"</p> + +<p>"You know—what they always have at a circus," said Bunny. "This color," +and he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>pointed to a pink balloon. "You drink it you know, out of a +glass—five cents."</p> + +<p>"No can drinka de balloon!" the man exclaimed. "You put your teeth on +heem and he go—pop! so—no good!"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't mean that!" cried Bunny, laughing at the Italian, who made +funny faces, and waved his hands in the air. "I mean can you sell pink +lemonade—to drink—at our circus?"</p> + +<p>"And peanuts?" added Sue.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we'd want you to sell peanuts, too," went on the little boy.</p> + +<p>"Ha! Peanuts? No! I used to pusha de peanut cart—make de whistle +blow—hot peanuts. No more! I sella de balloon!" exclaimed the Italian. +"No more makea de hot peanuts!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue. "He won't do it! We'll have to get some one +else, Bunny."</p> + +<p>"Well, we can easy do that," said Bunny. "Maybe the hired man will sell +peanuts and lemonade for us. I asked him if he would like to be in the +big circus, and he said he would. I asked him if he could do any acts."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What'd he say?" Sue wanted to know, while the Italian balloon peddler +stood looking at the two children, as if wondering what they would do +next.</p> + +<p>"Well, the hired man said all he could do was milk a cow, and plow up +the ground. He wanted to know if they were circus acts, and I said I +guessed not," replied Bunny. "So maybe he'd be glad to sell lemonade and +peanuts."</p> + +<p>"I think he would," said Sue. "You needn't do anything except blow up +your balloons and sell 'em," she went on to the Italian. "Never mind +about the peanuts and the pink lemonade."</p> + +<p>"Alla right," said the man, with a smile that showed what nice white +teeth he had. "Me sella de balloon!"</p> + +<p>He and the children walked on a little longer. Then the man turned to +Bunny and asked:</p> + +<p>"How much farder now—to de circus?"</p> + +<p>"Not far now," said Bunny. "The circus isn't quite ready yet, but you +can stay at our grandpa's house until it is. You see we don't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>get many +balloon peddlers out this way. You're the first one we've seen, so you'd +better stay. It won't be more than a week, or maybe two weeks."</p> + +<p>"Circus last all dat time?" asked the Italian. "Sella lot de balloons. +Buy more in New York—sella dem! Mucha de money!"</p> + +<p>"We've an aunt in New York," said Sue. "Her name is Aunt Lu. If you sell +all these balloons she'll buy some more for you in New York, so you +won't have to go away."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bunny, "that would be best. We'll get Aunt Lu to send you +more balloons. And when you haven't any to sell, while you're waiting, +you could help the hired man sell pink lemonade and peanuts. 'Cause, +anyhow, maybe the hired man sometimes would have to go to milk the cows, +and you could take his place."</p> + +<p>The Italian shook his head. He did not quite know what Bunny and Sue +were talking about. All he thought of was that he was being taken to a +circus, where he might sell all his balloons, and make money enough to +buy more to sell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There's grandpa's house now," said Sue, as they went around a turn in +the road.</p> + +<p>"Where de circus—where de tents?" the Italian wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Oh, they're not all up yet," said Bunny. "The big boys are doing that. +You just come with us."</p> + +<p>And so Bunny Brown and his sister Sue walked up the front path, followed +by the Italian with the many-colored balloons floating over his head.</p> + +<p>"Mercy me! What's all this?" cried Mother Brown, when she saw the little +procession. "What does this mean, Bunny—Sue?"</p> + +<p>"It's balloons, for the circus," explained Bunny. "We saw this man down +the road, and we invited him to come with us. He's going to stay here +until it's time for the circus, next week, and then he's going to sell +balloons outside the tent."</p> + +<p>"We wanted him to sell pink lemonade and peanuts," said Sue, "but he +wouldn't. So the hired man can do that. Now, Grandma," went on the +little girl, "maybe this balloon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>man is hungry. We're not, 'cause we +had some cookies and milk; didn't we, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Yep."</p> + +<p>"But he didn't have any," Sue went on. "And he'll have to have a place +to sleep, 'cause he's going to stay to the circus, and sell balloons. +And if he sells them all Aunt Lu will send him more from New York and he +can sell them. Won't it be nice, Mother?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Brown did not know what to say. Neither did Grandma Brown. They +just looked at one another, and then at the Italian, and next at Bunny +and Sue.</p> + +<p>"Me sella de balloon!" explained the Italian, as best he could in his +queer English. "Little boy—little gal—say circus. Me likea de circus. +But me no see any tents. Where circus tents?"</p> + +<p>"Oh these children!" cried Mrs. Brown. "What in the world are we to do +with this Italian and his balloons?"</p> + +<p>"Me sella de balloons!" said the dark-skinned man.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," sighed Mrs. Brown. "But the circus is only a make-believe +one, and it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>isn't ready yet, and—Oh, I don't know what to do!" she +cried. "Bunny—Sue—you shouldn't have invited the balloon man to come +here!"</p> + +<p>"But you can't have a circus without balloons," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear, I know, but——"</p> + +<p>"What's all the trouble?" asked Papa Brown, coming out on the porch just +then.</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue, their mother and the Italian, told the story after a +while.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mr. Brown, to the Italian, after he had listened carefully, +"I'm sorry you had your trip for nothing. But of course the children did +not know any better. It is only a little circus, and you would not sell +many balloons. But, as long as you came away back here, I guess we can +give you something to eat, and we'll buy some balloons of you for the +children."</p> + +<p>"Thanka you. Mucha de 'bliged," said the Italian with a smile.</p> + +<p>He seemed happy now, and after Grandma Brown had given him some bread +and meat, and a big piece of pie, out on the side porch, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>he started off +down the road again, smiling and happy. Bunny and Sue were each given a +balloon by their father, who bought them from the Italian.</p> + +<p>"And don't invite any more peddlers to your circus, children," said Mr. +Brown.</p> + +<p>"We won't," promised Bunny. "But we thought the balloons would be nice."</p> + +<p>"We can have the hired man sell pink lemonade and peanuts; can't we?" +Sue wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess so—if he wants to," laughed Grandpa Brown.</p> + +<p>"Well, we have some balloons ourselves, anyhow," said Bunny to his +sister that night.</p> + +<p>The children had much fun with their balloons next day. They tied long +threads to them, and let them float high in the air. Once Sue's nearly +got away, but Bunny ran after the thread, which was dragging on the +ground, and caught it.</p> + +<p>The big boys had not forgotten about the circus, all this while. Bunker, +Ben and their friends had put up the tent Grandpa Brown let them take, +and Bunny and Sue went inside.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My! It's terrible big!" said Sue, looking about the white canvas house. +It was not so very large, but it seemed so to Sue.</p> + +<p>"Just wait until you see the other," said Bunker. "The fair tent is +three times as big as this."</p> + +<p>And so it was. When that was put up in the meadow, near the army tent of +Grandpa Brown's, the place began to look like a real circus ground.</p> + +<p>"When are you going to have the show?" asked Bunny of Ben.</p> + +<p>"Oh, in a few days now. Have you and Sue made up what you are going to +do?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it's a secret," Sue answered.</p> + +<p>"So much the better!" laughed Ben. "You'll surprise the people."</p> + +<p>The two tents were put up, and the big boys were getting ready for the +circus. One night, about four days before it was to be held, Bunker Blue +and Ben came in from where they had been, down near the tents, and +looked anxiously at the sky.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter," asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Bunker, "it looks as if we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>would have a big rain storm. +And if we do, and the meadow brook gets too full of water, it may wash +the tents away."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess that won't happen," said Ben.</p> + +<p>But in the night it began to rain very hard. It thundered and lightened, +and Bunny and Sue woke up, frightened. Sue began to cry.</p> + +<p>"Why, you mustn't cry just because it rains," said Mother Brown.</p> + +<p>"But I'm afraid!" sobbed Sue. "And it will wash away our circus tents!" +and she sat up in bed, and shivered every time it thundered. "Oh, +Mother! It will wash away all the nice circus tents!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>HARD WORK</h3> + + +<p>Mrs. Brown did not quite understand what Sue said about the storm +washing away the circus tents. So she asked the little girl to explain.</p> + +<p>"Why, Bunker Blue said," Sue told her mother, "that if the storm was too +hard, the brook would get full of water, and wash away our circus tents. +And I don't want that, 'cause me and Bunny is going to do an act, only +it's a secret and I can't tell you. Only—Oh, dear!" cried Sue, as she +saw a very bright flash of lightning. "It's going to bang again!"</p> + +<p>"But you musn't be afraid of the storm," said Mother Brown. "See, Bunny +isn't afraid!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I <i>is</i> afraid too!" cried the little boy, who slept in the next +room. "I <i>is</i> afraid, but I wasn't goin' to tell!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, that's being brave—not to show that you are afraid," said Mother +Brown. "Come now, Sue, you be brave, like Bunny."</p> + +<p>"But I can't, Mother! I don't want the circus to be spoiled!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess the tents are good and strong," said Mr. Brown, who had +gotten up to see what Sue was crying for. "They won't blow away."</p> + +<p>It was about eleven o'clock at night, and quite dark, except when the +lightning came. Then the loud thunder would sound, "just like circus +wagons rumbling over a bridge," as Bunny told Sue, to try and make his +little sister feel less afraid.</p> + +<p>But all Sue could talk of was the circus tents, that might be blown over +by the strong wind, which was now rattling the shutters and windows of +the farmhouse. Or else the white canvas houses might be washed away by +the high water.</p> + +<p>While Mr. and Mrs. Brown sat up, trying to comfort Sue, by telling her +and Bunny a fairy story, there were sounds heard in another part of the +house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I guess that's Grandpa Brown getting up to see if his cows and horses +are all right," said mother. "The cows and horses are not afraid in a +storm, Sue."</p> + +<p>"Maybe they are, but they can't talk and tell us about it," said Sue, +who was not quite so frightened now.</p> + +<p>Grandpa Brown could be heard speaking to some one in the hall.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Bunker Blue," he called, "is that you getting up?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Brown," was the answer the children heard.</p> + +<p>"And who is that with you?"</p> + +<p>"Ben Hall."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" Bunny Brown heard his grandpa ask.</p> + +<p>"We're going down to see about our circus tents," said Bunker. "We're +afraid they may be carried away in the storm."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps they may," said Grandpa Brown. "It's a bad storm all +right, but we'll be safe and comfortable in the house. Take a lantern +with you, if you're going out, and be careful."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We will," promised Bunker.