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diff --git a/17878.txt b/17878.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a0375e --- /dev/null +++ b/17878.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6427 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue Giving a Show, by +Laura Lee Hope + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue Giving a Show + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Illustrator: Walter S. Rogers + +Release Date: February 28, 2006 [EBook #17878] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER *** + + + + +Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Emmy and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + +BUNNY BROWN +AND HIS SISTER SUE +GIVING A SHOW + +BY +LAURA LEE HOPE + +AUTHOR OF +THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES, THE BOBBSEY +TWINS SERIES, THE OUTDOOR GIRLS +SERIES, ETC. + +Illustrated + +NEW YORK +GROSSET & DUNLAP +PUBLISHERS + + [Illustration: BUNNY BEGAN TURNING OVER AND OVER. + _Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Giving a Show_. _Frontispiece_ + (_Page 222_)] + + + + +BOOKS + +By LAURA LEE HOPE + +_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated._ + + +=THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES= + + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOW + + +=THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES= + + THE BOBBSEY TWINS + THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE + THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME + THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY + THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND + THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA + THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN WASHINGTON + + +=THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES= + + THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE + THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE + THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR + THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP + THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA + THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW + THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND + THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN WAR SERVICE + THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE + +=GROSSET & DUNLAP= +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + +Copyright, 1919, by +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Giving a Show_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. "LOOK AT THE SKYLIGHT!" 1 + + II. "LET'S GIVE A SHOW!" 13 + + III. TALKING IT OVER 24 + + IV. THE CLIMBING BOY 33 + + V. A COLD LITTLE SINGER 45 + + VI. GENERAL WASHINGTON 55 + + VII. "DOWN ON THE FARM" 64 + + VIII. THE SCENERY 74 + + IX. BUNNY DOES A TRICK 83 + + X. GETTING READY 93 + + XI. THE STRANGE VOICE 108 + + XII. A SURPRISE 116 + + XIII. "THEY'RE GONE" 124 + + XIV. SPLASH HANGS ON 131 + + XV. TICKETS FOR THE SHOW 137 + + XVI. UPSIDE DOWNSIDE BUNNY 145 + + XVII. SUE'S QUEER SLIDE 154 + +XVIII. MR. TREADWELL'S WIG 162 + + XIX. UNCLE BILL 171 + + XX. THE DRESS REHEARSAL 181 + + XXI. "WHERE IS BUNNY?" 197 + + XXII. ACT I 206 + +XXIII. ACT II 220 + + XXIV. ACT III 231 + + XXV. THE FINAL CURTAIN 239 + + + + +BUNNY BROWN + +AND HIS SISTER SUE + +GIVING A SHOW + + + + +CHAPTER I + +"LOOK AT THE SKYLIGHT!" + + +With a joyful laugh, her curls dancing about her head, while her brown +eyes sparkled with fun, a little girl danced through the hall and into +the dining room where her brother was eating a rather late breakfast of +buckwheat cakes and syrup. + +"Oh, Bunny, it's doing it! It's come! Oh, won't we have fun!" cried the +little girl. + +Bunny Brown looked up at his sister Sue, holding a bit of syrup-covered +cake on his fork. + +"What's come?" he asked. "Has Aunt Lu come to visit us, or did Wango, +the monkey, come up on our front steps?" + +"No, it isn't Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey and Aunt Lu didn't come, but I +wish she had," answered Sue. "But it's come--a lot of it, and I'm so +glad! Hurray!" + +Bunny Brown put down his fork and looked more carefully at his sister. + +"What are you playing?" he asked, thinking perhaps it was some new game. + +"I'm not playing anything!" declared Sue. "I'm so glad it's come! Now we +can have some fun! Just look out the window, Bunny Brown!" + +"But what has come?" asked the little boy, who was a year older than his +sister Sue. He was a bright chap, with merry blue eyes and they opened +wide now, trying to see what Sue was so excited about. + +"What is it?" asked Bunny Brown once more. + +"It's snow!" cried Sue. "It's the first snow, and it's soon going to be +Thanksgiving and Christmas and all like that! And we can get out our +sleds, and we can go skating and make snow men and--and--and----" + +But she just had to stop. She was all out of breath, and she didn't seem +to have any words left with which to talk to Bunny. + +"Oh! Snow!" exclaimed Bunny, and he said; it in such a funny way that +Sue laughed. + +Just then in came her mother from the kitchen where she had been baking +more cakes for her little boy. + +"Oh, it's you, is it, Sue?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Do you want some more +breakfast?" + +"No, thank you, Mother. I had mine. I just came in to tell Bunny it's +snowing. And we can have a lot of fun, can't we?" + +"Well, you children do manage to have a lot of fun, one way or another," +said Mrs. Brown, with a smile. + +"Is it snowing, Mother?" asked Bunny, too excited now to want to finish +his breakfast. + +"Yes, it really is," answered Mrs. Brown. "I was so busy getting enough +cakes baked for you that I didn't notice the snow much. But, as Sue +says, it is coming down quite fast." + +"Hurray!" cried Bunny, even as Sue had done. "Do you think there will be +lots of the snow?" + +"Well, it looks as though there might be quite a storm for the first +snow of the season," replied the mother of Bunny Brown and his sister +Sue. "It's a bit early this year, too. It's almost two weeks until +Thanksgiving and here it is snowing. I'm afraid we're going to have a +hard winter." + +"With lots of snow and ice, Mother?" asked Bunny. + +"Yes. And with cold weather that isn't good for poor folks." + +"Oh, I'm glad!" cried Bunny. "Not about the poor folks, though," he +added quickly, as he saw his mother look at him in surprise. "But I'm +glad there'll be lots of ice. Sue and I can go skating." + +"And there'll be lots of ice for ice-cream next summer," added Sue. + +Mrs. Brown laughed. Then, as she saw Bunny racing to the window with +Sue, to push aside the curtains and look out at the falling white +flakes, she said: + +"Come back and finish your breakfast, Bunny. I want to clear off the +table." + +"I want to see the snow, first," replied the little boy. "Anyhow, I +guess I've had enough cakes." + +"Oh, and I just brought in some nice, hot, brown ones!" exclaimed Mrs. +Brown. + +"I'll help eat 'em!" offered Sue, and though she had had her breakfast +a little while before, she now ate part of a second one, helping her +brother. + +It was Saturday, and, as there was no school, Mrs. Brown had allowed +both children to sleep a little later than usual. Sue had been up first, +and, after eating her breakfast and playing around the house, she had +gone to the window to look out and wish that Bunny would get up to play +and have fun with her. + +Then she had seen the first snow of the season and had run into the +dining room to find her brother there eating his late meal. + +"May we go out in the snow and play?" asked Bunny, when he had finished +the last of the brown cakes and the sweet syrup. + +"Yes, if you put on your boots and your warm coats. You don't want to +get cold, you know, or you can't go to the play in the Opera House this +afternoon." + +"Oh, we've got to see that!" cried Bunny. "I 'most forgot; didn't you, +Sue?" + +"Yes," replied the little girl, "I did. Maybe it will snow so hard that +they can't have the show, like once it rained so hard we couldn't play +circus in the tent Grandpa put up for us in the lot." + +"Yes, it did rain hard," agreed Bunny. "And it's snowing hard," he +added, as he squirmed into his coat and again looked out of the window. +"Will it snow so hard they can't give the show, Mother?" he asked. + +"Oh, I think not," answered Mrs. Brown. "This play isn't going to be in +a tent, you know. It's in the Opera House, and they give shows there +whether it rains or snows. I think you may both count on going to the +show this afternoon." + +"Oh, what fun!" cried Bunny. + +"Lots of fun!" echoed Sue. + +Then out they ran to play amid the swirling, white flakes; and it is +hard to say whether they had more fun in the first snow or in thinking +about the play they were to see in the Opera House that afternoon. + +At any rate Bunny Brown and his sister Sue certainly had fun playing out +in the yard of their house and in the street in front. At first there +was not snow enough to do more than make slides on the sidewalk, and the +little boy and girl did this for a time. They made two long slides, and +men and women coming along smiled to see the brother and sister at play. +But these same men and women were careful not to step on the slippery +slides made by Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, for they did not want to +slip and fall. + +As for Bunny and Sue, they did not mind whether they fell or not. Half +the time they were tumbling down and the other half getting up again. +But they managed to do some sliding, too. + +"Come on!" cried Bunny, after a bit. "There's enough now to make +snowballs!" + +"Could we make a snow house, too?" asked his sister. + +"No, there isn't enough for that. But we can make snowballs and throw +'em!" + +"Don't throw any at me!" begged Sue. "'Cause if you did, an' the snow +went down my neck, it would melt and I'd get wet an' then I couldn't go +to the show an' you'd be sorry!" + +This was rather a long sentence for Sue, and she was a bit out of breath +when she had finished. + +"No, I won't throw any snowballs at you," promised Bunny. + +"Oh, here come Harry Bentley and Charlie Star!" exclaimed Sue. + +"I'll throw snowballs at them!" decided Bunny. "Hi!" he called to two of +his boy chums. "Let's throw snowballs!" + +"We're with you!" answered Charlie. + +"I'm not going to play snowball fight," decided Sue. "I see Mary Watson +and Sadie West. I'm going to play with them." + +So she trotted off to make little snow dolls with her girl friends, +while Bunny, with Charlie and Harry, threw soft snowballs at one +another. The children were having such fun that it seemed only a few +minutes since breakfast when Mrs. Brown called: + +"Bunny! Sue! Come in and get washed for lunch. And you have to get +dressed if you're going to the play!" + +"Oh, we're going, sure!" exclaimed Bunny. "Are you?" he asked Charlie +and Harry. + +"Yes," they replied, and when Sue ran toward her house with Bunny she +told her brother that Sadie and Mary were also going to the play that +afternoon in the town Opera House. + +"Oh, we'll have a lot of fun!" cried Bunny. "Will it be a funny play?" +he asked Uncle Tad, who had promised to take the two children. + +"Well, I guess it'll be funny for you two youngsters," was the answer of +the old soldier. "But I guess it isn't much of a theatrical company that +would come to Bellemere to give a show so near the beginning of winter. +But it will be all right for boys and girls." + +"It's a show for the benefit of our Red Cross Chapter," said Mrs. Brown. +"That's why I asked you to take the children, Uncle Tad. I have to be +with the other ladies of the committee, to help take tickets and look +after things." + +"Oh, I'll look after Bunny and Sue!" exclaimed Uncle Tad. "I'll see that +they have a good time!" + +Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were so excited because of the first snow +storm and because of thinking of the play they were to see, that they +could hardly dress. But at last they were ready, and they set off in the +family automobile, which Uncle Tad drove. Mrs. Brown went along also, +but Mr. Brown had to stay at the office. The office was at the dock +where he owned a fish and boat business. + +It was still snowing, and the ground was now quite white, when the +automobile drew up at the Opera House, which was where all sorts of +shows and entertainments were given in Bellemere, the home of the Brown +family. + +"We can have a lot more fun in the snow to-morrow!" whispered Sue, as +she and her brother passed in, Uncle Tad handing the tickets to Mrs. +Gordon, who smiled at them. She was one of the committee of ladies who, +like Mrs. Brown, were helping with the entertainment. There were to be +speeches by some of the men of Bellemere, but what would be more +enjoyable to the young folks was the performance of a number of +vaudeville actors and actresses, said to come all the way from New York. + +"There's a jiggler who holds a cannon ball on his neck," whispered +Charlie Star to Bunny, when the Brown children had found their seats, +which were near those of some of their friends. + +"He means a juggler," said George Watson. + +"Yes, that's it--a juggler," agreed Charlie. + +"And there are a little boy and girl who do tricks and sing," added +Mary Watson. "I saw their pictures." + +"Oh, it'll be lovely!" sighed Sue. "I wish it would begin!" + +The boys, girls and grown folks were still coming in and taking their +seats. The curtain hid the stage. And how the children did wonder what +was going on behind that piece of painted canvas! The musicians were +just beginning to "tune up," as Uncle Tad said. The ushers were hurrying +to and fro, seating the late-comers. One of the men who worked in the +Opera House, sweeping it out, attending to the fires in winter, and +sometimes selling tickets, got a long pole to open a skylight +ventilator, to let in some fresh air. + +Just how it happened no one seemed to know, but suddenly the long pole +slipped and there was a crash and tinkle of glass. Nearly every one +jumped in his or her seat, and some one cried: + +"Look at the skylight! It's going to fall!" + +Bunny Brown, his sister Sue, and every one else looked up. True enough, +something had gone wrong with the skylight the man had tried to open. +It seemed to have slipped from its place in the frame where it was +fastened in the roof, and the big window of metal and glass looked as +though about to fall on the heads of the audience directly under it. + +"Oh, Bunny, let's run!" cried Sue. "It's going to drop right on us!" + +And truly it did seem so. Slowly the big skylight was slipping from its +fastenings, and several in the audience screamed. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"LET'S GIVE A SHOW!" + + +Just when it seemed as if a bad accident would happen and that some one +would be hurt by the fall of the roof-window, the man who had been using +the long pole thrust it under the edge of the sliding skylight and held +it there. Then he called: + +"I have it! I can keep it from falling until somebody gets up on the +roof and fixes it. Hurry up, though!" + +"I'll go up and fix it!" said another usher. "Guess the first snow was +too heavy for the skylight! Keep still, everybody!" he added. "There's +no danger now!" + +The man had to shout to be heard above the screams of the frightened and +excited people, but he made his voice carry to all parts of the Opera +House, and finally it became more quiet. Then a man stepped from behind +the curtain and stood on the front part of the stage. He held up his +hand to make the people know he wanted them to be quiet, and when his +voice could be heard he said: + +"There is no danger now. There was some, but it has passed. The man will +hold the skylight in place until it can be fastened. And while he is +doing that I wish those who are sitting under it would move quietly out +into the aisles. Don't crowd or rush. You children can pretend it is +like the fire drill you have at school." + +"Oh, we do have fire drill at our school, don't we, Bunny?" cried Sue, +in a rather loud voice. Her words carried to all parts of the theater +and many laughed. This laugh was just what was needed to make the people +forget their fright, and soon the place directly under the loosened +skylight was clear. Bunny and Sue, with Uncle Tad and their boy and girl +chums, moved out into the aisle, and soon the men began the work of +fastening the skylight back in place. And you may be sure they fastened +it tight. + +While this is being done I will take a few moments to tell my new +readers something about the two Brown children. As you may have guessed, +there are other volumes which come before this one. The first is called +"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue." + +Bunny and Sue lived with their father and mother in a pretty house in +the town of Bellemere. Bellemere was on the seacoast and also near a +small river. Mr. Brown was in the boat and fish business, and he owned a +dock, or wharf, on the bay and had his office there. He had many men to +help, and also a big boy, who was almost a man. The big boy's name was +Bunker Blue, and he was very good to Bunny and Sue. Living in the same +house with the Browns was Uncle Tad. He was Mr. Brown's uncle, but Bunny +and Sue thought they owned just as much of the dear old soldier as did +their father. Besides Uncle Tad, the children had other relations. They +had a grandfather and a grandmother, and also an aunt, Miss Lulu Baker, +who lived in a big city. + +Bunny and Sue Brown had many friends in Bellemere. Besides the few boys +and girls I have mentioned there were many others. And there was also +Jed Winkler, an old sailor who owned a monkey, and, lately, he had +bought a green parrot from an old shipmate of his. Jed Winkler had a +sister, a rather cross maiden lady who did not like the monkey very +much. And the monkey, whose name was Wango, seemed to know this, for he +was always playing tricks on Miss Winkler. + +The second volume of the series is called "Bunny Brown and His Sister +Sue on Grandpa's Farm." There, you can easily imagine, the little boy +and girl had lots of fun. During their visit to the farm they got up a +circus, and there is a book telling all about it. They had a real tent, +which their grandfather got for them, and in it they and some of their +friends gave a very funny performance. + +When Bunny and Sue went to Aunt Lu's city home they had many wonderful +times, and when they went on a vacation to Camp Rest-a-While so many +things happened near the beautiful lake that the children never tired +talking about them. + +It was after the children had spent such a happy time in the camp that +they went to the "Big Woods," as Bunny and Sue called them, and, after +that, their father and mother took them on an auto tour, when many +strange things happened. "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue and Their +Shetland Pony" is the name of the book just before the one you are +reading now, and after many adventures with the little horse the two +children planned for winter fun. Going to the show in the Opera House +was part of this fun. + +It did not take very long for the man who had gone up to the roof to fix +the broken skylight. The children could see him away up above their +heads as they sat in the theater, or stood there, for those who had +places directly under the skylight would not use the seats until the +roof-window was fixed. + +"There! It's all right now," said the man on the stage. "There is no +more danger. Take your seats and the show will begin." + +From all over the Opera House you could have heard delighted "Ohs!" and +"Ahs!" from the children. There was a rustling of programs, a swish of +skirts, several coughs, and one or two sneezes. Then the fiddles +squeaked, there was rumble and boom of the drums, and the orchestra +played the Star-Spangled Banner. + +Every one stood up until the national air was ended and then the +musicians began to play a dance tune which was so lively that the feet +of every one, old and young, seemed to be tapping the floor. + +Then came a pause, the lights in the Opera House were turned low, and at +last the curtain went up. Bunny Brown and his sister Sue held tightly to +the arms of their seats, lest they might slip out during the excitement +that was to follow. And it was exciting for the children, as you may +easily guess. + +The first act was the juggler, or the "jiggler," as one of the boys had +called him. He placed a pole on his chin, and on top of the pole a glass +of water. Then with three balls he did a number of odd tricks. + +"And all the while, mind you!" exclaimed Bunny, telling his father about +it afterward, "the man held the water, on the pole on his chin and he +didn't drop it once." + +"Yes, that must have been wonderful," said Daddy Brown. "If he had +dropped the pole he'd have broken the glass, wouldn't he?" + +"And he would have spilled the water, too!" exclaimed Bunny's sister. +"And it was real water!" + +"No!" cried Mr. Brown, in fun, making believe he didn't believe this. + +"Yes it was, really!" declared Sue, and Bunny nodded his head also. + +The juggler did many other tricks, even tossing balls up into the air +and letting them fall in a tall silk hat he wore. The hat had no crown +to it, but it had a funny little door, or opening, cut in front, and as +fast as the juggler would toss the rubber balls into his hat, they would +roll out of the