</p> + +<p>Bunny put on his slippers and bath robe and went to the bedroom door. It +was open a little way, and out in the hall he could see Bunker Blue and +Ben Hall. The two big boys had on rubber boots and rubber coats, for it +was raining hard.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunker!" called Bunny. "May I go with you?"</p> + +<p>"What, little shaver! Are you awake?" Bunker asked. "You'd better get +back to bed. It's raining cats and dogs!"</p> + +<p>"Really?" called Sue, from her father's lap, where she was sitting all +"cuddled up." "Is it really raining cats and dogs? Is it raining my dog +Splash? If it is I want to see it!"</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't exactly mean that," answered Bunker with a laugh. "I meant +it was raining such big drops that they are almost as large as little +baby cats and dogs. But it is storming too hard for you two youngsters +to come out. Ben and I will see about the tents."</p> + +<p>"Don't let them blow away!" begged Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Or wash down the brook," added Sue.</p> + +<p>"We won't!" promised the big boys.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then they went out into the storm. The wind was blowing so hard they +could not carry umbrellas, for if they had taken them the umbrellas +would have been blown inside out in a minute. But with rubber hats, +coats and boots Bunker and Ben could not get very wet.</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue, looking from their windows, saw the flicker of the +lantern, as Bunker and Ben walked with it toward the circus tents.</p> + +<p>Harder rumbled the thunder, and brighter flashed the lightning. The rain +pounded on the roof as though it would punch holes in it, and come +through to wet Bunny and Sue. But nothing like that happened, and soon +the two children began to feel sleepy again, even though the storm still +kept up.</p> + +<p>"I—I guess I'll go to bed," said Sue. "Will you stay by me a little +while, Daddy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered her father. "I'll sit right by your little bed."</p> + +<p>"And hold my hand until I get to sleep?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll hold your hand, Sue."</p> + +<p>"All right. Then I won't be scared any more. You can hold Bunny's hand, +Mother."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Pooh, I'm not afraid!" said Bunny. "But I like you to hold my hand, +Mother!" he added quickly, for fear his mother would go away and leave +him.</p> + +<p>"All right, I'll sit by you," she said, with a smile.</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue soon fell asleep again. The thunder was not quite so loud, +nor the lightning so bright, but it rained harder than ever, and as +Bunny felt his eyes growing heavy, so that he was almost asleep, he +again thought of what might happen to the circus tents.</p> + +<p>"If they wash away down the brook, we can't have any show," he thought. +"But maybe it won't happen."</p> + +<p>Bunny roused up a little later, when some one came into the farmhouse. +The little boy thought it was Bunker and Ben, but he was too sleepy to +get up and ask. He heard some one, that sounded like his grandpa, ask:</p> + +<p>"Did they wash away?"</p> + +<p>Then Bunker's voice answered:</p> + +<p>"Yes, they both washed away. It's a regular flood down in the meadow. +Everything is spoiled!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I wonder—I wonder if he means the circus?" thought Bunny, but he was +too sleepy to do anything more, just then, than wonder.</p> + +<p>In the morning, however, when the storm had passed, Bunny Brown and his +sister Sue heard some bad news. After breakfast Bunker and Ben came in +and Bunker said:</p> + +<p>"Well, little folks, I guess we can't have any circus!"</p> + +<p>"No circus!" cried Bunny, and he was so surprised that he dropped his +fork with a clatter on his plate, waking up Splash, the big dog, who was +asleep in one corner of the room.</p> + +<p>"Why can't we have a circus?" asked Sue. She and Bunny had almost +forgotten about the storm the night before.</p> + +<p>"We can't have a circus," explained Bunker, "because both our tents were +washed away during the night. The brook, that is generally so small that +you can wade across it, was so filled with rain water that it was almost +turned into a river. It flooded the meadow, the water washed out the +tent poles and pegs, and down the tents fell, flat. Then the water rose +higher and washed them away."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Where did it wash them?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Oh, away down toward the river, I guess. I'm afraid we'll never get 'em +back."</p> + +<p>"It's too bad," said Ben. "Just when we were all ready for the nice +circus. But, Bunker, we won't give up yet. We'll look for those tents, +and maybe we can put them up again."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe we can do it," said the red-haired boy. "But I'm afraid +everything is spoiled."</p> + +<p>"We'll help you look for the tents," said Bunny. "Won't we, Sue?"</p> + +<p>"If—if the water isn't too deep," said Sue. She was always afraid of +deep water, though she, like Bunny, was learning to swim.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the water isn't deep now," Bunker assured her. "It was a regular +flood in the night when Ben and I went out to look at it, but it has all +gone down now, since the rain stopped."</p> + +<p>"Was it deep when you were out last night?" Bunny wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"It surely was," answered Bunker. "It was almost over our boots. We +couldn't get near <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>the tents, and we had to watch them be knocked down +by the flood, and carried away on the big waves. Then we came back to +the house."</p> + +<p>"We couldn't do anything in the dark, anyhow," remarked Ben. "But now +that it's daylight maybe we can find the tents."</p> + +<p>"We'll help—come on!" exclaimed Bunny to his sister.</p> + +<p>They finished their breakfast, and, after promising to keep out of +mischief, Bunny and Sue were allowed to go with Bunker and Ben to look +for the missing tents.</p> + +<p>First they went down to the meadow where the white canvas houses had +been first put up. The brook was higher than Bunny or Sue had ever seen +it before, and the bent-over, twisted and muddy grass showed how high up +in the meadow the water had come. There were some wooden pegs still left +in the ground, to show where the tents had stood.</p> + +<p>"And now they're gone," said Bunny sadly.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Carried away in the flood," remarked Bunker.</p> + +<p>"But maybe we'll find them," said Ben hopefully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + +<p>They walked along the bank of the brook. About a mile farther on it +flowed into a small river.</p> + +<p>"And if our tents have floated down the river we may never get them +back," said Bunker. "Now everybody look, and whoever first sees the +white tents, caught on a stone or on a log, tell us, and we'll try to +get them," said Bunker.</p> + +<p>You may be sure Bunny and Sue kept their eyes wide open, and were very +desirous to be the first to see the tents. It was Sue who had the first +good look.</p> + +<p>As she and Bunny, with Ben, Bunker and some other big boys who had come +to help, went around a turn in the brook, Sue, who had run on ahead, saw +something white bobbing up and down in the water.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's a tent—maybe!" she cried.</p> + +<p>The others ran to her side.</p> + +<p>"So it is!" shouted Bunker. "That's the small tent, caught fast on a +rock in the brook. We'll get that out first!"</p> + +<p>He and the other boys took off their shoes and stockings, and waded out +to the tent. It was hard work to get it to shore, but they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>finally +managed to do it. The tent was wet and muddy, and torn in two places, +but it could be dried out, mended and used.</p> + +<p>"And now for the big tent—see if <i>you</i> can find that, Bunny!" called +Ben.</p> + +<p>But Bunny was not as lucky as was his sister Sue. After they had walked +on half a mile farther, it was Bunker himself who saw the big tent, +caught on a sunken tree, just where the brook flowed into the river.</p> + +<p>"Now if we get that we'll be all right," he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it isn't going to be as easy to get that as it was the little +one," commented Ben Hall. "We'll have to work very hard to get that tent +to shore."</p> + +<p>"I'll help," offered Bunny Brown, and the other boys laughed. Bunny was +so little to offer to help get the big tent on shore.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>THE MISSING MICE</h3> + + +<p>The big tent, once used at the fair, but which the boys had now borrowed +for their circus, was all tangled up in the water. The ropes and cloth +were twisted and wound around among the sticks and stones, where the +tent had drifted, after the flood of the night before had carried it +away.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll never get that out so we can use it," said Charlie Tenny, one +of the boys who was helping Ben, Bunker and the others.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we'll get it out," said Ben. "We've got Bunny Brown to help us you +know."</p> + +<p>Some of the boys laughed, and Bunny's face grew red.</p> + +<p>"Now I mean just what I say!" cried Ben. "Bunny Brown is a brave little +chap, and if it hadn't been for him and his sister Sue we big fellows +wouldn't have thought of getting up <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>a circus show. So it's a good thing +to have a chap like him with us, even if he is small."</p> + +<p>Bunny felt better after this, and he thought Ben was very kind to speak +as he had done.</p> + +<p>"Splash is here, too," said Bunny. "He can get hold of a rope and pull +like anything."</p> + +<p>"That's right," said Bunker Blue. "Maybe Splash can help us. He is a +strong dog."</p> + +<p>"It's a good thing the tent didn't go all the way down to the river," +said Charlie. "Otherwise we might never have found it."</p> + +<p>"Yes," put in Bunker. "And now let's see if we can get it to shore. It's +not going to be easy."</p> + +<p>The boys worked hard, and Bunny helped. He could wade out, where the +water was not too deep, and pull on the ropes. There were a great many +of these ropes to hold the tent together, but now they were all tangled.</p> + +<p>But Ben Hall seemed to know how to untangle them, and soon the work of +getting the tent to shore began to look easier. Splash did his share of +work, too. He pulled on the ropes Bunker Blue handed him, shutting his +strong, white teeth on them, and straining and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>tugging until you would +have thought that Splash, all alone, would pull the tent ashore.</p> + +<p>And, finally, with all the boys and the dog and Bunny Brown pulling and +tugging, they got the tent out of the water. It was still all twisted +and tangled, but now that it was on shore it was easier to make smooth.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to get a wagon to haul it back to the meadow where we are +going to set it up again," said Bunker.</p> + +<p>"My grandpa will let us take a horse and wagon," said Bunny. "He wants +to see the circus."</p> + +<p>"I guess we'll have to give him a free ticket if he lets us take a horse +and wagon to haul the tent," said Ben with a laugh. "You've a good +grandpa, Bunny Brown."</p> + +<p>"Yep. I like him, and so does Sue," said the little fellow.</p> + +<p>Grandpa Brown very kindly said he would go down to the river himself, in +his wagon, and help the boys bring up the tent. He did this, and he also +helped them set it up again. This time they put the two circus tents +farther back from the brook.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then if it rains again, and the water gets high and makes a flood, it +won't wash away the tents," said Bunker Blue.</p> + +<p>"When is the show going to be?" asked Sue. She was anxious to see it, +and she and Bunny were waiting for the time when they could let their +secret become known. For they had told no one yet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll have to wait a few days now, before having the circus," said +Ben. "The tents are all wet, and we want them to dry out. Then we've got +to make the seats all over again, because the flood carried them away. I +guess we can't have the show until next week."</p> + +<p>There was much more work to be done because the flood had come and +spoiled everything. But, after all, it did not matter much, and the boys +set to work with jolly laughs to get the circus ready again.</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue helped all they could, and the older boys were glad to +have the children with them, because both Bunny and Sue were so +good-natured, and said such funny things, at times, that it made the +others laugh.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>The seats for the circus were made of boards, laid across boxes, just as +Bunny and Sue had made theirs when they gave their first Punch and Judy +show in their barn at home.</p> + +<p>There were seats all around the outer edge inside the big fair tent. It +was in this one that the real "show" was to be given. Here the big boys +would swing on trapezes, have foot and wheelbarrow races, ride horses +and do all sorts of tricks.</p> + +<p>"The people will sit here and watch us do our funny things," said Ben. +"We're going to have clowns, and everything."</p> + +<p>"And what's going to be in the little tent—the army one grandpa let you +take?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's for the wild animals," said Bunker Blue.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to have our dog Splash striped like a blue tiger again?" +asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"No, I think we'll have some different wild animals this time," said +Ben. "There'll be some surprises at our show."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish it were time now!" cried Sue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We've got a surprise too; haven't we, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>"Yep!" answered her brother. "Come on out to the barn, Sue and we'll +practise it again."</p> + +<p>What it was Bunny and Sue were going to do, none of the big boys could +guess. And they did not try very hard, for they had too much to do +themselves, getting ready for the "big" circus as they called it, for +the first one, gotten up by Bunny and Sue, was only a little one.</p> + +<p>So the smaller tent was made ready for the "wild" animals, though of +course there would really be no elephants, tigers or anything like that. +You couldn't have them in a boys' circus, and I guess the boys didn't +really want them. "Make-believe" was as much fun to them as it was to +Bunny and Sue.</p> + +<p>There was nice, clear weather after the storm and flood, and soon the +circus tents were dried out again. The boards were once more put across +the boxes for seats.</p> + +<p>One day Bunker and Ben went into the big tent. There they saw Bunny and +Sue tying <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>some pieces of old carpet on to some of the planks down near +the front sawdust ring. For there was a real sawdust ring, the sawdust +having come from grandpa's ice-house.</p> + +<p>"What are you putting carpet on the planks for?" asked Ben, of the two +children.</p> + +<p>"To make preserved seats," answered Sue.</p> + +<p>"Reserved seats, Sue. <i>Re</i>served—not <i>pre</i>served seats, Sue," corrected +Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's just the same, 'most," said Sue, as she went on tying her +bit of carpet to a board. "We're making some nice, soft reserved seats +for grandpa and grandma, and mother and daddy."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see!" laughed Bunker. "That's a good idea. We can make soft seats +for the ladies, Ben. We'll get some more pieces of old carpet and have a +lot of reserved seats."</p> + +<p>And this the big boys did. Bunny and Sue, little as they were, had given +them a good idea.</p> + +<p>And now began the real work of getting ready for the circus. That is the +boys began taking into the smaller tent queer looking boxes and crates. +These boxes and crates were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>covered with cloth or paper, so no one +could see what was in them.</p> + +<p>"What are they?" asked Sue, as she and Bunny stood outside the smaller +tent, for Bunker would not let them go inside.</p> + +<p>"Oh, those are some of the wild animals," said the red-haired boy.</p> + +<p>"Really?" asked Sue, her eyes opening wide.</p> + +<p>"Well—really-make-believe," laughed Bunker.</p> + +<p>"And are the white mice there?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the white mice are in the tent," said Bunker.</p> + +<p>One of the country boys, who had a lot of white mice had promised to +lend them to the circus. He had taught them to do some little tricks, +and this was to be a part of the show.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can hardly wait!" cried Sue. "I want to see the circus."</p> + +<p>"Well you can now, in a day or so," said Bunker. "Hi there! What have +you?" he asked of a boy who came up to the tent with a box on a +wheelbarrow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<p>"This is the wild lion," was the answer.</p> + +<p>"Oh-o-o-o-o!" exclaimed Sue, getting closer to Bunny. "A lion!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've got him well trained," said the boy. "He won't hurt you at +all. He won't even roar if I tell him not to."</p> + +<p>Certainly the lion in the cage seemed very quiet, and the boy carried +him very easily.</p> + +<p>"I guess maybe he's a baby lion," whispered Sue to Bunny.</p> + +<p>That afternoon there was a great deal of excitement down at the "circus +grounds," as Bunny and Sue called the place in the meadow where the +tents stood.</p> + +<p>One of the boys who had been helping Bunker and Ben, came running out of +the tent crying:</p> + +<p>"They're gone! They're gone!"</p> + +<p>"What's gone?" asked Ben.</p> + +<p>"My white mice! The cage door is open and they're all gone!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE BIG CIRCUS</h3> + + +<p>Bunny Brown and his sister Sue looked at one another. If the white mice +had escaped from the circus tent, some of the other animals might also +get away. And suppose that should happen to the lion, which Ben had said +was in one of the boxes! Just suppose!</p> + +<p>"I—I guess we'd better go home, Bunny," said Sue, in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered. "I—I guess mother wants us. Come on!"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" asked Bunker Blue. "I thought you were going to +stay and help us, Bunny."</p> + +<p>"I—I was. But if those mice got away—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see!" laughed Bunker Blue. "You're afraid some of the other +animals might also get out. But don't be afraid. We haven't any of the +other wild beasts in here yet."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But that—that lion," said Bunny, looking toward the animal tent.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's asleep," said Ben. "Besides he wouldn't hurt anyone even if he +was out of his cage. You needn't be afraid. He's the only animal, except +the mice, that we've put in the tent yet. But how did your mice get out, +Sam?" he asked the boy who owned them.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. They were all right last night, but, when I went to feed +them this morning, the cage door was open, and they were all gone."</p> + +<p>"Will—will they bite?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"No, they're very tame and gentle," answered Sam. "White mice and white +rats, you know, aren't like the other kind. I guess being colored white +makes them kind and nice. They run all over me, in my pockets and up my +sleeves. Sometimes they go to sleep in my pockets.</p> + +<p>"Why, even my mother isn't afraid of them, and she'll let them go to +sleep in her lap, and she wouldn't do that for a black mouse or a black +or gray rat. No sir!"</p> + +<p>"No, I guess not!" exclaimed Bunker.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>"Other rats and mice would bite. +But it's too bad your white ones are gone. We'll have to find them. We +can't have a good circus without them. Everybody help hunt for Sam's +lost mice!" cried Bunker.</p> + +<p>"I—I know how to get them," said Sue.</p> + +<p>"How?" Sam wanted to know. He and the others, including Bunny and Sue, +had gone inside the tent to look at the empty mouse cage.</p> + +<p>"With cheese," answered Sue. "Don't you know the little verse: 'Once a +trap was baited, with a piece of cheese. It tickled so a little mouse it +almost made him sneeze.' And when your mices sneeze, when they smell the +cheese, you could hear them, and catch them, Sam."</p> + +<p>"Yes, maybe that would be a good plan," laughed Bunker Blue. "But do +your mice like cheese, Sam?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, they'll eat almost anything, and they'll take it right out of my +hand. Oh dear! I hope they come back!"</p> + +<p>Sam felt very bad, for he had had his white mice pets a long time, and +had taught them to do many little tricks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We'll all help you look for them," said Ben. "Did you ever teach any of +them the trick of opening the cage door?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No," replied Sam. "I don't believe they could do that, for the door was +fastened on the outside, and white mice haven't paws like a trained +monkey. Maybe I didn't fasten the cage door good last night."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue. "Wouldn't it be fun if we could send and get Mr. +Winkler's monkey Wango for our circus? Wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, maybe it would," replied Bunny. "But I don't guess we could do it. +Come on, Sue, I'm going to look for the white mice."</p> + +<p>"All right," Sue said. Maybe some little girls would be afraid of mice, +white, black or gray. But Sue was not. Perhaps it was because she knew +Bunny was going to be with her. Then, too, Sue was very anxious to have +the circus as good as it could be made, and if the mice were missing +some of the people who came might not like it. So Sue and Bunny said +they would help hunt for the lost white mice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<p>With the big boys, the children looked all around the animal tent. The +ground had been covered with straw, and the mice might be hiding in +this, or among the boxes and barrels in the tent. But, look as every one +did, the mice were not to be found.</p> + +<p>"What's in that box?" asked Sue, pointing to one covered with a horse +blanket.</p> + +<p>"That's the lion," answered Bunker Blue. "But don't be afraid," he went +on, as he saw Sue step to one side. "He's asleep now. Besides he can't +hurt anyone. You'll see, when we have the circus."</p> + +<p>No one knew where the white mice had gone. Even Splash could not find +them, though both Bunny and Sue told their dog to look for Sam's pets.</p> + +<p>"I guess Splash isn't a rat dog," said Ben.</p> + +<p>"No, and I'm glad he isn't," Sam said. "Rat dogs might think white mice +were made for them to shake and kill, just as they shake and kill the +other kind of rats and mice. I'd rather lose my white mice, and never +see them again, than have them killed."</p> + +<p>But, even though the white mice were mis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>sing, the circus would go on +just the same. And now began a busy time for all the big boys. The show +would be given in two more days, and there was much to be done before +that time.</p> + +<p>Sam and Bunker Blue had painted some signs which they tacked up on +Grandpa Brown's barn, as well as on the barns of some of the other +farmers. Everybody was invited to come to the circus, and those who +wanted to could give a little money to help pay for the hire of the big +tent. Many of the farmers and their wives said they would do this.</p> + +<p>One by one the animal cages, which were just wooden boxes with wooden +slats nailed in front, were brought into the animal tent. They were put +around in a circle on the straw which covered the ground.</p> + +<p>In the other tent the boys had made a little wooden platform, like a +stage. They had put up trapezes and bars, on which they could do all +sorts of tricks, such as hanging by their hands, by their heels and even +by their chins.</p> + +<p>No one except themselves knew what Bunny and his sister Sue were going +to do. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>children had kept their secret well. They had asked their +grandma for two old bed sheets, and she had let them take the white +pieces of cloth. Bunny and Sue were making something in the harness room +of the barn, and they kept the door shut so no one could look in.