little door in front. My, how the children did laugh! +But the juggler never even smiled. + +The next act was that of an old man who, on the programme, was called an +"Impersonator." + +"What's that mean?" asked Bunny of Uncle Tad. "Does he do juggles too?" + +"No, he dresses up like some persons you may have seen in pictures. He +pretends he's General Washington, or the President, or some great +soldier. He tries to look as much like these persons as he can, so they +call him an impersonator. Watch, and you'll see." + +When the "Impersonator" came out on the stage he did not look like any +one but himself. He made a few remarks, but Bunny and Sue did not pay +much attention. They were more interested in what he was going to do. +The man, who wore a black suit, "like the minister's," as Mary Watson +whispered to Sue, suddenly stepped over to a little table, on which were +two electric lights and a looking glass. + +The children could not see exactly what the man did. They noticed that +his hands were working very quickly, but he had his back toward them. +All at once his black hair seemed to turn white, and in a moment he +caught up from a chair a coat of blue and gold; he slipped this on. Then +he turned suddenly and faced the audience. + +"Oh, it's George Washington!" cried a boy, and the audience laughed. +And, to tell the truth, the man on the stage did look a great deal like +our first president, as you see him in pictures. The man had put a white +wig on over his black hair, and had put on the kind of coat George +Washington used to wear. + +I wish I had time to tell you all the different persons this actor made +up to appear like, but I can mention only a few. From Washington he +turned himself into Lincoln, and then into Roosevelt. Then he made up +like some of the French and English generals, and afterward he made +himself look like General Grant, smoking a cigar. + +Every one applauded as the man bowed himself off the stage. There was a +thrill of excitement when the next number was announced. A little girl +was shown on the stage. She did not seem much older than Sue, but of +course she was. She began to sing in a sweet, childish voice, and in the +midst of her song a boy dressed in a suit of bright spangles suddenly +appeared from the side. Without a word the boy began turning handsprings +and somersaults and doing flipflops in front of the girl. + +Suddenly she stopped her song, stamped her little foot, and in pretended +anger cried: + +"What do you mean by coming out here and spoiling my singing act?" + +"Why, the man back there," said the boy, pointing behind the scenes, +"told me to come out here and amuse the people," and he seemed, to smile +right at Bunny Brown and Sue. + +"He told you to come out and amuse the people, did he? Well, what does +he think I'm doing?" demanded the girl. + +"I don't know. I guess he thinks maybe you're making 'em cry!" was the +boy acrobat's grinning answer. + +"Well, I like that! The idea!" exclaimed the girl. "I'm going right back +and tell him I won't sing another song in this show! The idea!" and she +hurried off the stage. + +"Oh, won't she sing any more?" whispered Sue to Uncle Tad. + +"Yes," answered the soldier with a smile. "That's just part of the +act--to make it more interesting." + +"Now that she is out of the way I'll have more room to do my flipflops," +said the boy acrobat, and he started to do all sorts of tricks. But, +just as Uncle Tad had said, the girl was only pretending, for pretty +soon she came back again with a prettier dress on, and she danced and +sang while the boy did handsprings to the delight of Bunny Brown, his +sister Sue, and all the others in the audience. + +I haven't room to tell you all that happened at the show that afternoon, +for this story is to be about a show Bunny and Sue gave. But I will +just say every one liked the entertainment, and when Bunny was coming +out, walking behind Sue, he suddenly said: + +"I know what we can do!" + +"What?" asked the little girl. + +"Let's give a show ourselves--like this!" Bunny pointed toward the +stage. + +Sue looked at Bunny to make sure he was not joking. Then she answered +and said: + +"We will! We'll give a show ourselves!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TALKING IT OVER + + +One evening two or three days after the performance in the Opera House, +where Bunny and Sue had so much enjoyed the impersonator, the juggler, +the boy acrobat, and the girl singer, a number of ladies called at the +home of Mrs. Brown. As it was early Bunny and Sue had not yet gone to +bed so they could hear the talk that went on. + +"I think we did very well, Mrs. Brown," said Mrs. West, the mother of +Sue's playmate, Sadie. "We cleared nearly two hundred dollars for our +Red Cross Chapter from the Opera House show." + +"That's splendid!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "I didn't think we would make +quite so much. But we could use still more money." + +"Yes, if we had more money we could do more good," said Mrs. Bentley. "I +don't suppose we could have another performance soon. The people would +not come." + +Bunny and Sue, who were in another room looking at picture books, +glanced at one another. Then they smiled. Bunny slid down off his chair, +followed by Sue. + +"Shall we tell 'em?" asked Bunny. + +"Yes," nodded Sue. + +So the two children walked slowly into the room where their mother and +the other ladies were talking about the Red Cross Society. Mrs. Brown +was just saying something. + +"No," she remarked, "I hardly believe we could arrange to give another +show right away. It would be too much like----" + +"Mother!" interrupted Bunny, speaking in a low voice. + +"Yes, Son!" answered Mrs. Brown. "But run away now, dear. Mother is very +busy. I'll speak to you in just a minute." + +"But we want to talk about the show, Mother," persisted Bunny. + +"Oh, but I haven't time," said Mrs. Brown with a smile. "You saw the +show, and that's enough. Now run away, like a good boy. And you and Sue +must soon get ready for bed." + +"But it's about another show, Mother!" insisted Bunny. "We heard what +you said, Sue and I did--and we want to help you get more money." + +"Isn't that sweet of them!" exclaimed Mrs. Bentley. + +"Well, our Red Cross Chapter certainly needs money," remarked Mrs. +Brown, with a sigh; "but I'm afraid you can't help us any, Bunny." + +"Oh, yes we can!" said Sue. + +"Why, what are you children thinking of?" asked Mrs. Brown, in some +surprise. "How can you help us get money for the Red Cross?" + +"By a show!" cried Bunny, and he almost shouted the words he was so +excited. "That's what we're going to do, Mother--give a show--me and +Sue--I mean Sue and I," he added quickly, as he saw his mother look +strangely at him, for she had often told him he must learn to speak +correctly. + +"What do the children mean?" asked Mrs. Newton. + +"I'll tell you!" went on Bunny, speaking very fast, for he feared he and +Sue would be sent to bed before they had a chance to explain. "We +thought of it after we saw the show in the Opera House. We boys and +girls can get up a show, and we can charge money to come in. We had a +circus once, in a tent, didn't we, Mother?" and Bunny appealed to Mrs. +Brown. + +"Yes, they once gave a show in a tent at their Grandpa's farm," said +Mrs. Brown. "And it was quite good, too, for children. But I'm afraid a +show like that, given in town here, wouldn't bring in much money for the +Red Cross, my dears," and she smiled at Bunny and Sue. + +"Oh, we weren't going to give a show like the circus one!" declared +Bunny. "This will be different! We'll have some singing, like the girl +did in the Opera House--I guess Sue can sing. And I can do some +somersaults, like those the boy did." + +"And maybe we could get Uncle Tad to dress up like General Grant or +Washington," added Sue. + +"They have it all thought out!" exclaimed Mrs. West, with a smile. + +"Oh, but that isn't all!" said Bunny. "There's lots of other things we +can do. We told some of the boys and girls about it and they want to be +in it. Please, Mother, couldn't Sue and I get up a show?" + +"No, my dears, I don't believe you could," Mrs. Brown answered with +another smile. "It is very good of you to want to help the Red Cross, +but getting up a show is very hard work. I hardly think little boys and +girls could do it." + +"If ever we big folks get up another show we'll let you children have +part in it," promised Mrs. Star. + +"Oh, but we want to give a show of our own!" said Bunny. "And I guess we +can, too. How much does it cost to buy the Opera House?" he asked. + +"Oh, you don't have to buy it to give a show," said Mrs. West. "It can +be hired for one or two nights. But when are you going to give your +show?" she asked Bunny. + +"Maybe 'bout Christmas," he said. "Folks have more money then, and we +could get more for your Red Cross. Please, Mother, mayn't we give a +show?" + +"Oh, well, I'll see about it," said Mrs. Brown, more with the idea of +getting Bunny and his sister off to bed than because she really thought +they could ever give a show. She had an idea they would forget all +about it by morning. + +"Oh, goodie!" cried Sue, for when her mother said: "I'll see about it," +it generally meant that something would happen. But of course giving a +show was different, even though Bunny and Sue had once held a circus. +You may read about that in the book of which I have spoken. + +"Well, trot along to bed now, my dears," said Mrs. Brown. "We ladies +have business to attend to. We'll talk about your show to-morrow." + +"It's going to be a fine one," declared Bunny. "I'm going to learn how +to do some back somersaults like that boy's on the stage." + +"Well, be careful you don't get hurt," begged Mrs. West. + +"Cute little dears, aren't they," said Mrs. Bentley, as Bunny and his +sister Sue went out of the room. + +"I should think they would keep you busy trying to guess what they will +do next, Mrs. Brown," remarked Mrs. Star. + +"They do," sighed the mother of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. But she +smiled as she sighed, for her little boy and girl never made her any +real trouble. + +"Do you think they really will give a show?" asked Mrs. Bentley. + +"You never can tell," was Mrs. Brown's answer. "We didn't think they'd +actually give a circus performance, but they did. However, a show in a +real theater is quite different, and I hardly believe Bunny and Sue will +go on with the idea." + +But Bunny and Sue did--at least they started talking it over the first +thing next day, and when school was over quite a gathering of boys and +girls assembled in a room over the Brown garage. + +"Now, girls and fellows," said Bunny, as he stood in front of the crowd +of his playmates, who were seated on old boxes, broken chairs, and other +things stored away in the garage, "we're going to get up a show to make +money for the Red Cross." + +"Do you mean a make-believe show, and charge five pins to come in?" +asked Harry Bentley. + +"No, I mean a real show, like in a theater, and charge real money," +went on Bunny. "Pins aren't any good for the Red Cross. They get all the +pins they want. They need money--my mother said so. Now we could get up +a regular acting play--like that one we saw at the Opera House. We could +have some singing in it, and some jiggling and some of us could do +tricks and stand on our heads." + +"Going to have any animals in it?" one boy wanted to know. + +"Yes, we could," answered Bunny. "They have animals on the stage just +like in a circus, only it's different, of course. We could have our dog +and cat in it." + +"I've got a goat!" cried another boy. "He butts you with his horns, only +maybe I could cure him of that." + +"We could use Toby, our Shetland pony," added Sue. "He eats sugar out of +my hand." + +"And we could have my trained white mice," said Charlie Star. + +"If you have mice in it I'm not going to play!" exclaimed Sadie West. "I +don't like mice at all!" + +"Neither do I!" added Jennie Harris. + +"Well, we could get Mr. Jed Winkler's parrot, maybe," suggested Bunny. + +"And his monkey!" some one added. + +"Oh, yes!" cried all the children. + +Suddenly the door of the room opened and in burst Tom Milton. + +"Say!" he cried, "Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey is loose in Mr. Raymond's +hardware store, and you ought to see the place! Come on! Mr. Jed +Winkler's monkey is loose again!" and he jumped up and down he was so +excited. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CLIMBING BOY + + +Tom Milton had been invited by Bunny Brown to come to the meeting in the +room over the garage and talk about the play which Bunny and his sister +wanted to give. But, for some reason or other, Tom had not come with the +other children. Many, including Bunny, had wondered what kept Tom away, +but now, when Tom rushed in with the news that Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey +was loose, none of the children thought of anything but the long-tailed +animal with his funny, wrinkled face. + +"How'd he get loose?" asked Bunny Brown, as he jumped down off a box on +which he had been standing. + +"Did he hurt any one?" asked Sue. + +"Is he smashing everything in Mr. Raymond's store?" Charlie Star wanted +to know. + +"I should say so! You ought to see!" cried Tom. "I was coming past on my +way here when I heard a lot of yells and saw a big crowd in front of the +store. I looked in, and the monkey was banging a frying pan on a coffee +grinder and making a big racket. Mr. Raymond was trying to get him down +off a high shelf, but Wango wouldn't come. Then I ran on here to tell +you about it." + +"I'm glad you did," said Bunny Brown. + +"We'll have this meeting again after we see the monkey," he said. "The +meeting is--it's--er--well, I don't know what it is my mother says when +her meetings are stopped, but this meeting about the show we're going to +give, is stopped while we go to see Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey." + +"Oh, won't it be fun to see him drum with a frying pan!" exclaimed Sue. + +"Maybe he won't be doing that when we get there," said Tom Milton. "But +I guess he'll be doing something just as good." + +"That monkey is always doing something," declared Charlie Star. "How'd +he get loose, Tom?" + +"Don't know!" + +"Maybe Miss Winkler let him loose," suggested Sadie West. "She doesn't +like Jed's monkey." + +"And I guess she doesn't like his parrot very much, either. It makes a +lot more noise than her canary bird," said Mary Watson. "I was in there +the other day, and the parrot screeched like anything!" + +"Well, come on, we'll go see the monkey!" called Sue. + +There was a scramble among the children for hats and coats, for the +weather was cold, though there had been no more snow storms since the +first one. As Bunny, Sue, and the others passed along the side of the +house on their way out of the yard, Mrs. Brown called to them. + +"Where are you going, children?" she asked. + +"To see Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey," answered Bunny. + +"Are you going to have him in your show?" Mrs. Brown wanted to know, for +she had not forgotten the circus the children once gave. + +"We were talking about it," explained Sue, "when Tom Milton come and +told us the monkey was loose." + +"And he is in the hardware store," added Bunny. "We're going to see +him!" he cried, his eyes shining. + +"Well, button up your coats, for it's cold," warned Mrs. Brown. "I +guess this will be the end of the show business," she added to Mrs. +Watson who had stopped in for a few minutes' talk. "The children will +forget all about their play after they see the monkey. And I shall be +just as well pleased. Their circus was fun, but it meant a lot of work, +and if they give a show, as Bunny and Sue talk of doing, it will mean +more work." + +"I don't believe they'll do it," answered Mrs. Watson. + +But she hardly knew Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. + +On to the hardware store hurried the group of children. As soon as they +turned the corner of the street leading to Mr. Raymond's place they saw +a crowd in front of the store. + +"Oh, come on! Hurry!" cried Bunny. "Maybe he'll be all through doing +things when we get there! Hurry!" + +The boys and girls began to run, and when they reached the store they +heard, from inside, a clanging and crashing sound. + +"I guess Wango is doing things yet!" cried Sue. + +"I guess so," agreed Tom Milton. "Come on, let's go in the side door and +we can see better," he proposed. + +Tom seemed to know the best way to this "free show," and he led the +others. Bunny, his sister, and their boy and girl friends went down a +little alley, and thus into the store by a side entrance. + +As they stepped into the hardware place there was another crash of pots +and pans, and Sue cried: + +"Oh, I see him! He's got an egg beater now in one paw!" + +"And some pie pans in the other!" exclaimed Bunny. + +"Where is he? I don't see him!" said Mary Watson. + +"Right up on the shelf by the cans of paint," replied Bunny, pointing. +"Say, if he opens any cans of paint and splashes that around won't it be +fun!" he laughed. + +"Hi there, Bunny Brown!" called Mr. Raymond, the hardware man, when he +heard the little boy say this. "Don't be suggesting such things! That +monkey might hear you and try it. I don't want my store all splashed up +with red and green paint. Come on down now, Wango!" he called, snapping +his fingers at the old sailor's queer pet. "Come on down, and I'll give +you a cookie." + +"I guess he'd rather have a cocoanut," suggested Sue. "My mother has +some cocoanut for a cake, and there's a picture of a monkey on the +paper, and he's eating cocoanuts." + +"But I haven't any cocoanut to offer him," said Mr. Raymond. "I wish Jed +Winkler would come and get his old monkey down! Wango would come to +him." + +"How'd the monkey get in here?" asked Bunny. + +"I don't know," confessed Mr. Raymond. "First I knew, I heard the lady I +was selling a coffee strainer to exclaim, and I looked up and there was +Wango skipping around on the shelves. I guess Jed must have left a +window open and the monkey got out, though he doesn't generally skip +around outdoors in cold weather. Then he must have come along the street +until he got to my place, and, when he saw the door open, in he popped. +Jed's house is only a few steps from here. But I wish Jed would come +and get his Wango." + +"Here he is now!" cried a chorus of children's voices, and, looking +toward the front of his store, Mr. Raymond saw the old sailor coming in. + +"What's all the trouble here?" asked Mr. Winkler. + +"It's your monkey again, Jed," answered Mr. Raymond. "Lucky my place +isn't a china store, or you'd have a lot of damages to pay for broken +dishes. As it is, Wango can't break any of my pots and pans, though he +certainly is mussing them up a lot!" + +Well might this be said, for, as the hardware man spoke, the monkey +leaped from one shelf to another and, in so doing, knocked down a lot of +tin pans which fell to the floor with a clatter and a bang. + +"Can't you do something to stop him?" cried Mr. Raymond. + +"Well, yes, I suppose I can," said Mr. Winkler slowly. "I didn't know he +was loose till a minute ago, when some one came and told me. I was down +on the fish dock, talking with Bunker Blue. But I'll get Wango down. I'm +real glad he isn't in a china store, for he surely would break things! +Here, Wango!" he called, holding out his hand to the monkey, now perched +on a high shelf. "Come on down, that's a good chap! Come on down!" + +"He doesn't seem to want to come," suggested a man with a red moustache. + +"Oh, I'll get him. He needs a little coaxing," returned the old sailor. +"Come on down, Wango!" he went on. + +Wango looked at the egg beater he held in one paw, and then, seeing the +little handle which turned the wheel, he began to twist it. To do this +he dropped the pie pans he held in the other paw and they fell to the +floor with a crash. + +"Land goodness, he certainly makes noise enough!" said one of the women +in the store, covering her ears with her hands. + +Perched above the heads of the crowd, and paying no attention to the +calls of Jed Winkler, the monkey began turning the egg beater. He seemed +to like that most of all. + +"Maybe he thinks it's a hand organ," suggested Bunny Brown, and the +people in the store laughed. + +"Come on, Wango! Come down!" cried Mr. Winkler, but the monkey would not +leap down from the high shelf. + +"Guess you'll have to climb up and get him yourself, Jed," suggested Mr. +Reinberg, who kept the drygoods store next door. He had run in, together +with other neighboring shopkeepers, to see what the excitement was +about. + +"I could get him down if I had something to coax him with," returned the +old sailor. + +"I promised him a cookie," said Mr. Raymond. + +"He'd rather have a piece of cake--cocoanut cake would be best," went on +Mr. Winkler. + +"I'll go home and get some," offered Bunny Brown. "My mother baked a +cocoanut cake yesterday, and I guess there's some left." + +"You don't need to go all the way back to your house after the cake," +said Mrs. Nesham, who kept a bakery across the street from the hardware +store. "I'll get one from my shelves." + +She hurried across the way, and soon came back with a large piece of +cocoanut cake. + +"If the monkey doesn't take it I wish she'd give it to me," said Tom +Milton. + +"Oh, Wango will take this all right," said Jed Winkler. "Here you are, +you little rascal!" he called to his pet. "Come down and see what I have +for you." He held up the piece of cake. Wango saw it and this seemed to +be just what he wanted. He dropped the egg beater, which fell to the +floor with another clatter and clang, and then the monkey began climbing +down the shelves. + +He had almost reached the old sailor, his master, when the front door of +the hardware store opened to allow a new customer to come in. Whether +this frightened Wango, or whether he thought he had not yet had enough +fun, no one knew. But instantly he snatched the piece of cake from Mr. +Winkler's hand, and, holding it in his paw, skipped out the door. + +"There he goes!" cried Bunny Brown. "He's loose again!" + +"And he's up in a tree out in front!" added Tom Milton, who had rushed +out ahead of the others in the store. + +Surely enough, when the crowd got outside, there was Wango perched high +in a big, leafless tree, eating cake. + + [Illustration: THERE WAS WANGO PERCHED HIGH ON A BIG TREE. + _Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Giving a Show._ _Page 42_] + +"Well, how are you going to get him down out of there?" asked Mr. +Snowden. + +"Looks as if I'd have to climb after him," said Mr. Winkler. "When I was +a sailor on a ship, and had Wango for a pet, he used to climb up the +mast and rigging and I'd go after him. That was when I was younger. I +don't believe I could climb that tree and get him now." + +"Do you want me to do it for you, mister?" asked a new voice. + +Bunny, Sue, and the other children turned to see who had spoken. They +saw a boy about twelve years old, with bright, shining eyes standing +beside Mr. Winkler and pointing up at the monkey in the tree. The +strange boy seemed to have arrived on the scene very suddenly. + +"Do you want me to climb the tree and get your monkey for you?" asked +the boy. "I'll do it, if he doesn't bite." + +"Oh, he doesn't bite--Wango is very gentle," said Mr. Winkler. "But can +you climb that high tree?" + +"I've climbed higher ones than that," was the answer. "And ropes and +poles and the sides of buildings. I can climb almost anything if I can +get a hold. I'll go up and get the monkey for you!" + +As he spoke he took off his coat; and though the day was cold Bunny +noticed that the strange boy wore no overcoat. Hanging his jacket on a +low limb of the tree which held Wango, the boy began to climb. And, as +he did so, Sue pulled her brother's sleeve. + +"Do you know who that is?" she whispered. + +"Who?" asked Bunny Brown. + +"That boy climbing the tree. Don't you 'member him?" + +"No. Who is he?" + +"Why, he's the boy who turned somersaults in the Opera House show!