</p> + +<p>It was the night before the circus, and Bunny and Sue had gone to bed. +They were almost asleep when, in the next room, they heard their mother +call:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Walter!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown to her husband. "There's something +under my bed. I'm sure it's one of the animals from the boys' circus! Do +look and see what it is!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it can't be anything," said Mr. Brown. "All the animals are shut up +in the tent. Besides, they are only make-believe animals, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm sure <i>something</i> is under my bed!" said Mrs. Brown. "I heard +it move. Please look!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Brown looked. Sue and Bunny wondered what it was their papa would +find. They heard him say:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>"Oh, it's nothing but a piece of white paper. You heard it rattle in the +wind. Come and see for yourself."</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue heard their mother cross the room. She stooped down to +look under the bed. Then she cried:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Walter! It's alive! It isn't paper at all. It's coming out!"</p> + +<p>"Why, so it is!" said Mr. Brown. "I wonder what—?"</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Brown screamed, and Mr. Brown laughed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's a mouse! It's a rat! It's a whole lot of mice!" said Bunny's +mother.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's a whole lot of mice, and they're white!" said Mr. Brown with +a jolly laugh. "Hurrah! We've found the lost white mice from the boys' +circus! You needn't be afraid of them!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Brown did not scream any more. She was not afraid of white mice. +Bunny and Sue ran into the room where their mother and father were. +There they saw their father picking up the white mice in his hands, and +petting them. The mice seemed to like it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, where did you find them?" cried Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Under our bed," his mother said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how glad Sam will be!" said Sue. "Now we can have the circus all +right."</p> + +<p>And so the white mice were found. They had gotten out of their cage in +the tent, and had, somehow or other, found their way to the farmhouse. +There they had hid themselves away, until that night when they came out +into Mr. Brown's room.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm glad they are found," said Mrs. Brown. "Give them something +to eat, and put them in a box until morning."</p> + +<p>This Mr. Brown did, after Bunny and Sue had held in their hands the +queer pets, which had such funny pink eyes.</p> + +<p>"I want to see them do some tricks," said Sue.</p> + +<p>"Sam can hitch them to a little cart and drive them," said Bunny. "He +told me so."</p> + +<p>The mice were put safely away ready for the circus the next day, and +soon the house was quiet, with everyone asleep.</p> + +<p>The sun was brightly shining. There was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>just enough wind to make it +cool, and the weather was perfectly fine for the circus. Bunny, Sue, +Bunker and Ben were up early that morning, for there was still much to +do.</p> + +<p>Sam, the boy who owned the white mice, came over to ask if his pets had +been found. And when told that they were safe in a box down in the +cellar, he was very happy indeed.</p> + +<p>"I must put them back in their cage, and let them practise a few of +their tricks," he said. "They may have forgotten some as they have been +away from me so long."</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue had to get their things ready. They were to have a little +place in the big tent to dress and get ready for their act. They were +the smallest folks in the circus, and everyone was anxious to see what +they would do.</p> + +<p>On the big, as well as on the little, tent the boys had fastened flags. +Some were the regular stars and stripes of our own country, and other +flags were just pieces of bright-colored cloth that the boys' mothers +had given them. But the tents looked very pretty in the bright <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>and +sparkling sunshine, with the gay banners fluttering.</p> + +<p>Just as in a real circus, the people who came were to go first into the +animal tent, and from there on into the one with the seats, where they +would watch the performance.</p> + +<p>Soon after dinner the farmers and their wives, with such of their +children who were not taking part in the show, began to come.</p> + +<p>"Right this way to see the wild animals!" called Ben Hall, who was +making believe he was a lion tamer. "This way for the wild animals! Come +one! Come all!"</p> + +<p>The people crowded into the small tent. All around the sides were wooden +boxes, with wooden slats. These were the "cages."</p> + +<p>"Now watch the trained white mice!" cried Ben. "The big circus is about +to begin!"</p> + +<p>"Over this way! Over this way!" cried Sam, as he stood on a box with his +trained white mice in their cage in front of him. "Right this way to see +the wonderful trained white mice, which escaped from their cage and were +caught by brave Mr. Brown and his wife!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + +<p>Everyone clapped and laughed at that.</p> + +<p>Then Sam made his pink-eyed pets do many tricks. They ran up his arms to +his shoulders, and sat on his head. Some of them jumped over sticks, and +others through paper-covered hoops, like the horse-back riders in a real +circus. One big white mouse climbed a ladder, and two others drew a +little wagon, in which a third mouse sat, pretending to hold the reins. +One big white mouse fired a toy cannon, that shot a paper cap.</p> + +<p>Then Sam made his mice all stand up in a line, and make a bow to the +people.</p> + +<p>"That ends the white mice act!" cried Sam. "We will now show you a wild +lion. But please don't anybody be scared, for the lion can only eat +bread and jam, and he won't hurt you."</p> + +<p>"What a funny lion—to eat bread and jam," laughed Sue.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" exclaimed Bunny. "He's going to take the blanket off the cage."</p> + +<p>Everyone looked to see what sort of wild lion there was in the circus.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>BUNNY'S BRAVE ACT</h3> + + +<p>"Now, ladies and gentlemen, as well as boys and girls," began Ben Hall, +who was a sort of ring-master, in the play-circus, "I am about to show +you that this lion does really eat bread and jam, and that he is a very +kind and gentle lion indeed, though he can roar. Roar for the people!" +cried Ben, shaking the horse blanket that was hung in front of the +"lion's cage."</p> + +<p>The next second there came such a real "roar," that some of the smallest +children screamed.</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid!" cried Ben. "He won't hurt you. I will now raise the +curtain, and you can see the lion."</p> + +<p>Slowly he pulled aside the blanket. And then everyone laughed—that is +they did after a few seconds. For at first it did look like a real lion +in the box.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + +<p>He had a real tail, and a big, shaggy mane, and his mouth was wide open, +showing his red tongue and his white, sharp teeth. But when you looked a +second time you saw that it was only the skin of a lion, which had been +made into a rug for the parlor. And it was Tom White, one of the boys +with whom Bunny played, who was pretending to be a lion, with the skin +rug pulled over him, and the stuffed head over his head.</p> + +<p>Underneath the open mouth of the lion peered out Tom's smiling face, and +as he looked through the wooden slats of the cage Ben put in a piece of +bread and jam, which Tom ate as he knelt there on his hands and knees.</p> + +<p>"See! I told you this was a kind and gentle lion, and would eat bread +and jam," announced Ben. "I will now have him roar for you again, ladies +and gentlemen. Roar, lion, roar!"</p> + +<p>But instead of roaring, Tom, for a joke, went:</p> + +<p>"Meaou! Meaou! Meaou!" just like a pussy cat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of course everyone laughed at that. The idea of a big, savage lion +meaouing like a kitten! Tom had to laugh and then he couldn't pucker up +his lips to meaou any more.</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen, as well as boys and girls," went on Ben. "We will +now pass to the next cage. This is a real wild animal. He has sharp +teeth, so do not go too close to his cage. He is the wild chicken-eater +of the woods!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wonder what that can be?" whispered Sue.</p> + +<p>"We'll see in a minute," Bunny answered. The two children, as well as +the other boys who were to take part in the show in the big tent later +on, were now following the crowd around to see the animals.</p> + +<p>"Behold the wild chicken-eater of the woods!" cried Ben, as he pulled +aside a blanket from another wooden box-cage.</p> + +<p>This time there was a sort of snarl and bark. It was so real that +everyone knew this was a real animal, and not a boy dressed up in a skin +or fur rug. Some of the little children tried to run out of the tent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid!" called Ben. "He can't get loose. There he is!"</p> + +<p>He pulled the blanket aside and there everyone saw a small reddish +animal, as big as a dog, with a large, bushy tail, a sharp pointed nose, +and very bright eyes.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Sue. "Oh! what is it?"</p> + +<p>"It's a fox," answered her brother. "I once saw one in the real circus +where grandpa found his horses the Gypsies took."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is a fox," said Ben. "And a fox just loves to eat chickens and +live in the woods."</p> + +<p>"Where did you get him," Bunny asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, one of the boys caught him in a trap, and saved him for the circus. +He is going to tame him, but the fox is quite wild yet."</p> + +<p>And indeed the fox was. For he jumped about, and tried to bite and +scratch his way out of the cage. But the wooden bars were too strong for +him.</p> + +<p>The people who had come to the circus gotten up by the big boys, stood +for some time looking at the fox, which was a real wild animal. Some of +the farmers, though they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>had lived in the country all their lives, had +never seen a fox before.</p> + +<p>"Now, if you will come down this way!" said Ben, as he started toward a +place in the tent that had been curtained off, "I will show you our +trained bear."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is it real?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>"You'll see," said Ben, who seemed to know how to talk and act, just +like a real ring-master in the circus.</p> + +<p>Ben stood in front of the little corner of the tent, that was curtained +off, so no one could see what was behind it.</p> + +<p>"Are you all ready in there?" Ben called, loudly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, all ready!" was the quick answer. And the voice did not sound +like that of any of the boys from the nearby farms.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't know a bear could talk," cried Sue, and everyone laughed, +for the tent was very still and quiet just then, and Sue's voice was +heard all over.</p> + +<p>"That wasn't the bear talking," said Ben. "It was his trainer. The man +who makes the bear do tricks you know."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, is it a trick bear?" Sue asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Ben.</p> + +<p>"A real truly one?" Bunny wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"You'll see in a minute," Ben told her. "All ready now, Signore +Allegretti! We are going to have you do some tricks with your trained +bear!"</p> + +<p>With that Ben pulled aside the curtain, and there stood a real, live, +truly, big brown bear, and with him was a man wearing a red cap. The man +had hold of a chain that was fastened to a leather muzzle on the bear's +nose.