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A COLD LITTLE SINGER + + +Bunny Brown was so excited in watching to see how the strange boy would +climb up and get the monkey that, at first, he paid little attention to +what Sue said. The boy by this time was beginning to scramble up the +trunk of the tree. Sitting on a branch, high above the lad's head, was +Wango the monkey, eating the piece of cake. + +"It's the very same boy, I know it is!" declared Sue. + +"What same boy?" asked Sadie West, while the other boys and girls +watched the climber. + +"The same one who was with the little girl that sang songs in the Opera +House show. Don't you remember, Bunny?" asked Sue. + +This time Bunny not only heard what his sister said, but he paid some +attention to her. And, noting that the climbing boy was half way up the +tree now, Bunny turned to Sue and asked her what she had said. + +"This is the number three time I told you," she answered, shaking her +head. "That's the boy from the show in the Opera House!" + +Bunny looked closely at the climbing lad. + +"Why, so it is!" he cried. "Look, Charlie--Harry--that's the acrobat +from the show!" + +The boy in the tree was in plain sight now, over the heads of the crowd, +as he made his way upward from limb to limb, and several of Bunny's +chums were sure he was the same lad they had seen in the show. + +"But what's he doing here?" asked Bunny. "Mother read in the paper that +the same show we saw here was traveling around and was in Wayville last +night. I wonder why that boy is here?" + +"And where's his sister that sang such funny little songs?" inquired +Sadie West. + +"We'll ask him when he comes down," suggested George Watson, who used to +be a mean, tricky boy, making a lot of trouble for Bunny and Sue. But, +of late, George had been kinder. + +Higher and higher, up into the tree went the "show boy," as the children +called him. Wango still was perched on the limb of the tree, eating his +cake. He did not climb higher or try to leap to another tree, as Jed +Winkler said he was afraid his pet might do. + +Up and up went the boy, and a moment later he was calling in a kind and +gentle voice to the monkey and holding out his hands. + +"Come on, old fellow! Come on down with me!" invited the climbing boy. +"They want you down below! Come on!" + +Whether Wango was tired of his tricks, or whether he had eaten all his +cake and thought the only way he could get more was by coming down as he +was invited, no one stopped to figure out. At any rate the old sailor's +pet gave a friendly little chatter and then advanced until he could +perch on the boy's shoulder, which he did, clasping his paws around the +lad's neck. + +"That's the way! Now we'll go down!" said the boy. + +"He's got him! He's got your monkey, Mr. Winkler!" cried the children +standing beneath the tree. + +"He's a good climber--that boy!" said the old sailor. "He's as good a +climber as I used to be when I was on a ship." + +Down came the boy with the monkey on his shoulder. Of course Wango +himself could have climbed down alone had he wished to, but he didn't +seem to want to do this--that was the trouble. + +"There you are!" exclaimed the boy, as he slid to the ground, and walked +over to Mr. Winkler, with Wango still perched on his shoulder. "Here's +your monkey!" + +"Much obliged, my boy," said the old sailor. "It was very good of you. +Do you--er--do I owe you anything?" and he began to fumble in his pocket +as if for money, while Wango jumped from the lad's back to the shoulder +of his master. + +"No, not anything. I did it for fun," was the laughing answer. "I'm used +to climbing and that sort of thing. I like it!" + +"Didn't you used to be in the show that was in the Opera House here last +week?" asked Harry Bentley. + +"Yes," answered the boy, as he put on his coat. "I was with the show." + +"Why aren't you with it now?" asked Bunny. + +"And where's your sister--the one that sang?" added Sue. + +The boy's face turned red, and he seemed to be confused. + +"Well, we--er--I--that is we left the show," he said. "Maybe I ought to +say that the show left us. It 'busted up,' as we say. There wasn't +enough money to pay the actors, and so we all had to quit." + +"That's too bad," said Jed Winkler. "It was a pretty good show, too. But +say, my boy, I feel that I owe you something for having gotten my monkey +down out of the tree. If you haven't been paid by the show people, +perhaps--maybe----" + +"Oh, no, thank you! I don't take pay for doing things like climbing +trees after pet monkeys," was the answer. The boy started to laugh, but +he did not get very far with it. "You don't owe me anything. And now I +must go and get my sister," he added. + +"Where did you leave her?" asked Mrs. Newton, one of the ladies who had +been in the store when the monkey began "cutting up." + +"I left her sitting on a bench in the little park down near the river +front," answered the boy. + +"That's a cold place!" exclaimed Mrs. Newton. "Why don't you take her +where it's warm?" + +"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know where to take her," said the +boy. "We just had money enough left to pay our trolley fare from a place +called Wayville, where we played last night, to this town. We thought +we'd come back here." + +"To give another show?" asked the hardware man. + +"No, I guess our show is gone for good," was the boy's answer. "But I +sort of liked this place, and so did my sister. I thought I might get +work here, at least until I could make money enough to go back to New +York." + +"Got any folks in New York?" asked Mr. Winkler, as he stroked the head +of his pet monkey. + +"Well, no, not exactly folks," replied the show boy, as he brushed some +bits of bark from his trousers. "But it's easier to get a place with a +show if you're in New York. They all start out from there." + +"That boy looks to me as though the best place for him, right now, would +be at a table with a good meal on it," said Mrs. Newton. "He looks +hungry and cold." + +"He does that," agreed Mrs. Brown, who had followed Bunny and Sue to see +that they did not get into mischief. "I'm going to invite him to our +house." She stepped up closer to the lad who had got the monkey down out +of the tree, and asked: "Wouldn't you like to come home with me and have +something to eat?" + +The boy's face flushed and his eyes brightened. + +"Thank you," he said. "I really am hungry. I'll be glad to work for a +meal. There wasn't money enough for breakfast and car fare too, but I +thought there was a better chance for work here than in Wayville, and so +my sister and I came on." + +"And where did you say she was?" asked Mrs. Brown. + +"I left her sitting in the little park down by the water front, while I +came up into the town to look for work. Then I saw the crowd around the +tree and----" + +"Poor little girl!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "Now, you two are coming home +with me!" she went on. "We'll talk about work later. Come along, my +boy. I've got children of my own, and I know what's good for 'em. Take +me to where you left your sister. And don't all of you come, or you +might bother the poor child," she added, as she saw the crowd about to +follow. "I'll tell you all about it later." + +"Can't we come, Mother?" asked Bunny Brown. + +"Yes, you and Sue come with me. Mrs. Newton," she went on, turning to a +fat lady, "I wish you'd go to my house and start to get something ready +for these starved ones to eat. I'll be right along with them." + +"And I'll take my monkey back home," said Jed Winkler. "My sister might +be worried about him," and he smiled as the crowd laughed, for it was +well known that Miss Winkler did not like Wango, though she was not +unkind to him. + +"Now show me where your sister is," said Mrs. Brown to the boy, as she +walked along with him and her own two children. "By the way, what's your +name?" + +"Mart Clayton," he answered. "That's my real name, but my sister and I +sometimes have stage names. Her real one is Lucile." + +"That's a nice name," said Sue. "I like it better'n mine. Your sister +sings, doesn't she?" + +"Yes," answered the boy. "There she is, now!" he added, pointing to a +bench in a little park that was not far from Mr. Brown's boat and fish +dock. + +"The poor, cold little singer!" murmured Mrs. Brown. "I must take care +of them both!" + +When they approached the bench the girl, who was about a year younger +than her brother, looked up in surprise. + +"Did you find any work?" she asked Mart eagerly. + +"Well, no, not exactly," he answered. + +The girl seemed much disappointed. + +"But we're going to eat!" he added. "This lady has invited us to her +house. After that I'll have a chance to look around and get a job to +earn money to pay her and take us back to New York." + +"Oh, you are the guests of Bunny and Sue for the meal. Guests don't +pay," Mrs. Brown said, smiling at the strangers. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Lucile. "That is--it's very kind of you," she said. + +"You poor thing! You're cold!" exclaimed Bunny's mother. "No wonder, +sitting here without a jacket! Where's your cloak?" + +"I--I guess it's with our other baggage," was the girl's answer. "The +boarding house kept it because we couldn't pay the bill when the show +failed!" and tears came into her eyes. + +"Never mind! We'll look after you," said motherly Mrs. Brown. "Come +along, Bunny and Sue. Mrs. Newton will be at our house by this time." + +As the five of them started down the street Bunny stopped suddenly. + +"What's the matter?" asked his mother. + +"I--I forgot something," he said. "I've got to see Mr. Winkler!" and he +started off on a run. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +GENERAL WASHINGTON + + +Mart Clayton, the boy who had climbed the tree to get down Mr. Winkler's +monkey, looked first at funny Bunny Brown, who was trotting downstreet, +and then he looked at Bunny's mother. + +"Shall I run after him and bring him back?" asked Mart. + +"O, no. Bunny will come back if I call him," was the answer. "But I +wonder why he is in such a hurry to see Mr. Winkler? I'll find out," she +went on. Then, making her voice louder, she called: "Bunny, come back +here, please, come back." + +"But, Mother, I've got to see Mr. Winkler!" exclaimed Bunny, as he +paused and turned around. "It's about our show." + +"That will keep until later," said Mrs. Brown with a smile. "I want you +to come back with me now and help entertain the company," and she smiled +and nodded to Mart and Lucile Clayton. + +"Oh, yes. I--I didn't mean to be impolite," said Bunny, as he walked +slowly back. "But I wanted to ask Mr. Winkler if we could have his +monkey in our show." + +"Oh, are you going to have a show?" asked Lucile, as she walked along +with Sue, while Mrs. Brown, Bunny and Mart followed. + +"Yes!" exclaimed Bunny, who heard the question. "We had a circus once, +and we made some money. And after we saw the Opera House show you were +in, we wanted to have one ourselves. So we're going to get one up. Sue +can sing and I can turn somersaults. Not as good as you, of course," he +said to Mart. "And one boy has some trained white mice and if we could +get Mr. Winkler's monkey and----" + +"And his parrot! He's got a parrot, too!" exclaimed Sue. + +"Yes, if he'll let us have the parrot we could have a dandy show!" +agreed Bunny. + +"I hope it will be a better show than the one we were in," said Mart, +with a sad little smile. "It isn't any fun to go traveling with a troupe +and then have it 'bust up' on the road as ours did." + +"Aren't you children very young to be traveling alone?" asked Mrs. +Brown. "Haven't you any--well, any folks at all?" + +She did not like to mention "father or mother," for fear both parents +might be dead and to speak of them might cause sorrow to Mart and +Lucile. But surely, Mrs. Brown thought, the boy and girl ought to have +some one to look after them. + +"Oh, we weren't exactly alone," said Lucile, who was not as old as her +brother. "We were like one big family until the show failed. Mr. and +Mrs. Jackson were in charge, and Mrs. Jackson was very good to us. But +people didn't seem to like our performance, and we didn't make enough +money to keep on playing." + +"I liked your show," said Bunny. + +"So did I!" exclaimed his sister Sue. "It was grand." + +"Yes, if we had done as well everywhere as we did in this town I guess +we'd have been all right," said Mart. "But we didn't. We got stranded in +Wayville--that's the next largest town to this, I heard some one say, +and we couldn't go any farther. Some of our baggage had to go to pay +bills. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson left us at a boarding house while they went +to New York to see if they could raise money." + +"But I guess they couldn't," added his sister. "Anyhow they didn't come +back, and we didn't have any money. So the boarding house lady kept what +few things we had left, and Mart and I came away." + +"I made up my mind I'd have to do something," went on the climbing boy, +as Bunny and Sue thought of him. "I'm strong, and if I could get work +I'd soon earn enough money to take me and my sister back to New York. +Perhaps you could tell me where I could get a job," he added to Mrs. +Brown. + +"We'll talk about that after you get warm and have had something to +eat," said she. + +"Yes, maybe that would be better," agreed Mart. "It makes you feel sort +of funny not to eat." + +"I know it does," put in Bunny. "Once Sue and I went to Camp +Rest-a-While, and we got lost in the woods, and we didn't have anything +to eat for a terrible long while." + +"It was 'most all day," sighed Sue. "And we were terrible glad when +daddy and mother found us!" + +"I should say you were--well, very glad," laughed her mother. "But here +we are at our house. Now come in, Lucile and Mart, and make yourselves +at home." + +"And after you get warm, and have had something to eat, maybe you'll +tell us about how to get up a show in a theater--not one in a tent like +a circus," suggested Bunny. + +"Yes, we'll help you all we can," promised Lucile. + +Mrs. Newton, coming to the Brown house ahead of the others, had got a +nice lunch ready, and from the way Mart and his sister sat down to it +and ate it was evident that they were very hungry. It was nice and warm +in the Brown house, too, and the children from the vaudeville troupe +seemed to like to be near the fire. + +"Now if you have had enough to eat, perhaps you will tell me a little +bit more about yourselves," suggested Mrs. Brown, when the two visitors +were ready to leave the table. "I want to help you," she went on, "and I +can best do that if I know more about you. My husband is in the boat +and fish business here in Bellemere," she said, "and though he is not as +busy in winter as he is in summer, he may find work for you," she added +to Mart. + +"I hope he can!" said the boy. "Well, I'll tell you about myself and my +sister. You see we come of a theatrical family. Our father and mother +were in the show business up to the time they died." + +"Oh, then your father and mother are dead?" asked Mrs. Brown kindly. + +"Yes," went on Lucile. "We hardly remember them as they died when we +were little. We were brought up by our uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie. They +were in the show business, too, and they traveled under several +different names. + +"Sometimes we traveled with them, and again we'd be off on the road by +ourselves. But whenever we went alone that way Uncle Simon would always +get some one, like Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, to look after us and take +charge of us. So we didn't have it so hard until Uncle Simon and Aunt +Sallie went away." + +"Went away!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "Where did they go?" + +"That's what we can't find out," answered Mart "They left their address +for us with Mr. Jackson, but he lost it, and now we don't know where our +uncle and aunt are." + +"But surely some one knows!" said Mrs. Newton. + +"Well, yes, I guess Uncle Bill knows, but we can't find him," said Mart. + +"You seem to belong to a lost family!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, with a +smile. "Who is Uncle Bill, and where is he?" + +"We don't know where he is, but he's blind," put in Lucile. "The last we +heard of him he was going to some Home for the Blind, or to some +hospital to be cured. But we don't know where he is. If we could find +him he'd have Uncle Simon's address, for Uncle Simon used to always +write to Uncle Bill. Of course Uncle Bill had to get some one to read +the letters to him. But we haven't seen either of our uncles for a long +time." + +"You poor children!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "This is too bad! We must see +what we can do to help you. Where do you think your Uncle Simon and Aunt +Sallie went to?" she asked. + +"It was over to England or France, or some place like that," answered +Mart. "It was just before the war started, and maybe their ship was +sunk. Anyhow, we haven't heard from them since then, and Mr. Jackson +lost their address," he added. + +"But your Uncle Simon knew where Mr. Jackson was, didn't he?" asked Mrs. +Newton with interest. + +"Well, maybe he did and maybe he didn't," answered Mart. "You see Mr. +Jackson and his wife travel about a lot. Lots of times letters get lost, +so Uncle Simon may have written about us, and Mr. Jackson might never +have got the letter." + +"Yes, that's so," agreed Mrs. Brown. "Well, when my husband comes home +we'll talk with him and see what is best to do. You had better stay here +until then and make yourselves at home. Hark! There's the doorbell." + +"Who do you suppose that is, Mother?" asked Sue. + +"I can't tell that, Sue, from here." + +"I'll go and see who it is, Mother," offered Bunny, as he ran through +the hall. The others heard the front door open and the sound of a man's +voice mingling with that of Bunny's. In a moment the little fellow came +running back. + +"Who is it?" asked his mother. + +"General Washington," was the surprising answer. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"DOWN ON THE FARM" + + +For a moment Mrs. Brown did not know whether to laugh at Bunny for +playing a joke or to tell him he must not do such things when there were +visitors at the house. But Bunny looked so serious that his mother +thought perhaps he did not mean to be funny. + +"Who is it?" she asked again. + +"General Washington," replied the little boy. + +"Bunny Brown!" cried Mrs. Newton, "what do you mean?" + +"Well, it's the man who made believe he was General Washington in the +Opera House show, anyhow!" declared Bunny. "'Course he doesn't look like +General Washington now, but----" + +Lucile and Mart did not wait for Bunny to finish. Together they ran to +the front door. + +"Bunny Brown, you aren't playing any jokes, are you?" asked his mother. + +"No'm! Honest I mean it!" cried Bunny, his eyes shining with excitement. +"It's the same man who was General Washington and General Grant and a +lot of other people at the show in the Opera House! He's at our front +door now, and he wants to know if the Happy Day Twins are here." + +"The Happy Day Twins?" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. + +"That's the name the boy and girl went under on the programme, you +know," explained Mrs. Newton. "The same children you have been so kind +to--Lucile and Mart Clayton. They took the name of the 'Happy Day Twins' +on the stage you know. Did the impersonator want them, Bunny?" she +asked. + +"I didn't see any 'personator," answered the little boy. "He was General +Washington, I tell you, only he wasn't dressed up." + +"I must go and see," declared Mrs. Brown. + +As she went down the hall she met the brother and sister coming back. +They seemed much excited. + +"It's our friend, Mr. Treadwell," explained Mart. "He heard we had +started for this town, and he followed us. He heard about my climbing +the tree after the monkey, and some one told him my sister and I had +come to your house, Mrs. Brown. May I ask him in? It's Mr. Samuel +Treadwell, and he's a good friend of ours." + +"Certainly, ask him in," said Mrs. Brown, with a smile. "Perhaps he is +hungry, too," she said to her friend Mrs. Newton, Mart having gone back +to the front door. "I've heard that actors are often hungry." + +"But he's General Washington, too, isn't he?" demanded Bunny, following +Mart. + +"Yes, he pretends to be all sorts of famous people--on the stage," +kindly explained Mart to Bunny. "You'll like him, he can do lots of +tricks." + +"Can he jiggle--I mean juggle?" + +"Yes, but not as good as the other man in the play." + +By this time Mrs. Brown had reached the door. On the steps stood an +elderly man, with a pleasant smile on his face. Mrs. Brown recognized +him at once as the impersonator, though of course he had on no wig or +costume now. He looked just like an ordinary man, except that his face +was rather more wrinkled. + +"I'm sorry to trouble you, madam," said the man, "but I have been +looking for my little friends, the 'Happy Day Twins,' as they are +billed. Their real names are--well, I suppose they have told you," and +he smiled at Lucile and Mart, who were standing in the hall. + +"Yes, we have been learning something about them, but we would be glad +to know more, so we could help them," said Mrs. Brown. "Won't you come +in? We have just been giving the children a little lunch, and perhaps, +if you have not eaten lately, you will be glad to do so now." + +"More glad than you can guess, madam," said the man with a bow. "I am, +indeed, hungry. We have had bad luck, as perhaps Lucile and Mart have +told you." + +"Yes, they spoke of it," said Bunny's mother. "And now please come in, +and while you are eating we can talk." + +"Say, we could have a regular show here now!" whispered Bunny Brown to +his sister Sue. "We have three actors now, and you and I would make two +more." + +"Oh, I don't want to be in a show now," said Sue. "I want to hear what +they're going to tell mother." + +Bunny did also, and when Mr. Treadwell had seated himself at the table +the children listened to what followed. + +"When you rang I was just telling Mart that perhaps my husband could +give him some work, so enough money could be earned for the trip to New +York," said Mrs. Brown. "Is it true that no one knows where these +children's uncle and aunt can be found?" + +"Well, I guess it's true enough," said Mr. Treadwell. "There are two +uncles and one aunt, according to the story. William Clayton, who is a +brother of Mart's father, is blind, and in some home or hospital--I +don't know where, and I guess the children don't either," he added. + +Lucile and Mart shook their heads. + +"Simon Weatherby and his wife, Sallie, are brother and sister-in-law of +Mrs. Clayton's," went on the impersonator. "The last heard of them was +that they sailed for the other side--England, France or maybe Australia +for all I know. We theatrical folk travel around a good bit. Anyhow, +Simon Weatherby and his wife left in a hurry, and they gave the care of +the children over to Mr. and Mrs. Jackson. + +"Now Mr. Jackson is all right, and a nice man, but he is careless, else +he wouldn't get into so much trouble, and he wouldn't have lost the +address of Mart's Uncle Simon. But that's how it happened. So the +children have some relations if we can only find them, and what they are +to do in the meanwhile, now that the show is scattered, is more than I +know." + +"Well, I know one thing they're going to do, and that is stay right here +with me until they are sure of a home somewhere else," said Mrs. Brown. + +"I'm glad to hear you say that!" exclaimed Mr. Treadwell, as he finished +his lunch. "I heard they left the boarding house, and that they had no +money. Well, I haven't any too much myself, but I followed them, hoping +I could find 'em and help 'em. Now I've found my little friends all +right," he said, looking kindly at Lucile and Mart, "but some one else +has helped them." + +"They helped some one else first," said Mrs. Newton, with a smile. "Mart +got Mr. Winkler's monkey down out of a tree." + +"I heard about that," returned Mr. Treadwell, with a laugh. "Well, now +that I have located you, I suppose I'd better travel on, though where to +go or what to do I don't know," he added with a sigh. "I'm not as young +as I once was," he added, "and there isn't the demand for impersonators +there once was. If I could get back to New York----" + +He paused and shook his head sadly. + +"Why don't you stay here and look for work, just as I'm going to do?" +asked Mart. "If you get to New York there won't be much chance. All the +theater places are filled now for the winter season." + +"That's so!" agreed the impersonator. "But I don't know what sort of +work I could do here." + +"You--you could be in our show!" interrupted Bunny, who, with Sue, had +been listening eagerly to all the talk. "We're going to have a show, and +you three could be in it!" + +"Going to have a show, are you?" asked Mr. Treadwell, with a smile. + +"Yes, a real one," declared Sue. "Once we had a circus, but this show is +going to be in the Opera House, maybe, and we'll give all the money we +make to our mother's Red Cross." + +"That will be nice," said Mr. Treadwell, with a smile. "But I'm afraid +I'd be too big to fit into your show." + +"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bunny. "We're going to have Bobbie Boomer in it, and +he's a big fat boy." + +Mr. Treadwell laughed and Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Newton joined in. + +"What sort of play are you going to have?" asked Mr. Treadwell. + +"Well, we were just talking about it, in our garage, when Tom Milton +told us that Mr. Winkler's monkey was loose," explained Bunny, "and we +didn't talk any more about it until just now. But the show is going to +be different from the circus." + +"Where are you going to have it?" asked Mrs. Newton. + +"I don't know," confessed Bunny. "Maybe my father will let us have it in +the boat shop. That's a big place." + +A step was heard in the hall, and Bunny and Sue cried: + +"There's our daddy now!" + +Mr. Brown walked in, kissed the children and seemed quite surprised to +see three strangers present. Matters were quickly explained to him, +however, and he welcomed Mr. Treadwell, Lucile and Mart. + +"Do you think you could find work for them?" asked Mrs. Brown, when the +stories had been told. + +"Well, I might," slowly answered Mr. Brown. "I need some help down at +the dock and office to get things ready for winter." + +"Don't make 'em work so hard they can't help in our show," begged Bunny. + +"Oh, you're going to have another circus, are you?" asked his father, +with a smile. + +"No, it isn't going to be a circus, it's going to be a regular Opera +House show!" cried Sue. + +"What about?" her father wanted to know, as he caught her up in his +arms. + +"We don't know yet," Bunny said. "But maybe the play will be about +pirates or Indians or soldiers." + +"Why don't you have some nice quiet play that would be good for +Christmas?" asked Mr. Brown. "Why not have a play with a farm scene in +it? You have been down to Grandpa's farm, and you know a lot about the +country. Why not have a farm play and call it 'Down on the Farm'?" + +"That's the very thing!" suddenly cried Mr. Treadwell. "Excuse me for +getting so excited," he said, "but when you spoke about a farm play I +remembered that we have some farm scenery in our show that failed. I +believe you could buy that scenery cheap for the children," he said to +Mr. Brown. "There are three scenes, one meadow, a barnyard with a barn +and an orchard; and the last had a house with it." + +"Oh, Daddy! get us the farm theater things for our new play!" cried +Bunny Brown. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE SCENERY + + +Daddy Brown looked at his two children, and then, as he glanced across +the table at the actor who made believe he was George Washington and +other great men, Daddy Brown laughed. + +"These youngsters of mine will be giving a real show before I know it, +with scenery and everything," he said. + +"Well, a show isn't much fun unless you have some scenery in it," said +Mr. Treadwell, "and the scenery I spoke of, which was part of our show, +can be bought cheap, I think." + +"Say, Daddy, is the sheenery in a show like the sheenery in a automobile +or one of your motor boats?" asked Sue. + +"Oh, she's thinking of wheels and things that go around!" laughed Bunny. +"That's _ma_-chinery, Sue, and _scenery_ is what we saw in the Opera +House--make-believe trees, and the brook, you know." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "Well, can we have that--that _sheenery_ for our +play?" she asked her father. + +"I'll see about it," he answered, and Bunny and Sue looked happy, for, +like their mother, whenever their father said "I'll see," it almost +always meant that he would do as they wanted him to. + +"I'm afraid, though," said Mr. Brown, "that getting up a show in town +will be harder, Bunny and Sue, than getting up a circus. In the circus +you could use your dog Splash and some of the animals from Grandpa's +farm. But a theater show, or one like it, hasn't many animals in it. You +ought to do more acting than you do trapeze work." + +"Oh, we can do it!" cried Bunny Brown. "They're going to help, aren't +you?" and he looked over at Lucile and Mart. + +"We'll help all we can," Mart promised. "That is, if we're here, and I +don't see how we can get away, for we haven't any money to pay our fare +on the train." + +"That's my trouble, too," said Mr. Treadwell, with a smile. "I'd offer +to help too, if I thought I was going to be here." + +"Oh, then we'll be sure to have a show!" declared Bunny. "You can be +General Washington and maybe some soldier, and we'll pretend you came +down to the farm to see us. Then I'll turn somersaults and Sue can bring +me out some cookies to eat, 'cause I get hungry when I turn somersaults. +And you can do tricks like those you did in the Opera House," he added +to Mart. + +"What do you want me to do?" asked Lucile, with a smile. + +"Oh, you--you can help Sue bring out the cookies for Mart and me," +decided Bunny. "And--oh yes--you can sing--those songs you sang in the +show we went to see, you know." + +"All right, I'll help all I can--if I'm here," said Lucile. + +"Well, suppose we talk a little about the trouble you good theater folks +are in," suggested Mr. Brown. "The show Bunny and Sue are going to give +can wait for a while. Now what do you want to do--get back to New York, +all three of you?" + +"Well, New York is the place almost all show people start from," said +Mr. Treadwell, "but I don't know that there's much use going back there +now. All the places in other shows will be taken. If I could get some +sort of work here for the winter I'd stay." + +"So would I!" declared Mart. "I like to stay in a place two or three +weeks at a time, and not have to move to a new town every night, like a +circus. Have you any work you could let me do?" he asked Mr. Brown. + +"I was going to speak of that," replied the father of Bunny and Sue. +"One of the young men in my office is going on leave, and I could hire +you in his place. The wages aren't very big," he said, "but it would be +enough for you to live on and take care of your sister." + +"I suppose I could board here in Bellemere," suggested Mart. + +"You can stay right here--you and Lucile!" cried Mrs. Brown. "Our house +is plenty large enough, and there's lots of room. Do stay here--at least +until you locate your uncle and your aunt." + +"That's very kind of you," said Lucile softly, and she reached over and +stroked Sue's curls. + +"Oh, goodie!" cried Bunny, when he understood that his father was going +to hire Mart Clayton to work in the office at the dock. "Then you can +help us get up the show." + +"Well, I'll do all I can," promised Mart. + +"And I'll help, too," added Lucile. + +"If you can find a place for me, Mr. Brown, I'll make the same promise," +said Mr. Treadwell. "I don't care much about going back to New York, and +if Mart and Lucile stay here I'd like to stay, too, and sort of look +after them. I'll try to help them find their missing folks." + +"I guess I can find work for you," said Mr. Brown. "Do you know anything +about the fish or boat business?" + +"Very little, I'm afraid. I once worked as a bookkeeper in a piano +factory, though, if that would help any," he said. + +"Keeping books is just what I want done," said Mr. Brown. "So you can +have a place in my office. The man I have is going to leave, and you may +take his place. He also has a room with Mr. Winkler and his sister, and +you could get board there." + +"That suits me all right, and thank you very much," said Mr. Treadwell. +"I'll send over to Wayville and get what little baggage I have. But +will it be all right for me to board at Mr. Winkler's?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes. They'll be glad to have you." + +"And you can see Mr. Winkler's monkey Wango and the parrot all the +while!" cried Bunny Brown. + +"That will be a treat!" laughed Mr. Treadwell. + +So it was settled that both Mr. Treadwell and Mart would work for Mr. +Brown. The man who pretended to be George Washington and other great men +would board with the old sailor and his sister, while Mart and Lucile +would live with the Browns. + +"And we'll have lots of fun!" said Sue to Lucile. + +"And will you show me how to make flipflops?" asked Bunny of Mart. + +"Yes," answered the boy actor and acrobat, "I will." + +While Lucile remained at Mrs. Brown's house, Mart, with Mr. Brown and +the impersonator went over to Wayville to get the baggage of the +theatrical folk. Mr. Brown was going to pay the board bills. Bunny and +Sue wanted to go also, but their father said: + +"I'll take you along when we go to look at the scenery. You'd only be in +the way now, and wouldn't have a good time." + +That night Lucile and Mart stayed at the Brown house, which was to be +their home for some time, and Mr. Treadwell went to board with the +Winklers. + +"And when you come over in the morning tell us all about the monkey and +parrot!" begged Bunny, as the actor started for his boarding place that +evening. + +"I will," was the promise. + +"When are we going to get the scenery for our play, Daddy?" asked Bunny +Brown, as he and his sister Sue were getting ready for bed that night. + +"I'll take you over to-morrow after school," was the promise. And you +can well imagine that the two children could hardly wait for the time to +come. + +The air was clear and cold, and it seemed as if there would be more snow +when Mr. Brown brought around the automobile in which the trip to +Wayville was to be made. Bunny and Sue, Lucile and Mart were to sit in +the back, while Mr. Brown and Mr. Treadwell sat in front. They were +going to the place where the theatrical scenery had been stored since +the time the vaudeville troupe had got into trouble. + +"I'm glad winter is coming, aren't you?" asked Bunny of Mart, as they +rode along the roads which were still covered with snow from the first +storm. + +"Well, yes, I like winter," was the answer. "It's always the best time +for the show business--'tisn't like a circus--that does best in the +summer time." + +"We had our circus in summer," said Sue. "Now we're going to have a real +theater show in the winter." + +The automobile was going down a snowy hill into Wayville, and Mr. Brown +had put on the brakes, for, once or twice, the machine had slid from +side to side. + +"I ought to have chains on the back wheels," said the fish merchant to +Mr. Treadwell. "But if I go slowly I guess I'll be all right. Do you +think we need any more scenery than the three sets you spoke of--the +barnyard, the orchard and the meadow?" + +"No, I think that will be enough," said the actor. "The children only +want something simple. You can tell when you see it." + +"Can we pick apples in the orchard?" asked Sue. + +Before Mr. Treadwell could answer something happened. Mr. Brown turned +out to one side of the road to let another automobile pass, and, a +moment later, his machine began sliding to one side at a place where +there was a deep gully. + +"Oh!" screamed Lucile. "We're going to upset!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BUNNY DOES A TRICK + + +Nearer and nearer to the side of the deep gully, across the road that +was slippery with snow, slid Mr. Brown's automobile. Bunny and Sue's +father's hands held tightly to the steering wheel, and he pressed his +foot down hard on the brake pedal. + +"Oh! Oh!" cried the children. + +"Sit still! It will be all right!" exclaimed Mr. Brown. "We won't be +hurt!" + +And so well did he steer the automobile that in a few seconds more it +was back in the middle of the road and going safely down the hill. The +dangerous gully was passed. It had all happened so quickly that Bunny +and Sue had had no chance to get really frightened. But they were so +sure their father could do everything all right that I hardly believe +they would have worried even if the auto had started to roll over +sideways. Bunny would probably have thought it only a trick, and he and +Sue were very fond of tricks. + +"The man in the other automobile didn't give you enough room to pass, +did he, Mr. Brown?" asked the actor, when the danger was over. + +"Not quite," was the answer. "We'll go home by another road that is +wider, but I took this one because it is the shortest way." + +"I hope I didn't do wrong to cry out that way," Lucile said, when they +were on their way again. + +"No, you didn't do any harm," said Mr. Brown. "I was a bit alarmed +myself at first. But we're all right now." + +"We were in a railroad wreck once," went on Lucile. + +"Did the trains all smash up?" asked Bunny, his eyes wide open. + +"Yes, they were badly smashed," answered Lucile. "I don't like to think +about it. Mart was hurt, too!" + +"Was you?" cried Bunny, forgetting, in his excitement, to speak +correctly. "Say, you've had lots of things happen to you, haven't you?" + +"Quite a few," answered the boy actor. "I've traveled around a good bit. +But I think I like it here better than anywhere I've been." + +"I do too," said Lucile. "Traveling everyday makes one tired." + +A little later they reached Wayville, and Mr. Treadwell told Mr. Brown +where to go in the automobile to look at the scenery. It was stored +away, for the company that had "busted up," as Mart sometimes called it, +had no further use for it. + +"Oh, look! Here's a little house!" cried Bunny, when with their father +and the others he and Sue had entered the big room where the scenery was +stored. + +"It's got a door to it," said Sue, "but the window is only make +believe," and she found this out when she tried to stick her fat little +hand out of what looked like a window in the side of the small house. + +"Most things on a stage in a theater are make believe," said the man who +pretended to be different persons. "You'll find the scenery isn't as +pretty when you get close to it as it is when you see it from the other +side of the footlights." + +This the children noticed was true. The scenery was made of painted +canvas stretched over a framework of wood. And the colors were put on +with a coarse brush and was very thick, as Bunny and Sue saw when they +went up close. + +"But it looked so pretty in the Opera House," complained Bunny. + +"That's because you were farther off, and because the lights were made +to shine on it in a certain way," explained Mart. "It will look just as +pretty again when you use it in your show." + +Bunny and Sue were not so sure of this, but they were willing to wait +and see. Mr. Brown and Mr. Treadwell looked over the scenery. + +As the actor had said, there were three "sets" as they are called. One +was a scene painted to look like a meadow, with a big green field, a +stream of water and, in the distance, cows eating grass. Of course the +cows were only pictured ones as was the grass and stream. + +The barnyard scene showed more cows and the end of a barn, and in this +barn there was a real door that opened and shut. Mr. Treadwell explained +that the boy and girl actors could go through this door to enter upon or +leave the stage during the play. + +"There's a pump and a watering trough that goes with this scene," said +the actor. "In the play as we used to give it the trough was filled with +water and one of the actors had to fall into it." + +"And does the