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried the children.</p> + +<p>"Why, he's real!" gasped Sue.</p> + +<p>"Of course he's real!" laughed Ben.</p> + +<p>"He's just like the bear the man had out in front of grandpa's house +last week, doing tricks," said Bunny.</p> + +<p>A man had gone past Grandpa Brown's house with a trained bear, and he +had stopped to make the big, shaggy animal do some tricks. Bunny and Sue +had given the man pennies, and Grandma Brown gave him something to eat. +The man gave part of his bread and cake to the bear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> + +<p>"This is the same man," said Ben. "When I saw him, I thought he and his +bear would be just the thing for our circus. So I asked him to come back +to-day and give us a little show on his own account. And here he is. He +came last night and stayed in the barn so no one would see him until it +was time for the circus. I wanted him for a surprise."</p> + +<p>"Well, he is a surprise," said Bunny. "I didn't think it was a <i>real</i> +bear."</p> + +<p>"Let's see him do some tricks!" called a boy.</p> + +<p>"All right. He do tricks for you," promised the man with the red cap. +"Come, Alonzo. Make fun for the children. Show dem how you laugh!"</p> + +<p>The bear, who was named Alonzo, opened his mouth very wide, and made +some funny noises. I suppose that was as near to laughing as a bear +could come.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="./images/220.jpg" alt="THERE STOOD A REAL, LIVE, TRULY, BIG BROWN BEAR" title="THERE STOOD A REAL, LIVE, TRULY, BIG BROWN BEAR" /></div> + +<div class='center'>THERE STOOD A REAL, LIVE, TRULY, BIG BROWN BEAR<br /> + +<i>Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus.</i> (<i>P.</i> <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>).</div> + + +<p>"Now turn a somersault!" cried the bear's trainer, and the big, shaggy +creature did—a slow, easy somersault. Then he did other tricks, such as +marching like a soldier, with a stick for a gun, and he pretended to +kiss his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>master. Then the bear danced—at least his master called it +dancing, though of course a big, heavy bear can not dance very fast.</p> + +<p>"Now climb a pole!" cried the bear's master. "Climb a pole for the +little children, and they will give us pennies to buy buns."</p> + +<p>There was a big pole in the middle of the animal tent, and the bear +trainer led the animal toward it.</p> + +<p>"I make him climb dis!" he said.</p> + +<p>"Is the pole strong enough to hold him?" asked Grandpa Brown. "The bear +is pretty heavy, I think."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dat pole hold him! I make Alonzo climb very easy," the Italian +bear-trainer said. "Up you go, Alonzo!"</p> + +<p>The bear stuck his long sharp claws in the pole. It was part of a tree +trunk, for the regular tent pole had been broken when the tent was +carried away in the flood.</p> + +<p>Up and up went the bear, until he was half way to the top. The children +looked on with delight and even the old folks said it was a good trick.</p> + +<p>And then, all of a sudden, something hap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>pened. The big centre pole, +half way up which was the bear, began to tip over. Some of the ropes +that held it began to slip, because they were not tied tightly enough to +hold the pole and the bear too.</p> + +<p>"Look out!" called Daddy Brown. "The tent is going to fall! Run out +everybody!"</p> + +<p>"They haven't time!" said Grandpa Brown. "The tent will come down on our +heads."</p> + +<p>Bunny Brown stood right beside one of the ropes that held up the pole. +Bunny saw the rope slipping, and he knew enough about ropes and sails to +be sure that if the rope could be held the pole would not fall.</p> + +<p>"I've got to hold that rope!" thought Bunny. Then, like the brave little +fellow he was, he reached forward, and grasped the rope with both hands. +He knew he could not hold it from slipping that way, however, so he +wound the rope around his waist as he had seen his father's sailors do +when pulling in a heavy boat. With the rope around his waist, brave +Bunny found himself being pulled forward as the pole swayed over more +and more, with the bear on it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>BEN DOES A TRICK</h3> + + +<p>"Look out!"</p> + +<p>"Run, everybody!"</p> + +<p>"Somebody help that little boy hold up the pole! He's doing it all +alone!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bunny! Bunny Brown! You'll be hurt!"</p> + +<p>It was Bunny's mother who called this last. It was some of the farmers +in the circus tent who had shouted before that, not seeming to know what +to do. Daddy Brown and grandpa were hurrying from the other side of the +tent to help Bunny hold the rope.</p> + +<p>The pole was slowly falling, the tent seemed as if it would come down, +and the Italian was calling to his bear. As for the bear, he seemed to +think that he ought to climb higher up on the pole. He did not seem to +mind the fall he was going to get.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bunny Brown, small as he was, knew what he was doing. He had seen that +the rope, which help up the pole, ran around a little wooden wheel, +called a pulley. If he could stop the rope from running all the way +through the pulley, the pole would not fall down, and the tent would +stay up.</p> + +<p>"And if I keep the rope tight around my waist, the end of it can't get +over the pulley wheel," thought Bunny. He had often seen sailors do this +with his father's boats, when they slid down the steep beach into the +ocean.</p> + +<p>And then, all of a sudden, Bunny found himself jerked from his feet. He +struck against the bottom of the tent pole, and his side hurt him a +little, but he still held to the rope about his waist.</p> + +<p>"The pole has stopped falling! The pole has stopped falling!" some one +cried.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and Bunny stopped it!" said Sue. "Oh, Bunny, are you hurted?"</p> + +<p>Bunny's breath was so nearly squeezed out of him that he could not +answer for a moment. But his mother had reached him now. So had Daddy +Brown, his grandpa and some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>other men. In another moment the rope that +held up the big pole was unwound from Bunny's waist and made fast to a +peg in the ground.</p> + +<p>"Now the pole can't fall!" said Grandpa Brown. "We're safe now!"</p> + +<p>"Is—is the tent all right?" asked Bunny, as his father picked him up in +his arms.</p> + +<p>"Yes, brave little boy. The tent is all right! You stopped it from +falling on the people's heads."</p> + +<p>"And the bear—is the bear all right?" asked Bunny. From where his +father held him Bunny could not see the shaggy creature.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the bear is all right," answered Mr. Brown. "He is coming down the +pole now."</p> + +<p>"That bear is too big and heavy to climb the tent pole," said Grandpa +Brown. "He is too fat. But it's lucky Bunny grabbed that rope."</p> + +<p>"I—I saw it slipping," said Bunny, "and I—I just grabbed it!"</p> + +<p>The bear came to the ground, and made a low bow, as his master had +taught him to do. The tent pole was now made tight and fast, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>and the +circus could go on again. Some of the ladies, with their little boys and +girls, who had run out of the tent when they thought it was going to +fall, now came back again.</p> + +<p>"The show in the animal tent is now over," said Ben Hall. "We invite +you, one and all, into the next tent where we will do some real circus +tricks."</p> + +<p>"And there's preserved seats for grandpa and grandma, and daddy and +mother!" called out Sue, so clearly that everyone heard her. "The +preserved seats have carpet on," said Sue.</p> + +<p>"Reserved seats, Sue, not preserved," said Bunny in a shrill whisper, +and everyone who heard him laughed.</p> + +<p>Into the big tent, with its rows of seats around the elevated stage and +sawdust ring the people walked. They were still laughing at the funny +sights they had seen, the lion, made from a parlor rug, with a boy +inside it. And they were talking about Bunny's brave act, in stopping +the pole of the tent from falling down.</p> + +<p>"You and Sue go and get ready for what <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>you are to do," whispered Bunker +Blue to the two children. "I'll tell you when it's your turn to come out +on the stage."</p> + +<p>"All right," answered Bunny. "Come on, Sue. Now's the time for our +secret."</p> + +<p>He and Sue went into a little dressing room that had been made +especially for them. It was a part of the big tent, curtained off with +blankets.</p> + +<p>In this little room Bunny and Sue, earlier in the day, had taken the +things they needed to do their "trick." You will soon learn what it was +they had kept secret so long.</p> + +<p>It took some little time for all the people to take their places in the +"preserved" seats, as Sue called them. Daddy Brown and his wife, and +grandpa and grandma were given places well down in front, where they +could see all that went on.</p> + +<p>"The first act!" cried Ben Hall, "will be some fancy riding on a horse, +by Ted Kennedy! Come on, Ted!" he called.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ben's dressed up like a real clown!" called Bunny to Sue, as they +looked out between their blanket curtains, and saw what <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>was going on. +Ben had made himself a clown suit out of some calico. With a pointed cap +on his head, and his face all streaked with red and white chalk, he +looked just like a real clown in a real circus. Ben and some of the +others had "dressed up," while the people were taking their seats in the +big tent.</p> + +<p>"Oh, look, Bunny!" cried Sue. "It's a real horse Ted is riding!"</p> + +<p>And so it was. When Ben called for the first act, in came Ted riding on +the back of one of his father's farm horses. Ted wore an old bathing +suit, on which he had sewed some pieces of colored rags, and some small +sleigh bells, that jingled when he danced about on the back of the +horse. For the horse was such a slow one, with such a broad back, that +there was no danger of Ted's falling off.</p> + +<p>Around and around the sawdust ring rode Ted. Now he would stand on his +hands, and again on his feet. Then he would sit down and ride backwards. +Finally, when the horse was going a little faster Ted jumped off, jumped +on again, and then turned a somersault in the air.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="./images/230.jpg" alt="OUT CAME BUNNY, THE SCARECROW BOY, AND SUE, THE JACK-O'-LANTERN GIRL." title="OUT CAME BUNNY, THE SCARECROW BOY, AND SUE, THE JACK-O'-LANTERN GIRL." /></div> + +<div class='center'>OUT CAME BUNNY, THE SCARECROW BOY, AND SUE, THE JACK-O'-LANTERN GIRL.<br /> + +<i>Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus.</i> (<i>P.</i> <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>).</div> + + +<p>"Wasn't that great, Bunny?" cried Sue, who was watching.</p> + +<p>"It sure was. But hurry up, or we'll be late."</p> + +<p>The people clapped and laughed as Ted rode out of the ring after his +act. Then came more of the circus tricks. Two of the bigger boys +pretended they were an elephant. One was the hind legs and tail and the +other boy was the front legs and trunk. The boys were covered with a +suit of dark cloth, almost the color of an elephant, and when they +walked around the ring it was very funny. Then a little boy was given a +ride on the "elephant's back." He liked it very much.</p> + +<p>Two other boys pretended they were horses, with long bunches of grass +for tails. Each one took a smaller boy on his back, and then these "boy +horses" raced around the sawdust ring.</p> + +<p>Two of the girls were dressed up like real circus ladies, one in a pink, +and the other in a blue dress, made from mosquito netting. They sat on +sawhorses, which Bunker Blue got from the village carpenter shop. And +though the sawhorses could not run, or gal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>lop, or even trot, the girls +pretended they could, and they had such a funny make-believe race that +everyone laughed. The girls even jumped through paper hoops, just as the +real riders do in a circus.</p> + +<p>Then there was a wheelbarrow race between two boys, each of whom had to +push another boy around the tent. All went well until one of the clowns +put a pail of water in front of one of the wheelbarrows. Over this pail +the boy stumbled, and he and the one he was wheeling got all wet.