pump pump real water?" cried Bunny. + +"Yes, about a pail full," was the answer. + +"Then we'll have it in our show!" cried the little boy. "I'll fall into +the trough and get all wet, Sue, and you can pump more water on me from +the pump." + +"That'll be fun!" laughed Sue. + +"We'll have to see about that act first," laughed Mr. Brown. "Now let's +find out what else we have for the great play 'Down on the Farm.' +Where's that orchard I heard you speak of, Mr. Treadwell?" + +"I guess the orchard is behind the barn," laughed the old actor. And +when some of the men in the storage place had lifted away the painted +canvas that represented the barn, a pretty orchard scene was shown. + +"There's the rest of the little house!" cried Bunny, for at first he had +only noticed one side of it. + +"Yes, there is one end of a house shown in this scene, as one end of the +barn is shown in the other," explained the actor. "And there is a real +door, too, that opens and shuts. The orchard, as you see, is only +painted." + +And so it was, but in such a way as to appear very pretty when set up +and lighted. + +"Here's a real tree!" cried Bunny, who was rummaging about back of the +stacked-up scenery. + +"Well, it's meant to look like a real tree," said Mr. Treadwell, "but it +isn't, really. It's a pretty good imitation of a peach tree, and I +suppose you could use it in your show, children." + +"Peaches don't grow in the winter," objected Bunny, who had been on his +grandfather's farm often enough to know this. + +"We could make believe our show was in summer," said Sue. + +"Yes, or you could make believe your play took place down south, where +it's always warm," added Mart, "and you could have this for an orange +tree." + +"Oh, no! That wouldn't do!" laughed Mr. Treadwell. "The leaves aren't +anything like those of an orange tree. I remember once when we gave an +act with this tree it was supposed to be on a tropic island, and one of +the actors fastened a cocoanut on it, to make the audience think it +really grew there." + +"What happened?" asked Mr. Brown, as he saw the actor laugh. + +"Well, the cocoanut wasn't fastened on very well," was the answer, "and +when the leading lady was standing under the tree, singing a sad song, +the cocoanut fell off and dropped on her foot. She stopped singing right +there, and the play was nearly spoiled. So don't have oranges grow on +peach trees," he advised. + +"We could have peanuts," suggested Bunny. "They wouldn't hurt if they +fell on you." + +Mr. Brown and Mr. Treadwell laughed at that, and Bunny wondered why they +did. + +The children were delighted with the scenery, once they had got over +their surprise at how coarse the paint looked when they were close to +it. The barn and the house, with their real doors that opened and shut, +were quite wonderful to Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, and so was the +tree. + +This was made of wood with what seemed to be real bark on it, and had +limbs, branches, and twigs that seemed very natural. But Mr. Treadwell +explained that it was all artificial, like the palms you see in some +hotels and moving picture theaters. + +While Bunny and Sue waited, Mr. Brown talked with the man who had charge +of the scenery, and in a little while the children's father said he +would buy the set, which was offered at a low price. + +"And can we give our show with it?" Bunny wanted to know when told what +his father had done. + +"Yes," said Mr. Brown. "It will be delivered in Bellemere day after +to-morrow, and stored away in our garage until you decide when and where +you are going to give your show. There is a lot to be done before your +first performance, children. I guess you know that, from the work you +had getting up your circus." + +"We'll have a lot of fun!" declared Bunny, not thinking of the hard +work. "When we get back home I'll tell the boys and girls about the +scenery and they can come over to see it. Then we'll begin to practice +for the show play." + +"You'll have to have a play written for you, bringing in all the scenery +I've bought," said Mr. Brown. + +"I guess I can manage that part for them," suggested Mr. Treadwell. "I +have written two or three little plays, and I guess I can do one more. +I'll write out a little sketch and have parts to fit as many boys and +girls as Bunny and Sue can get to act." + +"Oh, I can get a lot of 'em!" cried Bunny. "And will you make it so Sue +can pump water and I can fall in the trough and get all wet?" + +"It's pretty cold to fall into the water," said the actor. "But we'll +talk of that later." + +You can imagine how excited the little friends of Bunny Brown and his +sister Sue were when they heard that Mr. Brown had bought some real +scenery for the children's play. As soon as the house, the barn, the +meadow, the barnyard, and the orchard had been brought to the garage a +crowd of boys and girls was on hand to look at them. + +Sue led a number of her girl friends up in the loft to look over the +painted canvas, and Bunny took charge of a throng of boys. Sue was +explaining about the make-believe tree, that once had had a cocoanut on +it, when suddenly there came a cry of pain from behind the painted +canvas barn. + +"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed a voice. "I'm stuck fast!" + +"That's Bunny!" shouted Sue. "What's the matter?" she asked. + +"Bunny tried to do a trick and he's caught!" answered Charlie Star. +"You'd better go and get your father or mother!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +GETTING READY + + +Sue Brown was too curious when she heard Charlie say this to do as she +had been told. + +"Oh, Bunny!" she called out, as she heard her brother's cries, "what's +the matter, and where are you?" + +"He's stuck in the watering trough," explained Harry Bentley. "Come on +back here and you can see him!" + +"Get me out! Get me out!" begged Bunny. "Please get me out!" + +"Better go get your father or mother," advised Charlie again. "I've +pulled and pulled, and I can't get Bunny loose. His trick didn't work +out right." + +But Sue made up her mind that she would see what was the matter with +Bunny before she called on her father and mother to come and help. She +and Bunny had often been in little troublesome scrapes before, and often +they got out by themselves. They might do it this time. So Sue darted +around the piled-up scenery, and there she saw a group of boys around +the stage watering trough. + +This was made to look like the watering troughs you may have seen in the +country, made from a big, hollowed-out log. Only this one was made of +sheet tin, and painted to look like wood. + +Down in the trough was Bunny Brown. He was stretched out at full length +and he seemed to be caught. In fact he was caught, and the reason for it +was that Bunny was a little too big to fit in the stage trough--that is +his shoulders were too large. But his legs and feet were free, and with +his shoes he was drumming a tattoo on the inside of the tin trough, +which was somewhat like a bathtub. + +"Oh, Bunny Brown, what have you done now?" cried Sue, when she saw her +brother in the trough and the crowd of boys standing around him. + +"I--I'm stuck fast!" Bunny replied. "I was practising a trick, like the +one I'm going to do on the stage when we give our play. I got in the +trough, and now I can't get out." + +"It's a good thing we didn't put the water in as he wanted us to do," +said George Watson, "else he'd be soaking wet now." + +"Yes, I'm glad you didn't put the water in," agreed Bunny. "But say, I +wish I could get out!" + +He wiggled and squirmed, but still he was held fast. + +"Oh, if he has to stay stuck in there all the while Bunny can't be in +the show!" said Sadie West. + +"We'll get him out!" declared Charlie Star. "Come on, Harry, you and +George each take hold of him on one side, and Bobby Boomer and I'll pull +his legs." + +"My legs aren't caught!" said Bunny. "It's my shoulders!" + +"Well, if I pull on your legs it'll help get your shoulders loose, I +guess," returned Charlie. "Come on now, fellows!" + +"Can't we girls help too?" asked Sue. + +"Well, maybe you could," Charlie agreed. "All pull." + +"Don't tear my clothes," protested Bunny. "If I tear my clothes maybe my +mother won't let me be in the show." + +"Come on now, let's all pull together!" suggested Charlie. + + [Illustration: "COME ON NOW, LET'S ALL PULL TOGETHER!" + _Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Giving a Show._ _Page 96_] + +As many of the boys and girls as could, gathered around the trough and +tried to pull Bunny loose. But he stuck fast in spite of all they could +do. Then Sue said: + +"I'm going to tell mother. She'll know how to get him loose. Once he was +stuck in the rain water barrel, when it was empty, and my mother got him +out. She can do 'most everything. I'll go for her." + +"Yes, I guess you'd better," agreed Bunny. "We've got a lot to do to get +ready for the play, and I can't do anything while I'm stuck fast here." + +"It's a good thing this isn't in the play, or everybody in the audience +would be laughing at us," said Harry Bentley. + +"I--I guess I won't get in the trough when we give our play real," +decided Bunny. "I might get stuck then. I'll think up some other trick +to do." + +Sue was about to hurry away, intending to call her mother, when some one +was heard coming up the stairs that led to the loft over the garage. A +moment later the head and shoulders of Mart Clayton came into view. + +"Oh, Mart!" cried Sue, for she and Bunny felt quite well acquainted with +the boy and girl performers, "Bunny is stuck in the trough and he can't +get out!" + +"Is there water in it?" asked Lucile's brother quickly, as he jumped up +the rest of the stairs. + +"No!" answered a chorus of boys and girls. "Not a drop." + +"Oh, then he's all right," said Mart. "I'll soon have him out." + +And he did. It was very simple. Mart simply pulled Bunny's coat off, +over the little fellow's head, and then Bunny was small enough to slip +out of the trough himself. He had so wiggled and squirmed after getting +into the tin thing like a bath tub that his coat was all hunched up in +bunches. This kept his shoulders from slipping out, but when the coat +was off everything was all right. + +"What did you get in there for?" asked Mart, when Bunny was on his feet +once more. + +"I was practising my act," was the answer. "I'm going to be a farmer boy +in the play, and then I hide in the trough so I can scare an old tramp +that comes to get a drink of water. Only there isn't going to be any +water in the trough when I do my act," said Bunny. "I wanted there to be +some, but mother won't let me." + +"I guess we can do that act just as well without water as with it," said +Mart with a smile. "An audience likes to see real water on the stage, +but we can use some in the pump, I guess. Now then, boys and girls, are +you all going to be in the new play, 'Down on the Farm?'" + +"Yes, I am! I am! So'm I!" came the answers, and Mart laughed and put +his hands over his ears. + +"I guess we'll have plenty of actors and actresses," he said. "Mr. +Treadwell will be out here this afternoon and tell you something of the +little play he is going to write for you--for all of us, in fact, for my +sister and I are going to be in it with you. But now suppose I tell you +a little about a stage, and how to come on and go off." + +"Is Bunny going to get stuck again?" asked Sue. "If he is I'm going to +tell mother so she can help get him out." + +"No, I won't get in the trough again," said Bunny. "I only did it now to +see if I'd fit. And I don't--very well," he added. + +Then Mart told Bunny, Sue, and the others something about how a stage in +a theater is set, and something about the proper way to come on and go +off. A little later Lucile also came out to the garage and she drilled +the girls in a little dance they were to give. + +Then the two young performers showed the others how the stage scenery +was set up to look as real as possible from the front. + +"Where are you going to give your play?" asked Mart, as they all sat +down to rest. + +"Oh, we don't know, yet," said Bunny. "I guess we won't have it until +around Christmas, and by then my father will think up some place for +us." + +"Couldn't we have it up here?" asked Sadie West. "All the scenery is +here." + +"Oh, there isn't room," said Lucile. "We have to have a stage, and then +there is no place up here for the audience to sit. And there isn't any +use in giving a play unless you have an audience. That's half the fun. +What are you going to do with all the money you make, Bunny Brown?" she +asked the little chap. + +"Oh, I--I guess we'll give it to mother's Red Cross," he answered. "But +first we've got to find out what sort of acts we can give. Our dog +Splash is a good actor--he was in our circus." + +"I guess Mr. Treadwell can work Splash into the play in some way," said +Mart. "We'll ask him." + +That afternoon the actor gathered the children around him, out in the +loft over the garage, and, by questioning them, he found out what each +one could do best. Some could recite little verses, others could sing +and some could dance. + +"Can't I have my trained white mice in the play?" asked Will Laydon. +"They twirl around on a wire wheel and one of 'em stands up on his hind +legs." + +"Well, perhaps we can use them," said the actor. "Now I'll tell you a +little about the play I am going to write for you. It will be in three +acts. One act will be in the meadow, as we have the scenery for that and +must use what we have. Another act will be in the barnyard, and we can +use as many animals there as we can get. Then we'll have the last act +in the orchard, and you children can be in swings, in the trees, or +playing around." + +"We've got only one tree and not many of us can get in that," objected +Charlie Star. + +"Well, perhaps I can rig up another tree--or something that will do," +said Mr. Treadwell. "We'll decide about that later. Now as to the play. +I thought I'd have it very simple. It's about an old man and two +children who have lived in the city all their lives. They are in the +show business and they get tired of it. One day while traveling about +they miss their train, and they are left in a lonely country town. + +"At first they don't like it, but when they see how quiet and peaceful +it is, after the hot, noisy city, they decide to stay. They reach a +farmhouse and find some children who are tired of the country and want +to go to the city. The old man and the city children tell the country +children about how hot it is in town, and advise them to stay in the +fields and meadows. + +"Then the old man and the children with him do some of the things they +used to do in a city theater, and the country children do some of the +things they do Friday afternoons at school. And they all have a good +time. Then they hear about some poor people who live in a hospital, or +some place like that, and they decide to get up a show to make money to +give to the poor folks who haven't had much joy in life. So they give a +little show, make some money and all ends happily. How do you like +that?" + +No one spoke for a moment, and then Bunny cried: + +"Why--why that's just like you and--and us, Mr. Treadwell! It's almost +real--like it is here." + +"Yes," agreed the actor, "I thought I'd make it as real as possible, and +as natural. It will go better that way. Do you like it?" + +"Oh, it's lovely!" said Sue. "I hope Sadie West will speak the piece +about a Dolly's Prayer." + +"Yes, she speaks that very nicely," said Mary Watson. + +"Then we'll have her do it in our little play," decided Mr. Treadwell. +"And now I'll start to work writing the play and we can soon begin to +practice." + +"And we really can give the money to the Blind Home here, instead of to +the Red Cross, maybe," said Bunny. "Once mother and some ladies got up +an entertainment and they made 'most fifty dollars for the Blind Home." + +"I hope we can make as much," said Lucile. "It's dreadful to be blind. I +feel so sorry for our Uncle Bill. I wish we could find him." + +"And I wish we could find Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie," added Mart. "But +still we like it here," he hastened to add, lest Bunny and Sue might +think he and his sister did not care for all that Mr. and Mrs. Brown had +done for them. + +In the week that followed Mr. Treadwell, when he was not working in Mr. +Brown's office, keeping books, wrote away at the little play. Mart, too, +when he was not busy at the dock, helping Bunker Blue, did what he could +to get ready for the show. The children did not tell any one except +their fathers and mothers what it was to be about. + +"It must be a secret," said Bunny Brown. "Then everybody will buy a +ticket to come and see it." + +"But where are we going to have the show?" asked Sue of Bunny one night. + +"I don't know," Bunny answered. + +"I must begin to look around for a place for you," said Mr. Brown. "I +did think we could use the old moving picture theater, but that has been +sold and is being torn down. But we'll find some place. How are you +coming on with the children's play?" he asked the impersonator. + +"Very well, I think," was the answer. "We'll soon be ready for a trial, +or rehearsal, as it is called. Have you heard anything about the uncle +and aunt of Mart and Lucile?" he asked. + +"No," replied Mr. Brown, "I haven't. I have written several letters +hoping to get some word, but I haven't as yet. I can't even find out +where Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are. They might have found the address of the +children's Aunt Sallie and Uncle Simon. But Jackson seems to have +vanished after his show failed." + +"Yes, that often happens," said Mr. Treadwell. + +"If we could only find our Uncle Bill he could tell us just what we want +to know," said Mart. "But I don't know where he is." + +"Could he, by any chance, be in this Blind Home just outside of your +town?" asked the actor. + +"No, I thought of that, and inquired," said Mr. Brown. "There is no +person named Clayton in the place. Well, we'll just keep on hoping." + +The weather was now getting colder. Thanksgiving came, and there were +jolly good times in the Brown home. Mart and Lucile said they had never +had such a happy holiday since their own folks were with them, and Mr. +Treadwell, who was invited to dinner, told such funny jokes and stories, +making believe he was a colored man, or an Irishman, at times, that he +had every one laughing. Bunker Blue came to dinner also, and he said he +had had as much fun as if he had been to the theater. + +"You'll come to our show, won't you, Bunker?" asked Bunny, when he could +eat no more. + +"Oh, sure, I'll come!" said the fish boy. "And I'll clap as loud as I +can when you get in the water trough." + +"I'm not going to get in," decided Bunny. "I'm going to let Charlie +Star do that--he's smaller 'n I am." + +The children were given their parts for the farm play, and they +practiced whenever they had a chance over the garage. The scenery was +still stored there, and Mr. Brown was trying to find a place in town +large enough for the show to be given. + +It was one evening after a day of practice, and while Bunny, Sue, and +the others in the Brown house were talking about the play, that a ring +came at the front door. + +"Oh, maybe that's a special delivery letter to say our uncle and aunt +have been heard from!" exclaimed Lucile. + +"Oh, if it should be!" murmured Sue, hopefully. + +But it was Mr. Raymond, the hardware store keeper, in whose place Wango +the monkey had once got loose. + +"Good evening, Mr. Brown," was Mr. Raymond's greeting as he came in. "I +heard you were looking for a place for the children to give some sort of +entertainment--is that so?" + +"Yes," was the answer. "I did hope we might get the old moving picture +theater, but that's been sold, and I really don't know what to do. We +have the scenery, the children have nearly learned their parts, but we +have no place to give the show." + +"Well, I've come to tell you where you can find a place," said the +hardware man, and Bunny and Sue clapped their hands in delight. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE STRANGE VOICE + + +"This is very kind of you, I'm sure, Mr. Raymond," said Mr. Brown. "I +didn't know there was any place in town I hadn't thought of. The church +will hardly do, and the Opera House costs too much to hire for a simple +little play. The town meeting hall is too small, and I was thinking we'd +have to get a tent, perhaps. + +"No, you won't have to do that," said the merchant. "You know there's a +big loft over my store, don't you?" + +"Yes, but I thought you had that piled full of things," said Mr. Brown. + +"Well, it was, but it's partly cleaned out now," was the answer. "I'm +going to clean out the rest, and you can have that place for your show, +and welcome. It won't cost you a penny for rent." + +"Oh! Oh!" Bunny Brown and his sister Sue fairly squealed in delight. + +"I'm glad you like it," said Mr. Raymond with a smile. "I was up in my +attic, as I call it, the other day, and after I got to thinking about +cleaning it out I thought of you children and your show. I heard some +one say that Mr. Brown couldn't get just the place that would suit, so +began to measure around, and I think mine will do." + +"I'm sure it will," said Mrs. Brown. + +"But is there a stage and are there seats for the audience?" asked Mart, +who was the first to think of these things. + +"No, there isn't a stage, nor yet any seats," said Mr. Raymond, and at +hearing this Bunny and Sue looked disappointed. But they brightened up +when Mr. Raymond went on with a smile: + +"I'm going to build a stage in the place, and also put in seats. It's +about time we had, in this town, some place where little shows and +entertainments can be given. The town hall is too small, and the Opera +House is too big. I'm going to make mine in-between." + +"Like the big bear and the little bear and the middle-sized bear!" +laughed Sue. + +"That's it," said Mr. Raymond. "I expect to make some money by renting +out my hall after I get it fixed up. But I'm going to let you folks +have it for nothing this time," he was quick to say. "It will advertise +the place, and people will know about it. So now if you'd like it I'll +go ahead and fix up the stage and the seats, and as soon as it's ready +you can move your scenery in and have your show, Bunny Brown." + +"Will it be ready in time for a Christmas entertainment?" asked Lucile. + +"Oh, yes, I'll see to that!" promised Mr. Raymond. + +"Well, I'm sure we can't thank you enough," said Mr. Brown. "I had +promised the children a place for their show, but I was just beginning +to think I couldn't find one. This will be just the thing." + +"And Mr. Raymond can come to our play for nothing!" cried Bunny. + +"Yes, I think that's the least we can offer him," laughed Mrs. Brown. + +There was great excitement in town the next day, especially among the +boys and girls, when it became known that a new hall was to be built +over the hardware store, and it can be easily believed that Bunny, Sue, +and their friends who were to be in the play, "Down on the Farm," were +more excited than any one else. + +While they waited for Mr. Raymond to have his "attic," as he called it, +cleaned out and the stage built and seats put in, Bunny and Sue, with +Mart and Lucile, had plenty of fun, as well as some work. For it was +work to get up a play, as the children soon found out. Mr. Treadwell did +his part, in writing the different parts the boy and girl actors were to +speak, but the boys and girls themselves had to learn them by heart, and +it was not as easy as learning to speak a "single piece" for Friday +afternoon at school. + +But every one did his or her best, and soon it was felt that the play +was coming on "in fine shape," as the actor said. It was easier for Mart +and Lucile to learn their parts, as they were used to appearing on the +stage. + +When the children were not practicing they had fun on the snow and ice, +for winter had set in early that year, and there was plenty of coasting +and skating. + +One day Mart and his sister came back to the Brown house, having been +downtown to see how the new hall for the play was coming on--Raymond +Hall it was to be called. + +"Is it 'most ready?" asked Bunny, who opened the door for the boy +acrobat and his singing sister. + +"Yes," was the answer. "Mr. Raymond has had the stage built and they are +putting in the seats to-day. Was there any mail for us, Bunny?" Mart +asked. + +"No," answered the little boy. + +"Oh dear!" sighed Lucile. "I don't believe we'll ever hear from our +folks. I guess they've forgotten us!" + +"Maybe you'll hear at Christmas," said Sue softly. "You get things at +Christmas you don't get in all the year, and maybe you'll get the letter +you want, Lucile." + +"I hope so," was the answer. "It's lonesome not to have any folks +writing to you. But of course we love it here!" she made haste to add, +for indeed the Browns were very kind to the boy and the girl, and also +to Mr. Treadwell, who seemed to like it in Bellemere. + +At last the new hall was finished, the farm scenery Mr. Brown had +bought was moved in, and one bright, sunny day, with the sparkling white +snow on the ground outside, the boys and girls gathered over the +hardware store for practice. + +"Now we will try the first act," said Mr. Treadwell, when the meadow +scene had been set up on the stage, and it "looked as real as anything!" +as Sue whispered to Sadie West. + +"Take your places!" said the actor. "Remember now, Bunny and Sue are +supposed to be picking daisies in the meadow, and you other children are +picking buttercups. All at once an old tramp comes along the road--which +is the front of the stage, as I've told you." + +"Oh, I don't want to play if there's going to be an old twamp in it!" +exclaimed little Belle Hanson. "I don't like twamps! They's awful +dirty!" + +"It isn't a real tramp," said Mr. Treadwell. "I dress up like one, +Belle," for he had arranged to have a number of costumes for himself so +he could take different parts in the little play. + +"Well, if it's just a play twamp all wight," said Belle. "They's wagged +maybe, but not dirty." + +The children were told what they must do and say for the first act. They +had practiced it over and over again, but even then some of them would +forget at times. + +"Now we're all ready," said Mr. Treadwell, at length. "Start to pick +daisies, Bunny and Sue, and the rest of you pick buttercups. Then I'll +make believe I'm a tramp and come along the road." + +As this was not what is called a "dress rehearsal" neither Mr. Treadwell +nor the children had on any special costumes. They were wearing their +everyday clothes. + +Bunny, Sue, and the others took their places, and spoke their proper +lines. + +"Oh, here comes a tramp!" suddenly cried Sue to her brother, as she was +supposed to do in the play when Mr. Treadwell appeared on the stage. +"Here comes a tramp!" + +Now Bunny was supposed to have a speech at this point, but no sooner had +Sue cried out just as she had been taught to do, than a strange voice +answered her, saying: + +"A tramp is it! Set the dog on him! Here, Towser! Get after the tramp! +No tramps allowed around here! Bow! Wow! Wow!" and then came a shrill +whistle as of some one calling a dog. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A SURPRISE + + +Mr. Treadwell, who was closely watching Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, +to see that they did their first part in the play all right, looked up +in surprise as he heard the strange voice speaking about the tramp, +calling the dog and whistling. + +"Please don't do that," said the actor. "That isn't in the play. Who +said it?" + +"No--nobody--I guess," replied Charlie Star. + +"Well, somebody must have said it, for I heard it," replied Mr. +Treadwell, with a smile. "Don't do it again! Now Bunny and Sue try it +again. Make believe, Sue, that you see a tramp coming down the road. I'm +to be the tramp, you know, and on the night of the show I'll really +dress up like one. Now go on." + +Bunny looked at Sue and Sue looked at Bunny. The other children in the +play also looked at one another. They were sure none of them had spoken, +and yet Mr. Treadwell seemed to think the voice had been one of theirs. + +"Oh, here comes a tramp!" cried Sue once more, and Bunny was just about +to repeat his part, when, again, came the strange, shrill voice, saying: + +"No tramps allowed! No tramps wanted! Give him a cold potato and let him +go!" + +"Oh, I'm not going to stay here!" suddenly cried Sadie West. + +"There is something funny here," said Bunny Brown. "None of us is +talking and yet we hear a voice." + +Mr. Treadwell, who had been looking over the papers on which he had +written down the different parts of the play, looked up quickly when he +again heard the strange voice. He was just about to ask who had called +out when something fluttered down out of the stage tree which was to be +set up in the orchard scene. The tree was off to one side, in what are +called in theater talk, the "wings." Out of the tree fluttered something +with flapping wings. + +"It's a big owl!" cried George Watson. + +"Don't let it get hold of your hair or it'll pull it all out!" called +Sue. "Owls feets gets tangled in your hair," and she put her hands over +her head. + +"Pooh! They don't either!" cried Helen Newton. + +The children were rushing here and there about the stage, and Mr. +Treadwell was trying to see where the strange bird was going to light, +when Bunny Brown cried out: + +"'Tisn't an owl at all! It's Mr. Jed Winkler's parrot!" + +And when the fluttering bird had come to rest on top of the stage barn, +it was seen that it was just what Bunny said--a big, green parrot. There +it perched, picking at a make believe shingle with its hooked bill, and +calling in its shrill voice: + +"No tramps allowed! No tramps allowed! Call the dog! Here, Towser! Give +him a cold potato and let him go! Bow wow!" + +Then how all the children laughed! + +"Why, it surely is Mr. Winkler's parrot!" exclaimed Mr. Treadwell, as he +looked at the green bird. "He was safe in his cage when I came out this +morning, but he must have got loose. I'd better go and tell Miss +Winkler, for she likes the parrot as much as she doesn't like Jed's +monkey. She told me she was teaching the parrot to say some new words, +but I didn't know they were about tramps or I would have known right +away it wasn't any of you children speaking during the play. Come on +down, Polly!" called the actor to the green bird. + +But Polly seemed to like it up on top of the stage barn, and from the +top of the roof it cried again: + +"No tramps! No tramps allowed! Towser, get after the tramps!" + +The children laughed again, and Mr. Treadwell said: + +"It wouldn't do to have the parrot in the play, or he'd spoil the first +scene. Now I'd better go and tell Miss Winkler where she can find the +bird." + +But he was saved this trouble, for just then Miss Winkler herself came +up the stairs leading from the hall at one side of the hardware store. + +"Is my parrot here, Mr. Treadwell?" she asked the actor who boarded at +her house. "I let him out of his cage when I was cleaning it a while +ago, and when I looked for him, to put him back, he was gone. One of my +windows was open and he must have flown out. Some of my neighbors said +they saw a big bird flying toward the hardware store, so I came over. +Mr. Raymond and I couldn't find him downstairs, and he told me to look +up here. Have you seen Polly?" + +The big, green bird answered for himself then, for he cried out: + +"Look out for tramps!" + +"Oh, there you are!" exclaimed Miss Winkler. "Aren't you ashamed of +yourself, Polly, to fly off like that? You'll catch your death of cold; +too, coming out this wintry weather! Here, come to me!" + +She held out her hand, and the parrot fluttered down to one finger. Miss +Winkler scratched the green bird's head, and the parrot seemed to like +this. + +"No tramps allowed!" he cried. + +"I taught him to say that!" said Miss Winkler. "I thought it would be a +good thing for a parrot to say. Often tramps come around when Jed isn't +at home, and if they hear Polly speaking they'll think it's a man and +go away. Now, Polly, we'll go home!" + +"No tramps allowed!" said the bird again. + +"I hope my parrot didn't spoil the play," said Miss Winkler to Mr. +Treadwell and the children. + +"Oh, no," answered the actor. "We didn't know he was in here, and when +he began talking I thought it was one of the boys or girls speaking out +of turn. But he did no harm." + +"I'm glad of that," said the elderly woman. "A parrot is a heap sight +better than a monkey, I tell Jed. He ought to teach Wango to talk, and +then he'd be of some use!" + +The children laughed as she went downstairs with the parrot on her +finger, and Sue said: + +"A monkey would be funny if he could talk, wouldn't he?" + +"I should say so!" exclaimed Mr. Treadwell. "But now, children, we'll +get on with the play." + +Miss Winkler took her parrot home and shut him, or her, up in a cage. +Sometimes "Polly" was called "him," and again "her." It didn't seem to +matter which. The bird had got out of an open window when Miss Winkler +was busy in another room, and, like the monkey, had gone to the store +of Mr. Raymond, not far away. + +I need not tell you about the practice for the play, as it took so long +for each boy and girl to learn his or her part, and how to come on and +go off the stage at the right time. At the proper place I'll tell you +all about the play, but just now I'll say that for several days there +was hard practice with Mr. Treadwell, Mart, and Lucile to help, or +"coach," as it is called, the children. + +"Do you think we'll be ready by Christmas?" asked Bunny one day. + +"Oh, surely," answered the actor. It was planned to have the play, "Down +on the Farm," given Christmas afternoon, and the money was to go to the +Home for the Blind in Bellemere, and not the Red Cross. + +"Oh, it's snowing again!" cried Bunny Brown, as he ran into the house +one afternoon, when he and Sue came home from school. "May we take our +sleds out, Mother?" + +"Yes, I think so," answered Mrs. Brown. + +"Where's Lucile?" asked Sue. "Can't she come and sleigh ride with us?" + +"She and Mart are out in the pony stable," answered Sue's mother. "Your +father let Mart come home early from the office, and he and his sister +have been out in the barn ever since. I can't say what they're doing. +Maybe you'd better go and see." + +"Come on, Sue!" cried Bunny Brown. "Maybe they're practicing some new +acts for the play." + +But when Bunny and his sister entered the stable where the Shetland pony +was kept, a sound of hammering was heard. + +"Are you here, Mart?" called Bunny. + +"Yes," was the answer. "Come and see what Lucile and I have made for you +and Sue!" + +Bunny and his sister hurried into the room where the little pony cart +stood, and there they saw something that made them open their eyes in +delight. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"THEY'RE GONE" + + +The pony cart, which generally stood in the middle of the barn floor +next to the stall of Toby, the little Shetland, had been rolled back out +of the way, and in its place stood what first seemed to Sue and Bunny to +be a large box. But when they looked a second time, they saw that the +box was fastened on a large sled--larger than either of their small +ones. + +"What are you makin'?" asked Sue. + +"Oh, something to give you and Bunny a pony ride," answered Mart. + +"Oh, it's a pony sled, isn't it?" cried Bunny. + +"Well, yes, something like that," was the answer, given with a smile. +"There wasn't much to do down at the dock to-day, so your father let me +off early. On my way home I saw this large sled at Mr. Raymond's store. +It was broken, so he let me buy it cheap. I brought it here, mended it, +and fastened on it this drygoods box. Lucile helped me, and she lined it +with an old blanket your mother gave us. Now what do you think of your +sled?" and Mart stepped back out of the way so Bunny and Sue could see +what he had made. + +"Oh, it's just--just dandy!" cried the little boy. + +"And it's a real seat in it!" exclaimed Sue. + +"Yes, we took a smaller box and put it inside the large one for a seat," +explained Lucile. "Now don't you want to go for a ride?" + +"I--I--oh, it's dandy," cried Bunny, his eyes round with pleasure. + +"See," went on Mart, "I am going to take the thills off the pony cart +and fasten them on this sled. Then you can hitch up the Shetland and go +for a ride." + +"Oh! Oh!" squealed Sue, in delight, as she jumped up and down on the +barn floor. + +"Say, this is more than dandy!" cried Bunny. "It's _Jim Dandy_!" + +He went closer to look at the home-made sled while Mart took the shafts +from the pony cart and fastened them on the dry goods box at a place he +had made for that purpose. + +"Why, there's room for all four of us in the sled!" said Bunny, as he +noticed how large the box was. "And our pony can pull four. He's done +it lots of times." + +"Well, then I guess he can do it on the slippery snow," said Mart. +"We'll come if you want us to, Bunny." + +"Of course I want you!" said the little boy. + +"And Lucile, too!" added Sue, for she was very fond of the singing girl +actress. + +"Yes, I'll come," said Lucile. "But if you drive, Bunny, you must +promise not to go too fast." + +"Oh, I'll go slow," he agreed. + +"Maybe the snow'll stop and then we can't go riding," Sue said. + +"Oh, go and look and see if it has!" cried her brother. "That would be +too bad, wouldn't it, to have the snow stop after Mart had made such a +fine sled?" + +But a look out the window of the barn showed the white flakes still +swirling down, and Bunny and Sue laughed and clapped their hands in +delight as Mart brought the pony from his stall. + +Everything was just right. The pony backed in between the shafts, and +soon drew the new sled outside where the newly fallen snow let it slip +easily along. + +"It will look nicer when it's painted," said Mart. + +"I think it's nice now!" said Bunny. + +"Terrible nice!" agreed Sue. + +"Well, get in, and we'll have a ride," suggested Lucile. "Can you drive, +Bunny?" + +"Oh, yes!" was the answer; and Bunny soon showed that he could by taking +the reins and guiding the pony around to the front of the house. + +"Come on out, Mother, and see what we have!" cried Sue, as Bunny stopped +the little horse. + +"Oh, isn't that just fine!" laughed Mrs. Brown, as she came to the door. +"What a nice surprise for you children! Did you thank Mart and Lucile +for making it?" + +"I--I guess we forgot," said Bunny. "But we're glad you live with us," +he said to the boy actor and his sister. + +"So are we!" laughed Lucile. "This is more fun than going about from one +place to another, and traveling half the night." + +"I'm glad, too," said Sue. "Now let's go for a ride." + +And they did, down the village street, stopping now and then to let some +of their boy or girl friends look at the new pony sled Mart had made +from an old drygoods box and the broken "bob" from the hardware store. + +The white flakes sifted down, like feathers from a big goose flying high +in the air, the bells on the Shetland pony jingled, and Bunny and Sue +thought that never had they been so happy. + +The snow lasted several days, and each day after school Bunny Brown and +his sister Sue went for a pony ride in the jolly sled. Mart had painted +it a bright red, and it really looked very nice. + +"That boy is handy with tools," said Mr. Brown to his wife one day, when +they were talking about Mart and wondering if he and Lucile would ever +find their relatives. "If he'd like to stay with me he would be good +help around the boats in the summer. He and Bunker Blue are good +friends, and one helps the other." + +"Lucile is good help around the house," said Mrs. Brown. "I'd love to +have them with me always, but of course if they have relatives it would +be better for them to live in their own home. Do you think the +children's play will be nice?" + +"Oh, I'm sure it will. Mr. Treadwell says they are doing nicely. I don't +suppose they will make much money, but they'll have the fun of it, and +it is good for children to try to help others, as Bunny, Sue, and their +friends are hoping to help the Home for the Blind." + +"It's too bad about Mart's blind uncle, isn't it? Do you think he'll +ever be found?" + +"Well, we can only hope," said Mr. Brown. + +Though Bunny and Sue had fun in the snow and on the ice they did not +forget to practice for the new play, nor did the other children. One +afternoon all the little actors and actresses were assembled in the new +hall over the hardware store. A rehearsal was going on, and nearly all +the mothers of the children were there, as Mr. Treadwell had asked them +to come so he might talk to them about the costumes that had to be made +for the little girls and boys. + +Just after the second scene, which took place partly in the barnyard, +and partly in the barn itself, Will Laydon came walking out to the +middle of the stage where Mr. Treadwell stood. + +"They--they're gone!" exclaimed Will, seemingly much excited. + +"Just a moment," said the actor, who was talking to Mrs. Brown. "I'll +attend to you in a minute, Will." + +"But they're gone!" exclaimed the boy, and Mrs. Brown and the other +ladies turned to look at him in some surprise. "My white mice got out of +their cage just now," said Will, "and they're running all over. My white +mice are loose!