</p> + +<p>But it was only in fun, and no one minded. There were several boys who +did fancy tricks on the trapeze bars. They hung by their arms and legs, +and "turned themselves inside out," as Bunny called it.</p> + +<p>Other boys did some high and broad jumping, while Bunker Blue pretended +he was the big strong giant man, who could lift heavy weights. But the +weights were only empty pasteboard boxes, painted black to look like +iron. Bunker pretended it was very hard to lift them, but of course it +was easy, for they were very light.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> + +<p>One boy, Tommie Lutken, did a very good trick though. He walked on a +tight rope stretched from one end of the tent to the other. This was a +real trick, and Tommie had practised nearly two weeks before he could do +it. He walked back and forth without falling. But when the people +clapped, and wanted him to do it again, Tommie did not do so well. He +slipped and fell, but he did not get hurt.</p> + +<p>"Now, Bunny and Sue, it's your turn!" called Ben to them, when he came +out of the ring, after having done some funny clown tricks. "Are you all +ready?"</p> + +<p>"All ready!" answered Bunny. "Come on, Sue."</p> + +<p>Out of their dressing room the children came, and when the people saw +them they laughed and clapped their hands. For Bunny was dressed like a +scarecrow out of a cornfield, with a suit of such ragged and patched +clothes on that it is a wonder they did not fall off him. He had a black +mask, cut out of cloth, over his face, and he held his arms and legs +stiff, just as the wooden and straw scarecrow does in the cornfield.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> + +<p>And Sue! You'd never guess how she was dressed.</p> + +<p>She was a <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Jack o'lantern'">Jack-o'-lantern</ins>. She and Bunny had scooped the inside out of a +big yellow pumpkin, and had made it thin and hollow. Then they had cut a +hole in the bottom, made eyes, a nose and mouth, and Sue put the pumpkin +over her head.</p> + +<p>From her shoulders to her feet Sue was covered with an old sheet, and as +she walked along it looked just as if a real, Hallowe'en Jack-o'-lantern +had come to life.</p> + +<p>Out on to the wooden platform of the circus tent went Bunny, the +scarecrow boy, and Sue, the Jack-o'-lantern girl. They made little bows +to each other, and then to the audience, and then they did a funny +dance, while Bunker Blue played on his mouth organ.</p> + +<p>"Say, isn't that just fine of our children?" whispered Mother Brown.</p> + +<p>"It certainly is," said Daddy.</p> + +<p>Up and down the platform danced Bunny and Sue. They were the smallest +ones in the circus, and everyone said they were just "too cute for +anything."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> + +<p>There were many more tricks done by the boys in the tent, and the circus +was a great success. Ben and the other clowns made lots of fun. They +threw water on one another, beat each other with cloth clubs, stuffed +with sawdust, which didn't hurt any more than a feather.</p> + +<p>"And now I will do my great jumping trick!" called Ben, "and then the +show will be over. I am going to jump over fourteen elephants and ten +camels."</p> + +<p>At the end of the tent was a long board, which sprang up and down like a +teeter tauter. It was called a spring-board, and some of the boys had +made their jumps from it, turning somersaults in the air, and falling +down in a pile of soft hay.</p> + +<p>Ben asked some of the boys to stand in a line at the end of the spring +board.</p> + +<p>"I'll just pretend these boys are elephants and camels," said Ben, "as +it's hard to get real camels and elephants this summer. But I will now +make my big jump."</p> + +<p>Ben went to the far end of the spring board. He gave a run down it, and +then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>jumped off the springy end. Up in the air he went, and, as he shot +forward, over the heads of the boys standing in a line, Ben turned first +one, then two, and then three somersaults in the air.</p> + +<p>"Oh, look at that!"</p> + +<p>"Say, that's great!"</p> + +<p>"How did he do it?"</p> + +<p>"He must be a regular circus performer!"</p> + +<p>"Do it again! Do it again!"</p> + +<p>Everyone was shouting at once, it seemed. Ben landed on a pile of soft +hay. He stood up, made a low bow, and kissed his hand to the audience, +as performers do in the circus.</p> + +<p>A strange man, who had come into the circus a little while before, +started toward Ben Hall. Ben stood there bowing and smiling until he saw +this man.</p> + +<p>"Come here a minute, Ben. I want to talk to you," said the man.</p> + +<p>But Ben, after one look at the stranger, gave a jump, crawled under the +tent and ran away, all dressed as he was in the clown suit.</p> + +<p>"Why—why! What did he do that for?" asked Bunny Brown, very much +surprised.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>BEN'S SECRET</h3> + + +<p>Everyone was looking at the place where Ben Hall had slid out under the +edge of the tent and run away. Why he had done it no one knew.</p> + +<p>Then all eyes were turned toward the strange man who had come into the +tent just in time to see Ben's big jump, and his three somersaults. The +man was a stranger. No one seemed to know him.</p> + +<p>This man stood for a moment, also looking at the place where Ben had +slipped under the tent. Then he cried out:</p> + +<p>"Well, he's got away again! I must catch him!"</p> + +<p>Then the man ran out of the tent.</p> + +<p>"What is it all about?" asked Mother Brown. "Is this a part of the +circus, Bunny?"</p> + +<p>But Bunny did not know; neither did his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>sister Sue. They were as much +surprised as anyone at Ben's strange act. And they did not know who the +man was, at the sight of whom Ben had seemed so frightened.</p> + +<p>"I'll see what it's about," said Grandpa Brown.</p> + +<p>He hurried out of the tent, but soon came back again.</p> + +<p>"Ben isn't in sight," Grandpa Brown said, "and that queer man is running +across the fields."</p> + +<p>"Is he chasing after Ben?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Well, he may be. But if I can't see Ben, I don't see how the man can, +either. I don't know what it all means."</p> + +<p>"Maybe the man was a Gypsy," said Sue, "and he wants to catch Ben, same +as the Gypsies took grandpa's horses."</p> + +<p>"Gypsies don't take boys and girls," said Mrs. Brown. "Besides, that man +didn't look like a Gypsy. There is something queer about it all."</p> + +<p>"I always said that boy, Ben, was queer," asserted Grandpa Brown. "He +has acted queerly from the time he came here so hun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>gry. But he was a +good boy, and he worked well, I'll say that for him. I hope he isn't in +trouble."</p> + +<p>"Will he—will he come back?" Sue wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, my dear," answered her grandfather. "I hope so."</p> + +<p>"I hope so, too!" declared Sue. "I like Ben."</p> + +<p>"He ran as soon as he saw that man," observed Bunker Blue.</p> + +<p>"Did he ever tell you anything about himself?" asked Mr. Brown. "You +were with Ben most of the time, Bunker."</p> + +<p>"No, sir, he never told me anything about himself. But he seemed to know +a lot about circuses. I asked him if he was ever with one, but he would +never tell me."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know that we can do anything," said grandpa. "If Ben +comes back we'll treat him right, and if he is in trouble we will help +him. But, since he is gone, there is no use trying to find him."</p> + +<p>The circus was over. The boys who had brought their pets to the show +took them home <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>again. It was now late afternoon, and Grandpa Brown said +the boys could leave the tents up until next day, as there was no sign +of a storm.</p> + +<p>"You can take them down then," he said to Bunker Blue. "My tent we'll +store away in the barn, until Bunny and Sue want to give another circus. +The big fair tent can also be taken down to-morrow and put away. But +everyone is too tired to do all that work to-night."</p> + +<p>That evening, in grandpa's farmhouse, after supper, nothing was talked +of but the circus, and what had happened at it. Everyone said it was the +best children's circus they had ever seen.</p> + +<p>"But poor Ben!" exclaimed Bunny. "I wonder where he is?"</p> + +<p>"Did he have his supper?" asked Sue.</p> + +<p>No one knew, for Ben had not come back. It was dark now. The cows and +horses had been fed. The chickens had had their supper, and gone to +roost long ago. Bunny, Sue and all the others had had a good meal. But +Ben was not around. Everyone felt sad.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I wonder why he ran away," pondered Bunker Blue, over and over again, +"I wonder why he ran away, as soon as he saw that man."</p> + +<p>No one knew.</p> + +<p>Early the next morning Bunny Brown and his sister Sue arose and came +down stairs to breakfast.</p> + +<p>"Did Ben come back?" was the first question they asked.</p> + +<p>"No," said Grandma Brown. "He didn't come back."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue.</p> + +<p>"It's too bad!" said Bunny. Then he crooked and wiggled one of his fat +little fingers at Sue. She knew what that meant. It meant Bunny had +something to whisper to her.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she asked, when grandma had gone out into the kitchen to +get some more bread and butter.</p> + +<p>"Hush! Don't tell anyone," whispered Bunny. "But we'll go and look for +him and bring him back."</p> + +<p>"Bring who back?"</p> + +<p>"Ben Hall. We'll go look for him, Sue."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But we don't know where to find him."</p> + +<p>"We'll take Splash," announced Bunny. "Splash likes Ben, and our dog +will find him. We'll go right after breakfast."</p> + +<p>And as soon as they had brushed their teeth, which they did after each +meal, Bunny Brown and his sister Sue started out to find Ben Hall, who +had run away from the circus the day before.</p> + +<p>Bunny and Sue did not want to go very far away from grandpa's house. +They, themselves, had been lost a number of times, and they did not want +this to happen again. But they thought there would be no harm in just +walking across the meadow where Ben had last been seen. From the meadow +grandpa's house was in plain sight, and if Bunny and Sue did not stray +into the wood, which was at the further side of the meadow, they could +not lose their way.</p> + +<p>"I hope we can find Ben," said Sue.</p> + +<p>"So do I," echoed Bunny. "Come on Splash, find Ben!"</p> + +<p>The big dog barked and ran on ahead.</p> + +<p>Bunker Blue, and some of the boys who had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>helped get up the circus, +were now taking down the big tent. It was to be folded up, put on a +wagon, and taken to the town hall where it was kept when not in use.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to be a circus man when I grow up," said Bunny, as he looked +back, and saw the white tent fluttering to the ground, as the ropes +holding it up were loosened.</p> + +<p>"I'm not," said Sue. "I—I'd be afraid of the wild animals. I'm just +going to ride in an automobile when I get big."</p> + +<p>"You can ride in mine," offered Bunny. "I'm going to have an automobile, +even if I am a circus man."</p> + +<p>Over the meadow went the two children and Splash their dog, looking for +Ben Hall. But they did not see him, nor did they see the strange man who +had run after him out of the tent. Bunny and Sue went almost to the +patch of woodland. Then they turned back, for they did not want to get +lost.</p> + +<p>"I guess we can't find him," said Bunny sadly.</p> + +<p>"No," agreed Sue. "Let's go back."</p> + +<p>When the children reached grandpa's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>house again, the big tent was down, +and Bunker and the other boys were gone. They were taking the tent back. +The smaller tent—the one Grandpa Brown had loaned—was still up.</p> + +<p>"Let's go in it and rest," said Bunny. "We can make believe we are +camping out."</p> + +<p>"All right," agreed Sue.</p> + +<p>Into the tent they went. All the wooden boxes, that had been used as +cages for the make-believe wild animals, had been taken out. There was +only some straw piled up in one corner.</p> + +<p>"Watch me jump!" cried Bunny. He gave a run and landed on something in +the pile of soft straw. Something in the straw grunted and yelled. Then +some one sat up. Bunny Brown rolled over and over out of the way.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh!" cried Sue. "What is it?"</p> + +<p>But she did not need to ask twice. She saw a big boy, dressed in a funny +clown's suit, standing up in the straw. Bunny was now sitting up, and +he, too, was looking at the clown.</p> + +<p>"Why—why," said Sue, "It's Ben! It's our Ben!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> + +<p>"So it is!" cried Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Ben, rubbing his eyes, for he had been asleep in the +straw when Bunny jumped on him. "Yes, I've come back. I stayed in the +field, under a haystack all night, but I couldn't stand it any longer. I +had to come back."</p> + +<p>"What'd you run away for?" asked Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Because I was afraid he'd catch me," Ben answered.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that—that man," whispered Bunny.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"He isn't here," said Sue. "Did you stay in this tent all the while, +Ben?"</p> + +<p>"No, Sue. I ran across the field when I saw that man looking at me, +after I made my big jump. I ran over to the woods and hid. Then, when it +got dark, I crept back and hid under the hay stack. A little while ago, +when I saw Bunker and the other boys drive away with the big tent, I +came back here. I'm awfully hungry!"</p> + +<p>"We'll get you something to eat," said Sue. "Won't we, Bunny?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Sure we will. But come on up to the house, Ben. That man isn't there, +and we won't let him hurt you. What's it all about, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"I guess I'll have to tell your folks my secret," Ben answered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, have you a secret, too?" asked Sue, clapping her hands. "How nice!"</p> + +<p>"No, it isn't very nice," said Ben. "But I guess I will go and ask your +grandmother for something to eat. I'm terribly hungry!"</p> + +<p>Holding the hands of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, Ben, the strange +boy, who had been so queerly found under the straw in the tent, walked +toward grandpa's house.</p> + +<p>"Well land sakes! Where'd you come from?" asked Grandma Brown, as she +saw him. "And such a looking sight! You look as if you'd slept in a barn +all night!"</p> + +<p>"I did—almost," said Ben, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Well, come in and get that clown suit off you," said Mrs. Brown. "Then +tell us all about it. What made you run away?"</p> + +<p>"I was afraid that man would get me," said Ben.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why should he want to get you?" asked Daddy Brown.</p> + +<p>"Because I ran away from his circus where I used to do tricks," Ben +answered. "That's my secret. I used to be a regular circus performer, +but I couldn't stand it any longer, and I ran away. I didn't want you to +know it, so I didn't tell you. But that man, who came into the tent when +I was doing the same jump I used to do in the regular circus—that man +knew me. I thought he had come to take me back, and I didn't want to go. +So I ran away."</p> + +<p>"You poor boy!" said Grandma Brown.</p> + +<p>There came a knock on the door, and when Mrs. Brown opened it there +stood the same man from whom Ben had run away the day before.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're back again I see!" said the man.</p> + +<p>Ben dropped his knife and fork on his plate, and looked around for a +place to hide. Everyone was silent, waiting for what would happen next.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>BACK HOME AGAIN</h3> + + +<p>"Now don't be afraid, Ben," said the man. "I'm not going to hurt you."</p> + +<p>"Are you—are you going to make me go back to the circus?" Ben asked +slowly.</p> + +<p>"Not unless you want to go, though we want you back with us very much, +for we have missed you," the man replied.</p> + +<p>"I'll not go back to be beaten the way I was!" cried Ben. "I can't stand +that. That's why I ran away."</p> + +<p>"You can just stay with us; can't he Mother?" pleaded Sue. "He can work +on grandpa's farm with Bunker Blue."</p> + +<p>"What does all this mean?" asked Grandpa Brown of the strange man who +had knocked at the door. "Are you after Ben?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, I am after Ben," was the answer, and the man smiled. "I have +been looking for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>him for a long time, and I am glad I have found him. I +will take him back with me if he will come, and I will make him a +promise that he will no more be whipped. I never knew anything about +that until after he had run away from my circus."</p> + +<p>"Did you really do that, Ben?" asked Bunny. "Run away?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. That was where I came from that night I begged a meal here—a +circus. But I'll go back, for I like being in a circus, if I'm not +beaten."</p> + +<p>"Tell us all about it," said grandpa.</p> + +<p>"I will," answered the man. "My name is James Hooper. I own a small +circus, with some other men, and we travel about the country, giving +performances in small towns and cities. This boy, Ben Hall, has been in +our show ever since he was a baby. His father and mother were both +circus people, but they died last year, and Ben, who had learned to do +many tricks, and who knew something about animals, was such a bright +chap that I kept him with us. I was going to make a circus performer of +him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And I wanted very much to be one—a clown," said Ben. "But the head +clown was so mean to me, and whipped me so much, that I made up my mind +to run away, and I did."</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I blame you," said Mr. Hooper. "I never knew that you +had such a hard time. I supposed you ran away just for fun, and I tried +to find you. I asked about you in all the places where we stopped, but +no one had seen you."</p> + +<p>"I have been here ever since I left your show," explained Ben. "I like +it here, but I like the circus better. How did you find me?"</p> + +<p>"Well, our circus is showing in a town about three miles from here," +said Mr. Hooper. "Over there, in that town, I heard about a little +circus some boys and girls were getting up here, and—"</p> + +<p>"Bunny and I got up the circus first," said Sue, "and then the big boys +made one, but we acted in it."</p> + +<p>"I see!" laughed Mr. Hooper. "Well, I heard about your circus over here, +so I came to ask if any of you had seen Ben. I walked into the tent, and +there I saw him doing the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>jump and somersaults he used to do in our +tent. I knew him right away, but before I could speak to him he ran +away.</p> + +<p>"I ran after him, hoping I could tell him how much we wanted him back, +but I could not catch up to him. So I went back to my circus, and made +up my mind I'd come back here again to-day. I'm glad I did, for now I've +found you, Ben."</p> + +<p>Ben told Mr. Hooper, just as he had told Bunny and Sue, about sleeping +all night out in the field, under a pile of hay, and then of creeping +back to sleep in the tent.</p> + +<p>"Well, do you want to come back with me, or stay here on the farm?" +asked Mr. Hooper. "I'll promise that you'll be well treated, Ben, and +the head clown, who was so mean to you, isn't with us any more. You +won't be whipped again, and you'll have a chance to become a head clown +yourself."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll come back with you," said the circus boy. "I'm very much +obliged to you, for all you've done for me," he said to Grandpa Brown +and Grandma Brown, "and I hope you won't be mad at me if I go away."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Not if you think it best to go," said grandpa. "You have been a good +boy while here, and you have more than earned your board. I don't like +to lose you, but if you want to be a clown, the circus is the best place +for you."</p> + +<p>"All his folks were circus people," said Mr. Hooper. "And when that's +the case the young folks nearly always stay in the same business. Ben +will make a good clown when he grows up, and he will be a good jumper, +too."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to be a circus man," said Bunny. "Can I be in your show, Mr. +Hooper?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll see about that when you get a little older. But you and +your sister can come and see our circus, any time you wish, for nothing. +I watched you two do your scarecrow and pumpkin dance, and you did it +very well."</p> + +<p>Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were pleased to hear this.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it was a pretty good circus for young folks to get up all by +themselves," said Grandpa Brown. "But how soon do you have to take Ben +away with you, Mr. Hooper?"</p> + +<p>"As soon as I can, Mr. Brown. Our show <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>is going to move on to-night, +and I'd like to have Ben back in his old place if you can let him go."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Grandpa Brown. "He can go. I hope you'll be happy, Ben."</p> + +<p>"I'll look well after him, and he shall have no more trouble," said Mr. +Hooper. Then Ben told what a hard time he had after he ran away from the +circus. He had to sleep in old barns, and under hay-stacks, and he had +very little to eat. And when he came to grandpa's house he did not tell +that he had run away from the show, for fear some one would make him go +back to the bad clown who beat him.</p> + +<p>But everything came out all right, you see, and Ben was happy once more. +Of course, Bunny and Sue felt sorry to have their friend leave them, but +it could not be helped.</p> + +<p>"But we'll be going back home ourselves pretty soon," said Daddy Brown.</p> + +<p>Bunker Blue and Ben Hall shook hands and said they hoped they would see +each other again.</p> + +<p>"And to think," said Bunker, "that you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>were from a circus all the time, +and never told us! But I sort of thought you were, for you knew so much +about ropes, and putting up tents, making tricks and acts and pretend +wild animals, and all that."</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Ben with a laugh, "sometimes it was pretty hard not to +do some of the other tricks I had learned in the circus. I didn't want +you to find out about me, but the secret came out, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Just like ours about the scarecrow and the pumpkin!" laughed Bunny +Brown. "Wasn't ours a good secret?"</p> + +<p>"It certainly was!" cried Mother Brown.</p> + +<p>That night Ben Hall said good-bye to Bunny, Sue and all the others, and +went back to the real circus with Mr. Hooper.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if we'll ever see him again?" asked Bunny, a little sadly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you will," said his father.</p> + +<p>The vacation of Bunny and Sue, on grandpa's farm was at an end. In a few +days they were to go back to their home, near the ocean.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but we have had such fun here; haven't we, Bunny?" cried Sue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Indeed we have," he said. "Jolly good fun!"</p> + +<p>"I wonder what we'll do next?" Sue asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," answered her brother.</p> + +<p>But, as I happen to know, I'll tell you. Bunny and Sue went on another +journey, and you may read all about it in the next book in this series, +which will be named: "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Aunt Lu's City +Home."</p> + +<p>In that book I'll tell you all the funny things the little boy and girl +saw, and did, when they were in the big city of New York. It was quite +different from being on grandpa's farm in the country.</p> + +<p>One morning, about two weeks after the play-circus had been given, and +Ben Hall had gone back to the real show, to learn to be a clown, Bunker +Blue brought the great big automobile up to the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>"All aboard!" cried Bunker. "All aboard for Bellemere and Sandport Bay! +Come on, Bunny and Sue!"