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SPLASH HANGS ON + + +For a while there was a good deal of excitement and wild scampering +about. Mice ran here and mice ran there. Children scrambled after them +or scrambled to get out of their way. There were cries and shrieks and +laughter. + +One little white mouse, frightened and not knowing where to go, ran up +the dress skirt and into the lap of the mother of Bunny Brown and his +sister Sue. + +"Come here, Will, and come quick," called Mrs. Brown to the owner of the +white mice. "I do not like your sort of pet, come and take it away--and +come quick, I say!" + +"All right, I'll come," answered Will. + +"Don't be frightened," called out Mr. Treadwell. "I'm sure Will's white +mice are too well-trained to harm any one." + +"Oh, we're not afraid!" + +"They won't hurt anybody," said the boy who owned the white pets, and +who was going to have them do little tricks during the show. "Why, +they're so tame they'll crawl all over you and go to sleep in your +pocket!" + +"Oh, take 'em away! Take 'em away!" cried one girl. "I wouldn't have +come if I had known there were to be any mice!" + +"But they're white mice," said Will, "and I didn't know they were out of +the cage. Somebody must have opened the door." + +"I'll help you hunt for the white mice," offered Bunny Brown. "I'm not +afraid of 'em!" + +"I aren't, either," added Sue. + +"I'm not zactly 'fraid of 'em," said Helen Newton, "but they make you +feel so _ticklish_ when they crawl on you!" + +"They're nice," said Bunny Brown, as he crawled under a chair to coax a +white mouse that was trying to hide behind a paper bag. "And they'll do +some nice tricks in our show." + +It took some little time to catch all the white mice. Will made sure, by +counting twice, that he had every one of his pets back in their wire +cage. + +Then Mr. Treadwell told the mothers of the little girls what sort of +costumes the young actresses and actors must have for the different +parts in the play. Everything was very simple, and no costly costumes +need be bought. + +"You see we want to make all the money we can for the Home for the +Blind," explained Bunny. + +"That's a good idea," said Mrs. West. "I think the children are just +perfectly fine to do things like this. It teaches them to be kind." + +After the talk about the dresses and suits, Mr. Treadwell went on with, +the rehearsal, or practice. I have told you something of what the play +was to be about, but changes were made in it from time to time, during +practice, just as changes are made in real plays. It was found that one +boy could speak a piece better than another boy, so he was allowed to do +this, while the first boy, perhaps, was given a funny dance to do. The +same with the girls--some could sing better than others. Most of the +solo singing in the play was to be done by Lucile Clayton. She had a +very sweet, clear voice, and of course she had had more practice than +any of the others. + +Of course all the boys wished they could do some of the acrobatic work +that Mart was to do on the stage. But though some of the lads of +Bellemere, like Bunny Brown, were pretty good at turning somersaults or +flipflops, none of them was equal to Mart, who had been on the stage for +several years. But he was training Bunny, Harry Bentley, Charlie Star +and George Watson to do a leap-frog dance which Mr. Treadwell said would +be very funny. + +Mr. Treadwell was not only the author of the little play, but he was +also the stage director; that is, he told the boys and girls what to do +and when to do it. In this he was helped by Lucile and Mart. These three +performers, who had been in such bad luck when the vaudeville troupe +broke up, were now quite happy again. Mr. Treadwell and Mart were +working for Mr. Brown, and though they did not make as much money as +when they had been acting in theaters, still they had an easier time. +Lucile, too, liked it at Mrs. Brown's. + +Of course the two "waifs" as they were sometimes called, wished they +could find out where there uncle and aunt were. They also wanted to find +their blind uncle. But, so far, no trace of any of them was to be had, +though many letters were written by Mr. Brown and Mr. Treadwell. + +Mr. Treadwell was a very busy man. After he finished work at Mr. Brown's +office he would help the children rehearse for the farm play. In the +play Mr. Treadwell was to take several parts. In one act he was a tramp, +and in another a farmer. Then, too, he took the character of a man from +the city, and later he did a number of impersonations, using the +costumes he had made use of in the various theaters. + +"Don't you think we could have our dog Splash in the play?" asked Bunny +of Mr. Treadwell one afternoon when the rehearsal was finished. + +"Why, yes, I think so," was the answer. "I'll be thinking up a part for +him. Has he good, strong teeth?" + +"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Sue, who was standing beside Bunny. "He has +terrible strong teeth! You ought to see him bite a bone!" + +"Well, I don't know that I want him to bite a bone on the stage," said +Mr. Treadwell, with a laugh. "But we'll see about it." + +Some days after that, during which time Mr. Treadwell spent many hours +with Splash alone in the stable, Bunny and Sue were quite surprised on +coming from school to hear loud barking in their yard. + +"Maybe Splash is chasing a cat!" exclaimed Bunny. + +"It must be a strange cat," said Sue; "'cause he likes all the other +cats around here." + +The children ran around the corner of the house and there saw a strange +sight. Mr. Treadwell was running about the yard. After him ran Splash, +and the dog was holding tightly to Mr. Treadwell's coat, shaking the +tails as if trying to tear it off the actor. + +"Oh! Oh!" screamed Sue. "Our Splash is mad at Mr. Treadwell!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +TICKETS FOR THE SHOW + + +Back and forth across the snow-covered yard ran Mr. Treadwell, and after +him went Splash, the dog, holding to the flying coat-tails of the actor. + +"Splash! Splash! Come here to me!" cried Bunny. But the dog did not +obey. + +"Oh, Mother, come quick!" called Sue. "Our dog is going to eat Mr. +Treadwell all up!" + +Splash, indeed, did seem very angry, for he barked and growled. He +growled more than he barked, for he could not open his mouth wide enough +to bark when he was holding to the coat. + +Mrs. Brown rushed to the kitchen door, and she was as much surprised as +the children were at what she saw. + +"Oh, call some one! Get some man to make Splash let Mr. Treadwell +alone!" cried Sue. + +The actor, with the dog still clinging to him, was running toward the +children now, and, to his surprise, Bunny saw that Mr. Treadwell was +laughing. + +"Is he--is he hurting you?" asked the little boy. + +"Not a bit," was the answer. "Is Splash holding fast?" + +"He's holding tight!" said Sue. "Oh, is he mad at you?" + +Before Mr. Treadwell could answer there was a ripping sound, and a piece +of cloth came loose from his coat. The piece of cloth stayed in Splash's +teeth and the children's dog at once began to shake and worry it, as he +might a big rat he had caught. And as Splash shook the piece of cloth he +growled louder than before. + +"Oh, has he torn your coat?" asked Mrs. Brown. "I never knew Splash to +act that way before. He is always kind and gentle." + +"He's all right now," answered Mr. Treadwell, with a laugh. "This is +only in fun and part of the play." + +"Part of the play!" exclaimed Bunny. "Didn't he really tear your coat?" + +"No," answered the actor, and, turning around, he showed that his coat +was not ripped a bit. Yet Splash certainly had a piece of cloth in his +jaws. + +"It's just a trick I have been teaching Splash during the last few +days," explained Mr. Treadwell. "You see, I'm to take the part of a +tramp in the first act. Now, most dogs don't like tramps, so I thought +I'd have that sort of dog in the farm play. + +"Splash will make a good actor dog, I think. First I found a bit of old +cloth that he was used to playing with and shaking as he might shake a +rat. Then I sewed this piece of cloth to my coat, so it would not pull +off too easily. Then I took Splash out to the barn to train him. As soon +as he saw his own private piece of cloth sewed on my coat he chased +after me and wanted to get it. I ran away and we played at that game +until Splash did just what I wanted him to. + +"That is, he will run after me, grab hold of the piece of cloth sewed +fast to my coat, and he'll hold on while I drag him about until the +cloth tears loose just as you saw it. Though Splash barks and growls, it +is all done in fun, and he likes the play very much." + +"Is he going to do that on the stage?" asked Bunny. + +"I hope that's what he'll do," said the actor, as he patted the dog, who +came up to him, having given up, for the time, the teasing of the bit of +cloth. "You see I'm to be a tramp in the first act of the play. I'll +come walking down the road, and then, Bunny, you'll let Splash loose +after me. + +"He'll run out from the wings--that is from the side, you know--and +chase me, for I'll be dressed in a ragged suit and on my coat-tails will +be fastened the piece of cloth your dog likes so to tease. He'll grab +hold of that, hang on, and I'll drag him across the stage. That ought to +make the people laugh." + +"I think it will," said Bunny. "And they'll think Splash is really mad +at you, won't they?" + +"I think they will, if we don't let them know any different," said the +actor, with a laugh. "We must keep this part of our play a secret." + +"Oh, yes! I love a secret!" said Sue. "We won't tell anybody." + +"Splash is a smart dog," said Bunny, as he patted his pet. + +"Indeed he is!" declared Mr. Treadwell. "He learned this hanging on +trick much sooner than I thought he would. He likes to chase after me +and let me drag him by my coat-tails." + +After Splash had had a little rest the actor put him through the trick +again, and Bunny and Sue laughed as they saw their dog swinging about +the yard, making believe to chase a tramp. Of course, Mr. Treadwell was +not dressed like a tramp now, though he would be in the first act of the +play. + +If Bunny and Sue could have had their way they would not have gone to +school at all during the days when they were getting ready to give the +play, "Down on the Farm." All the other boys and girls who were to be in +it, also, would have been glad to stay at home from lessons, but, of +course, that would never do. But all the time they had to spare from +their books, Bunny, Sue, and the others spent either in practicing their +parts or going to the hall over the hardware store where the performance +was to be given. + +Bunny and Sue had about learned their parts now, and so had most of the +other children. Some were slower than others, and had to be told over +and over again what to do. But, on the whole, Mr. Treadwell said he was +well pleased. + +School would close for the holidays a week before Christmas, and then +there would be more time to rehearse. Meanwhile Bunny, Sue, and their +friends had fun on the snow and ice as well as in practicing for the +show. + +Each day Mart and Lucile anxiously waited for the mail, to see if there +were any replies to the letters sent out, seeking news of their uncles +and their aunt. But no word came. + +"I don't believe we'll ever hear," said Lucile with a sigh. + +"It doesn't seem so," agreed her brother. "I guess we'll soon have to +begin looking for another place with some show company on the road. I +have almost enough money saved to take us to New York." + +"Oh, but we can't let you go yet a while," said; Mr. Brown. "I'm sure +we'll get some word of your relatives some day. Meanwhile, we are glad +to have you stay with us. I like to have you work for me, Mart." + +"Well, I'm glad to work, of course. But I feel that the theater is the +place where I belong. Of course, it's harder work than in your office, +but it's what my sister and I have been brought up to." + +"I'm not going to hold you back," said Mr. Brown, to the boy and girl +performers. "But stay here until after the holidays anyhow. By that time +the little play will be over and you can decide what you want to do. Who +knows? Perhaps by then we may find not only your blind Uncle Bill, but +your Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie as well." + +But Mart and Lucile shook their heads. They did not have much hope. +However, they were glad to help the children get ready for the farm +play. + +One afternoon, when Bunny and Sue came in from school and were getting +ready to go to the hall to practice, they heard their doorbell ring loud +and long. + +"Oh, maybe that's a telegram for us!" exclaimed Lucile. She was always +hoping for sudden good news. + +"No, it's Charlie Star," said Bunny, who had gone to the door. "Oh, come +down and see what he's got!" he cried, and Sue, Mart, and Lucile +hastened down the stairs. + +"What is it?" asked Sue, as she saw her brother and Charlie looking at +something which Charlie held. "Is it a mud turtle?" + +"It's tickets!" exclaimed Bunny. "Tickets for our show! Charlie printed +'em on his printing press!" + +He held up for all to see a small square of pasteboard on which +appeared: + + GRA TE SHOW + BY + BUNNY BWOWN aND HiS + SisTEER S*UE + CoMe 1 comE All and + sEE + "DO$N onTHE farn!! + ADMISHION $25 + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +UPSIDE DOWNSIDE BUNNY + + +For a few seconds Bunny, Sue, Mart and Lucile looked over the shoulders +of one another at the ticket which Charlie Star had brought to show +them. + +"I didn't know we were going to have real tickets!" exclaimed Bunny. +"This is lots more fun than I thought." + +"It's just like a real show, with real tickets an' everything!" +exclaimed Sue. + +"'Course that isn't a very good ticket, yet," explained Charlie. "I just +got it set up and there's a couple mistakes in it. I'll have them fixed +before the show." + +"Yes, I guess it would be better to have the mistakes fixed before you +print the tickets for the show," replied Mart, with a smile. He knew +something about show tickets, and he could see more mistakes in the one +Charlie had made than could the young printer himself. + +"But it's very nice," said Lucile, not wanting Charlie's feelings to be +hurt. "Only you aren't going to charge twenty-five dollars to come to +the show, are you?" she asked with a smile. + +"Oh, no, that ought to be twenty-five cents," said Charlie, "only I made +a mistake. Or else Harry Bentley did. He helped me set the type." + +"Where did you get the printing press?" asked Mart. + +"It's one my father had when he was a little boy," answered Charlie. "He +had it put away in the attic, and he always said I could take it when I +got old enough. So I asked him for it to-day. + +"He said I wasn't quite old enough, but when I told him about the show +we're going to have for the Blind Home he said he guessed I could print +the tickets. So I set up the type. Harry helped me, and when we get it +fixed right I'll print all the tickets for nothing." + +"That will be very nice," said Mrs. Brown, who came in to look at what +Charlie had brought over. "You did very well for the first time, I +think." + +I suppose you children can see where Charlie made the mistakes in +setting up the type. But with the help of his father he corrected them, +and when the tickets were printed for the show they were all right, +even to the price to get in, which was twenty-five cents. + +But of course I haven't really reached the show part of this story yet. +I just thought I'd mention the tickets. There was still much to be done +before Bunny, Sue, and the other children were ready for the first act +of the play, "Down on the Farm." + +Mr. Treadwell gave a great deal of his time to telling the boys and +girls what to do, and in going over the little farm play. All the time +he could spare away from Mr. Brown's office the actor gave to the show. +If you have ever been in a play you know how often you must do the same +thing over. Finally the time comes when you are as nearly perfect as +possible. It was that way with Bunny and Sue. Sometimes they were tired +of saying over and over again such things as: "Here come a tramp!" or +"Let's call Snap, he'll make the tramp go away!" + +Those were only two "lines" in the play, but these, as well as others, +had to be said over and over again, until Mr. Treadwell was sure the +children would not forget. + +Mart and Lucile, also, had to practice their parts, but as the boy and +girl actor and actress had been in plays before, it was not so hard for +them. And though the two little strangers gave much of their time to +getting ready for the performance they still had hours when they thought +of their missing relations--Uncle Bill, Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie. + +For, though many letters had been written by Mr. Brown and Mr. +Treadwell, no answers had come, and at times Lucile and Mart were very +sad. + +But no one could be sad very long when they were near Bunny Brown and +his sister Sue. These two were always doing such funny things and saying +such funny things that Mart and Lucile laughed more often than they were +sad. + +"Do you think, we can have Mr. Winkler's monkey and Miss Winkler's +parrot in the show?" asked Bunny of Mart one day. + +"I guess we can if Mr. Treadwell will write parts for them," answered +Mart. "But the trouble is, you can't be sure that Wango and the parrot +will do the things you want them to. The parrot might speak at the wrong +time, and Wango might cut up by chasing his tail or hanging by his +hind paws from the ceiling, and so make the audience laugh when we +didn't want them to." + +"That's so," agreed Bunny. "Then I guess we'll only just have our dog +Splash in the play. He'll do whatever you tell him." + +"He certainly chases after the tramp in a funny way," laughed Lucile. "I +should think Mr. Treadwell would be afraid the dog would tear his coat." + +"Oh, Splash only bites the old piece of cloth," said Mart. "It's a good +trick." + +A little while after this Bunny saw Mart going out to the garage with +some ropes and straps under his arm. The garage was partly a barn, for +the Shetland pony was kept in it and some hay for Toby, the pony, to eat +was also stored in the same place. + +"What are you going to do?" Bunny asked the boy acrobat. + +"Practice a few of my new tricks that I'm going to do in the play," Mart +answered. "There's a new kind of back somersault I want to turn, and a +new kind of flipflop I want to make. You know in the play I do some +tricks in front of the stage barn to make the farmers laugh. I'm +supposed to be a boy who has run away from a circus." + +"We knew a boy who really ran away from a circus once," said Bunny. "And +he was in our show when we had one down at grandpa's farm." + +"Well, I'm going to do a few circus tricks, as well as I can, though I +never was in a tent show," said Mart. + +"Please, may I come and watch you?" asked Bunny. + +"Yes," answered Mart kindly. + +So the acrobat and Bunny went out to the little barn, and there, with +ropes and straps, Mart made a trapeze, such as you have often seen on +the stage or in a circus. On the floor of the barn Mart spread a pile of +hay. + +"Is that for our pony to come out and eat?" Bunny wanted to know. + +"Oh, no," answered Mart. "That's to make something soft for me to fall +on, in case I slip. In the circus the performers have nets under them to +catch them in case they slip. But you can't have nets in a garage very +well, so I use the hay." + +Bunny watched his friend swing to and fro, sometimes by his hands and +sometimes by his toes, on the trapeze in the barn. And Mart was so sure +and careful that he didn't slip once. So he didn't fall down on the hay. + +"Did you ever fall?" asked Bunny, as he watched the young acrobat swing +to and fro, with his head down. + +"Oh, yes indeed! More than once. And once I broke my leg so I couldn't +go on the stage for over a month." + +"I don't want to break my leg," said Bunny. + +"I hope you never do," answered Mart. "But, of course, as you aren't +going on a trapeze you won't fall and break anything." + +"I wish I could go on a trapeze," murmured Bunny. "I could do some of +the things you do I guess." + +"I'm afraid not," laughed Mart, with a shake of his head. "It isn't as +easy as it looks, and you are not big enough. If you do your somersaults +and part of a flipflop in the play, as you are going to do, you'll make +a hit, Bunny." + +"Do you mean I'll hit the floor?" asked the little boy. + +"No," laughed Mart. "Though if you aren't careful that may happen. But +when I say you'll make a 'hit' I mean that the audience will like the +tricks you do and they'll clap." + +"Like they did in the circus?" asked Bunny. + +"Just like that," said Mart. + +Bunny sat and watched his friend. It looked so easy when Mart swung to +and fro on the rope, twisting and turning this way and that. + +"I could do it," said Bunny to himself. + +When Mart was called to the house by his sister he forgot to take down +the ropes and straps that made the trapeze in the barn. They hung right +before Bunny Brown's eyes. + +"I believe I can do it!" said Bunny to himself, as he looked at the +swinging trapeze. "Anyhow, if I do fall, there's some soft hay." + +And then Bunny did what he should not have done. He pulled some boxes +and rolled a barrel over to the middle of the barn floor until he had a +sort of platform under the trapeze Mart had put up to practice on. Then +Bunny climbed up, got hold of the swinging bar and swung his legs over. +Then something queer happened, for the first thing Bunny Brown knew, +there he was, hanging upside down with his legs over the trapeze and his +head pointing to the pile of hay in the middle of the barn floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SUE'S QUEER SLIDE + + +Bunny Brown was at first so frightened, when he found himself swinging +upside downside from Mart's trapeze, that he did not know what to do. He +was too frightened even to call out, as he nearly always did when he +found himself in trouble. Nearly always his first thought was of his +father or mother. But this time he hardly knew what to do. + +It had all happened so suddenly. He had not meant to get upside downside +this way. All he wanted to do was to sit on the trapeze, as he had often +sat in a swing, and sway to and fro. But something had gone wrong, +something had slipped, and there Bunny was, hanging by his knees with +his head toward the floor. + +Then Bunny had a thought that he might let go with his clinging legs and +drop to the pile of hay. That was what the hay was for--to fall on. It +was a thick, soft pile, but, somehow or other, Bunny did not like to +think of falling on it head first. + +"If I could only land on it with my hands or feet it wouldn't be so +bad," thought the little fellow to himself. "But if I hit on my +head----" + +And when he thought of that he clung with all his