</p> + +<p>Into the automobile, that was like a little house on wheels, climbed +Bunny and Sue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>Mr. and Mrs. Brown also got in. Bunker sat on the front +seat to steer. There were good things to eat in the automobile, and the +little beds were all made up, with freshly ironed sheets, so when night +came, everyone would have a good sleep. Splash sat up on the front seat +with Bunker.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye! Good-bye!" called Bunny and Sue, waving their hands out of a +window.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye!" answered grandma and Grandpa Brown.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye!" called the hired man.</p> + +<p>"Bow-wow!" barked Splash.</p> + +<p>"Chug-chug!" went the automobile, and, after a safe and pleasant +journey, Bunny Brown and his sister Sue safely reached home, ready for +new fun and fresh adventures which they had in plenty. And so we will +all say good-bye to them.</p> + + +<h2>THE END</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES</h2> + + +<h3>By LAURA LEE HOPE</h3> + +<div class='center'>Author of the Popular "Bobbsey Twins" Books</div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'>Wrapper and text illustrations drawn by</div> + +<div class='center'><big>FLORENCE ENGLAND NOSWORTHY</big></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b>12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING</b></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>These stories by the author of the "Bobbsey Twins" Books are eagerly +welcomed by the little folks from about five to ten years of age. Their +eyes fairly dance with delight at the lively doings of inquisitive +little Bunny Brown and his cunning, trustful sister Sue.</p> + +<p>Bunny was a lively little boy, very inquisitive. When he did anything, +Sue followed his leadership. They had many adventures, some comical in +the extreme.</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Bunny Brown Longer List"> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOW</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><span class="smcap">Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</span></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH SERIES</h2> + + +<h3>By GERTRUDE W. MORRISON</h3> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b>12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING</b></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>Here is a series full of the spirit of high school life of to-day. The +girls are real flesh-and-blood characters, and we follow them with +interest in school and out. There are many contested matches on track +and field, and on the water, as well as doings in the classroom and on +the school stage. There is plenty of fun and excitement, all clean, pure +and wholesome.</p> + + +<div><br />THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH<br /> +Or Rivals for all Honors.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A stirring tale of high school life, full of fun, with +a touch of mystery and a strange initiation.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON LAKE LUNA<br /> +Or The Crew That Won.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Telling of water sports and fun galore, and of fine +times in camp.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH AT BASKETBALL<br /> +Or The Great Gymnasium Mystery.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Here we have a number of thrilling contests at +basketball and in addition, the solving of a mystery +which had bothered the high school authorities for a +long while.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON THE STAGE<br /> +Or The Play That Took the Prize.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>How the girls went in for theatricals and how one of +them wrote a play which afterward was made over for the +professional stage and brought in some much-needed +money.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND FIELD<br /> +Or The Girl Champions of the School League</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>This story takes in high school athletics in their most +approved and up-to-date fashion. Full of fun and +excitement.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH IN CAMP<br /> +Or The Old Professor's Secret.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The girls went camping on Acorn Island and had a +delightful time at boating, swimming and picnic +parties.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><span class="smcap"><b>Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</b></span></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES</h2> + + +<h3>By LAURA LEE HOPE</h3> + +<div class='center'>Author of the "Bobbsey Twin Books" and "Bunny Brown" Series.</div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b>12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING</b></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>These tales take in the various adventures participated in by several +bright, up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. They are clean and +wholesome, free from sensationalism, absorbing from the first chapter to +the last.</p> + + +<div>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE<br /> +Or Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Telling how the girls organized their Camping and +Tramping Club, how they went on a tour, and of various +adventures which befell them.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE<br /> +Or Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>One of the girls becomes the proud possessor of a motor +boat and invites her club members to take a trip down +the river to Rainbow Lake, a beautiful sheet of water +lying between the mountains.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR<br /> +Or The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>One of the girls has learned to run a big motor car, +and she invites the club to go on a tour to visit some +distant relatives. On the way they stop at a deserted +mansion and make a surprising discovery.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP +Or Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In this story, the scene is shifted to a winter season. +The girls have some jolly times skating and ice +boating, and visit a hunters' camp in the big woods.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA.<br /> +Or Wintering in the Sunny South.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The parents of one of the girls have bought an orange +grove in Florida, and her companions are invited to +visit the place. They take a trip into the interior, +where several unusual things happen.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW<br /> +Or The Box that Was Found in the Sand.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The girls have great fun and solve a mystery while on +an outing along the New England coast.</p></div> + + +<div><br />THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND<br /> +Or A Cave and What it Contained.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A bright, healthful story, full of good times at a +bungalow camp on Pine Island.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b><span class="smcap">Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</span></b></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS</h2> + + +<div class='center'>For Little Men and Women</div> + +<h3>By LAURA LEE HOPE</h3> + +<div class='center'>Author of "The Bunny Brown" Series, Etc.</div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b>12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING</b></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>Copyright publications which cannot be obtained elsewhere. Books that +charm the hearts of the little ones, and of which they never tire.</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Bobbsey's Longer List"> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b><span class="smcap">Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</span></b></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS SERIES</h2> + + +<h3>By VICTOR APPLETON</h3> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b>12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING</b></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> +<p>Moving pictures and photo plays are famous the world over, and in this +line of books the reader is given a full description of how the films +are made—the scenes of little dramas, indoors and out, trick pictures +to satisfy the curious, soul-stirring pictures of city affairs, life in +the Wild West, among the cowboys and Indians, thrilling rescues along +the seacoast, the daring of picture hunters in the jungle among savage +beasts, and the great risks run in picturing conditions in a land of +earthquakes. The volumes teem with adventures and will be found +interesting from first chapter to last.</p> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Moving Picture Boys"> +<tr><td align='left'>THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS<br /> Or Perils of a Great City Depicted.<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE WEST<br /> Or Taking Scenes Among the Cowboys and Indians.<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE COAST<br /> Or Showing the Perils of the Deep.<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE JUNGLE<br /> Or Stirring Times Among the Wild Animals.<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN EARTHQUAKE LAND<br /> Or Working Amid Many Perils.<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AND THE FLOOD<br /> Or Perilous Days on the Mississippi.<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT PANAMA<br /> Or Stirring Adventures Along the Great Canal.<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA<br /> Or The Treasure of the Lost Ship.<br /><br /></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b><span class="smcap">Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</span></b></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH SERIES</h2> + +<h3>By GRAHAM B. FORBES</h3> + + +<p>Never was there a cleaner, brighter, more manly boy than Frank Allen, +the hero of this series of boys' tales, and never was there a better +crowd of lads to associate with than the students of the School. All +boys will read these stories with deep interest. The rivalry between the +towns along the river was of the keenest, and plots and counterplots to +win the champions, at baseball, at football, at boat racing, at track +athletics, and at ice hockey, were without number. Any lad reading one +volume of this series will surely want the others.</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="The Boys of Columbia High"> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> Or The All Around Rivals of the School<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE DIAMOND</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> Or Winning Out by Pluck<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE RIVER</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> Or The Boat Race Plot that Failed<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE GRIDIRON</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> Or The Struggle for the Silver Cup<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE ICE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> Or Out for the Hockey Championship<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN TRACK ATHLETICS</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> Or A Long Run that Won<br /><br /></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN WINTER SPORTS</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> Or Stirring Doings on Skates and Iceboats<br /><br /></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>12mo. Illustrated. Handsomely bound in cloth, with +cover design and wrappers in colors.</b></p></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<div class='center'><b><span class="smcap">Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</span></b></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> + +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> + +<p>Varied usage of — and —— were retained as were haystack, hay stack and hay-stack.</p> + +<p>Extraneous punctuation was removed. Such as "No, Ned Johnson has a dog. +"We can ...</p> + +<p>Incorrect punctuation repaired. 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