force to the wooden +bar. He was still swinging to and fro, and on this first swing Bunny had +knocked to one side the pile of boxes and the barrel with which he had +made himself a sort of ladder so he could reach Mart's trapeze, which +was several feet above the barn floor. So, now that the boxes by which +he had climbed up were out of reach, Bunny could not get down by using +them. + +And he wanted, very much, to get down. He tried to wiggle around in such +a way that he could reach the wooden bar with his hands, but he could +not, and the more he wiggled the more it felt as though he might fall. + +Then Bunny decided that he must call for help. He had hoped that Mart +might come back, but the acrobatic boy was in the house helping his +sister learn a new song Lucile was going to sing in the play. So Mart +knew nothing of what was happening to Bunny. + +"Mother! Daddy! Come and get me!" cried Bunny as he swung to and fro on +the trapeze, head downward. "Come and get me! Mother! Daddy!" + +Bunny might have called like this for some time, and neither his father +nor his mother would have heard him. For Mr. Brown was down at his +office on the dock, and Mrs. Brown was making a cake, beating up eggs +with the egg beater. + +An egg beater, you know, makes a lot of noise, and even if Bunny had +been in the kitchen Mrs. Brown might not have heard him call out. And +away out in the barn as he was, of course she couldn't hear him. I don't +believe she could have heard him even if she hadn't been using the egg +beater. + +So poor little Bunny Brown swung by his legs on the trapeze in the upper +part of the garage and he did not know how to get down nor how to stop +himself. + +"Daddy! Mother!" he called again, but no one heard him. + +On a summer day, when the windows were open, Bunny's voice might have +been heard from the barn to the house, but now no one heard him. + +But, as it also happened, Sue was the means by which Bunny's trouble was +discovered, though Sue, too, had an accident. Soon after Mart came to +the house to help his sister, Sue heard the doorbell ring, and when she +went to see who was there she saw Helen Newton, one of her little +playmates who was to act in the show with Sue. + +"Oh, Sue!" exclaimed Helen, "have you got a doll you could lend me? I +have to have one in the play, and the only one I had isn't any good any +more." + +"Is your doll sick?" Sue wanted to know. + +"She's worse than sick," said Helen. "Our puppy dog got hold of her the +other day, and he dragged my doll all around the kitchen and all her +clothes were torn off and she's chewed and she isn't fit to be seen. I +can't have her in the play with me, though I did at first, before the +puppy chewed her." + +"I guess Sue can let you take one of her dolls," said Mrs. Brown, with a +smile, as she came in from the kitchen where she had been doing her +baking. "What one do you think would be best for Helen, Sue?" + +"Oh, I guess my unbreakable doll, Jane Anna, would be best for in the +play," Sue answered. "If you drop her, Helen, it won't hurt." + +"No, and it won't hurt much if our puppy dog gets hold of her," added +Helen. "Course our dog won't come to the play and chew up any dolls, but +he might get hold of one again when I'm practicing at home. I think the +Jane Anna will be best." + +"I'll get her for you," offered Sue. But when she went to look for the +doll for Helen, Jane Anna could not be found. + +"I wonder where it is!" exclaimed Sue. + +"Maybe your dog Splash chewed her up," said Helen. + +"No, he doesn't chew dolls," replied Sue. "He chews up my school books, +and Bunny's, but he doesn't chew dolls." + +"I wish my dog would chew books," went on Helen. "Then I wouldn't have +to study. Maybe he will chew them after he finds there isn't any of my +old doll left to bite." + +Sue looked in different places in the house for her unbreakable doll, +but could not find it. She asked Lucile and Mart about it, when the +brother and sister took a rest from the song which Lucile was to sing, +though her brother had a part in it. + +"Lost your doll, have you, Sue?" asked Mart. "Well, maybe she is hiding +under the umbrella plant!" + +"Oh, you're teasing me!" said Sue, and that's just what Mart was doing. +For though Mrs. Brown did have an umbrella plant, and a rubber plant +also, Sue's doll was not under either one. + +"The last time I saw you have your unbreakable doll was out in the +hayloft of the barn," said Lucile. "Don't you remember? You were playing +house with Sadie West." + +"O, now I remember!" cried Sue. "I left Jane Anna asleep in the hay in +the corner of the loft. I'll go out and get her for you, Helen. You wait +here." + +So Helen sat down in a chair in the dining room while Sue ran out to the +barn to look for her doll. Mart and Lucile began practicing the song +again. + +Now all this while Bunny Brown was swinging by his legs, upside +downside on the trapeze. It seems to him a long while since he had +started to hang head downward, but, really, it was not very long. For +though it takes me quite a little while to tell you about it, really it +all happened in a short while. + +So Bunny Brown had not been swinging very long, head downward, before +Sue ran out to the barn, or garage, whichever you like to call it, to +look for her doll. Up the stairs into the loft, where Mart had fastened +the trapeze, went Sue. She had just reached the top step and was +wondering if her doll were really there when, all at once, Sue heard +some one cry: + +"Help me down! Help me down!" + +"Oh, my!" was the little girl's first thought, "can that by my doll?" + +Then she knew it couldn't be. For, though some dolls have inside them a +little phonograph that can say words, Sue's Jane Anna had nothing like +this. + +"But somebody yelled!" said Sue to herself. + +Just then the voice shouted again. + +"Help me down! Help me down!" + +"Oh, it's Bunny!" exclaimed Sue, as she heard her brother's voice. +"Where are you, and what's the matter, Bunny?" she asked. + +A moment later she looked toward the middle of the hayloft and saw the +little boy swinging by his legs from the trapeze. + +"Oh, Bunny Brown, are you doing circus tricks up here?" asked Sue. +"Mamma wouldn't let you! Oh, Bunny Brown!" + +"Help me down, Sue! Help me down!" shouted Bunny. "I daren't drop on the +hay, and I want to get down!" + +Sue took a step forward. She did not know just what she was going to do, +but she wanted to help Bunny. And just then Sue's feet seemed to drop +out from under her, and down she went in a funny slide. + + [Illustration: DOWN WENT SUE IN A FUNNY SLIDE. + _Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Giving a Show._ _Page 161_] + +Down and down and down, with a lot of hay all around her, and out of +sight of Bunny Brown, who was still on the trapeze, went sister Sue. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +MR. TREADWELL'S WIG + + +Bunny Brown, swinging by his knees from the trapeze, had just one little +look at his sister Sue, and then he didn't see her again. At first Bunny +thought perhaps he had fallen asleep and had dreamed that he had seen +Sue. So many things had happened since he climbed up on the funny swing +that it would not have surprised Bunny to have learned that he had +fallen asleep and dreamed. + +But a moment later he heard Sue's voice, and then Bunny felt sure it was +not a dream. For as Sue slipped and fell down a deep hole, together with +a lot of hay, she called: + +"Oh, oh! Oh, Bunny! Oh, Mother! Oh, Daddy!" + +She wanted all three of them to help her and she didn't know which one +she wanted most. + +"Oh, Sue! Sue!" cried Bunny, as soon as he felt sure it was his sister +he had seen and not a dream. "Sue! Come and help me!" + +"Somebody's got to help me!" half sobbed Sue, and her voice seemed very +faint and far away. + +And no wonder! For Sue had slipped down the little hole over the manger, +or feed-box, in the stall of Toby, the Shetland pony. In this barn, as +perhaps you have seen in barns at your grandpa's farm in the country, +there is a little hole cut in the floor of the loft, or upstairs part, +so hay can be pushed down from the mow into the stall of a horse or a +pony. There was a little hay covering this hole, so Sue did not see it +when she went up to look for her doll. And it was down this hole that +Sue had fallen. + +Right down she went, into the manger of the pony's stall, but as the +manger was filled with hay Sue didn't get hurt a bit. But the pony was +very much surprised. It was just as if, when you were eating your bread +and milk at the table some day, the ceiling over your head should +suddenly have a hole come in it, and down through the hole, from +upstairs, should slide a little horse. + +"Oh! Oh!" cried Sue, in surprise. Of course the Shetland pony didn't say +anything, but he was surprised just the same. + +Sue wasn't hurt a bit, and soon she scrambled out of the manger and ran +out of the stall. As she did so the little girl heard a bump, or thud, +over her head. That bump made her think of Bunny, and how he was +swinging on the trapeze. + +"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, running up the stairs again. "Did you see me +slide down the hay hole?" + +"Yes," answered Bunny, "I did. And did you hear me fall on the pile of +hay under the trapeze?" + +"I heard a bumpity-bump sound!" said Sue. + +"That was me," explained Bunny. "I couldn't hold on any longer, so I had +to let go. But I fell in the hay and I didn't hurt myself at all. I +thought I would hurt myself, or I'd have let go before this. Now I'm all +right. I can do a trapeze swing almost as good as Mart. I'm all right +now!" + +Certainly he seemed so to Sue, who by this time had got to the top of +the stairs and was looking across the loft at her brother. Bunny wasn't +hurt--the hay on which he had fallen was just like a feather bed. + +"Well, we better go in now," said Sue. "We both falled down but we both +didn't get hurt." + +Bunny stood looking up at the trapeze. He was thinking of getting on it +again, but as he remembered how frightened he was he made up his mind +that he had better let Mart do those risky tricks. + +"Oh, I almost forgot!" exclaimed Sue, as she and Bunny were going out of +the barn toward the house. "I forgot my Jane Anna for Helen. I was +coming out to get her when I heard you holler." + +"I yelled a lot of times before anybody heard me," said Bunny, and he +told Sue how he had climbed up on the pile of boxes, and how they had +fallen so he could not get down off the trapeze. + +"Well, you're down now," said Sue. + +Mrs. Brown guessed that something was the matter when she saw Bunny and +Sue coming back from the barn, looking rather excited, and she soon had +the whole story. Then she told Bunny he must not get on Mart's trapeze +again, as he was too little for that sort of play. + +"Even if there's a lot of hay under it can't I get on?" asked Bunny. + +"No, not even if there's a lot of hay under it," answered Mrs. Brown. + +So that ended Bunny's hopes of becoming a trapeze performer in the show. +But Mart still kept on practicing, and soon he could do a number of good +tricks. Lucile, too, practiced her songs, and those who heard the +children at their rehearsals said the show, which had first been thought +of by Bunny and Sue, would be a good one. + +Charlie Star fixed the mistakes in the tickets he was printing for the +farm play and soon they were ready to be sold. All the fathers and +mothers of the children who were to be in the play bought tickets, and +so did other persons in Bellemere. The tickets were put on sale in the +hardware store, in the drug store, in the grocery of Mr. Sam Gordon, and +in other places about town. + +Mr. Treadwell also made some big posters, telling about the show. These +posters were hung in the window of the barber shop, and one was tacked +up in the railroad station and another on Mr. Brown's dock office. + +Everything was being made ready for the show which would be given +Christmas afternoon. The children could hardly wait for the time to +come, but, of course, they had to. Meanwhile, they had as much fun as +they could when they were not at school or practicing their parts in the +new hall built over the hardware store. + +"How happy we could be living here and going to take part in a nice play +if we only knew where our people were," said Lucile to her brother Mart +one day. + +"Yes, that's all we need to make us quite happy," said he. "But I guess +we'll never see our uncles or Aunt Sallie again. Why, we haven't even +heard from Mr. Jackson since our vaudeville show busted up. + +"Well, I'm going to write just one more letter," went on Mart, and he +got out pen, ink, and paper. "I'm going to write to that man in New York +who used to act in the same play with Uncle Simon. Mr. Treadwell found +that man's address the other day, and I'm going to write to him. He may +know where Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie are." + +"Does he know where Uncle Bill is?" asked. Lucile. + +"I don't know. I'll ask him," decided Mart. + +When the letter had been written Bunny and Sue came in from school. It +was snowing again, and the ground was white with the beautiful flakes. +The coats of Bunny and Sue were also covered, for they had been throwing +snowballs at one another. Their cheeks were red and their eyes +sparkling. + +"Want to walk down the street with me while I mail this letter?" asked +Mart of the two children. + +"Oh, yes!" cried Sue. + +"Can't we go in the pony sled?" Bunny asked. "There's enough snow to +make it slip easy now." + +"Yes, I guess we could go in the pony sled," agreed Mart. "And we can +stop at Mr. Winkler's and ask Mr. Treadwell, if he's at home, if he +wants us to come to rehearsal to-night." + +Soon Bunny, Sue, Mart, and Lucile were riding down the street in the +pony sled, having a fine time in the snow storm. It was quite a heavy +fall of snow, but the weather was not very cold. + +After mailing the letter the four children drove to the home of Mr. +Winkler. + +"I hope the monkey does something queer," said Bunny. + +"I wish the parrot would sing a funny song!" exclaimed Sue. + +"Something seems to be the matter, anyhow," said Lucile, as they got out +of the little sled and walked toward the front door of Mr. Winkler's +house, where the actor boarded. "Look at Miss Winkler running around," +and she pointed to the sister of the old sailor. Miss Winkler could be +seen hurrying about the room from one window to another. + +"Do you want us all to come to practice to-night, Mr. Treadwell?" asked +Mart, as he and the children entered the house and saw the actor +hurrying around after Miss Winkler. + +"Come to practice? Oh, I don't know!" was the answer. "I can't talk to +you right away, Mart. Something has happened!" + +"What is it?" asked Lucile. "Have you heard anything about----?" + +"Oh, it isn't about your kin, I'm sorry to say," was the actor's answer. +"It's just that one of my best wigs is missing--the one I wear when I +dress up like General Washington. Those wigs are scarce, and I hardly +ever let it out of my box. But now it is gone!" + +"And I've searched high and low for it all over this house, but I can't +find it!" said Miss Winkler. + +Bunny and Sue did not know quite what to make of all the excitement over +the lost wig which Mr. Treadwell wore on his head in certain parts of +the play. So they stood to one side while the search went on. Sue looked +in the sitting room, while Mr. Treadwell and Miss Winkler went into the +parlor that was hardly ever opened. + +Something that Bunny saw in a chair in front of the kitchen stove made +him call out: + +"Oh, Miss Winkler! there's a funny old man in your kitchen, and he's +trying to open the cupboard door where you keep the cookies. Come and +see the funny old man!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +UNCLE BILL + + +"What's that, Bunny Brown?" called Miss Winkler, stepping to the door of +the parlor, in which Mr. Treadwell was looking for his missing wig. +"What's that you said about an old man?" + +"There's one in your kitchen now," added Sue, for she was now looking at +the funny "old man" in the kitchen. + +"One what in my kitchen?" asked Miss Winkler, in surprise. + +"A funny old man," said Bunny again. "And he's after some of your nice +sugar cookies." Bunny knew Miss Winkler's sugar cookies were nice +because she sometimes gave him and Sue some. Not too often, but once in +a while. + +"An old man after my cookies, is there?" cried the sailor's sister. +"Well, I'll see about that!" + +Down the hall she hurried, leaving Mr. Treadwell to look for the wig +himself, and this he was doing. + +"I suppose it's some tramp!" exclaimed Miss Winkler. "Wait until I take +the broom stick to him! The idea of taking my cookies! I'd rather give +'em to you children than to an old tramp. I wish your dog was here, +Bunny Brown!" + +"Oh, so do I!" cried Bunny. "Splash would hang on to the tramp the way +he hangs to Mr. Treadwell's coat in the play. Oh, Sue, let's go home and +get our Splash, and sic him on the tramp!" + +By this time Miss Winkler had reached the kitchen door. Bunny and Sue, +with Lucile and Mart, stood to one side, so the sailor's sister could go +in and stop the funny old man from taking her cookies. + +Into the kitchen hurried Miss Winkler. There, surely enough, with his +gray head just showing over the back of a hall chair on which he was +standing, was what seemed to be an old man. He had on a black coat, and +one hand appeared to be reaching up into the cookie closet. + +"Hi there! Get down out of that!" cried Miss Winkler. "The idea of you +daring to take my cookies! Get out of here! You tramp!" + +And the green parrot, in his cage hanging in the kitchen, cried in his +shrill voice: + +"No tramps allowed! Out you go! Sic him, Towser! Bow wow!" + +Bunny, Sue, Mart, and Lucile hurried into the kitchen after Miss +Winkler. They saw her quickly take a broom from a corner. + +And then, as the sailor's sister ran around in front of the chair, on +which the old man tramp seemed to be standing, she gave a scream. + +"Wango! You good-for-nothing monkey you!" cried Miss Winkler. "The idea +of pretending you were a tramp! I've a good notion to take this broom to +you, anyhow!" + +There was a chatter from the chair and the gray head dropped down out of +sight. + +"Oh, was it Wango?" cried Bunny Brown. + +"Indeed it was!" said Miss Winkler. "The idea of his fooling us all like +that!" + +"But he looked just like an old man with gray hair," said Sue. + +"Indeed he did," chimed in Mart and Lucile Clayton. + +Just then Mr. Treadwell came through the hall into the kitchen. + +"It's no use, Miss Winkler," he said. "I can't find my big wig anywhere. +If I use one like if in the play I'll have to send to New York for +another. My wig is lost." + +"No, it isn't, either!" exclaimed Miss Winkler. "There it is--on Wango!" + +She pointed to the monkey, which, just then, ran around from behind the +chair on which he had been standing. And, surely enough Wango had on the +big, white wig for which Mr. Treadwell and Miss Winkler had been +searching so long. The wig made Wango look like an old man. + +"And he has on one of my jackets, too!" exclaimed the actor. "It's one I +use in some of my stage plays, children, where I have to have a very +short, little jacket. No wonder you thought a tramp was in Miss +Winkler's kitchen! Wango, are you trying to be an impersonator, such as +I used to be?" asked Mr. Treadwell, laughing and shaking his finger at +Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey. + +Wango made a funny little chattering noise, and took off the wig, which +he held out to the actor. + +"See, he's saying he's sorry!" exclaimed Lucile. + +Next Wango took off the jacket. It was one of the costumes Mr. Treadwell +used on the stage. + +"I guess he won't dress up again," said Mart. "I didn't know he was such +a performer." + +"Oh, Wango is a regular pest for playing tricks!" said Miss Winkler. "I +tell Jed, every day, that I won't have the monkey around any longer, but +I always give in and let him stay. Now if he was as nice and quiet as +the parrot it would be all right." + +And just then the parrot began to screech and to cry: + +"No tramps allowed! Sic 'em, Towser!" + +Really the parrot made more noise than Wango, but Miss Winkler did not +seem to think so. + +"Well, I'm glad to get back my wig, anyhow," said Mr. Treadwell, as he +took that and the jacket from Wango. "This little monkey must have gone +in my room, found that I left my trunk open, and then he took out what +he wanted." + +"Do you really think he knew he was dressing up like a tramp?" asked +Lucile. + +"You never know what Wango thinks he's doing," said Miss Winkler. "But +I'm glad I caught him in time. There wouldn't have been a cookie left if +he had got his paws in the jar." + +"Are there any cookies left now, Miss Winkler?" asked Bunny, with a +funny little side look at his sister. + +"Oh, yes, there's a whole jar full," answered the sailor's sister. + +"Are you--aren't you going to give Wango any?" asked Bunny. + +"Give Wango any? Give my good sugar cookies to that monkey? Well, I +guess not!" cried Miss Winkler. Then, as she looked at Bunny and Sue, a +more gentle look came over her face. + +"But I guess I'll give you children some," she said. "If it hadn't been +that you saw Wango he might have cleaned out my cupboard. Yes, I'll give +you children some cookies." + +So she brought the jar from the cupboard, and not only gave some of her +cookies--which were really very good--to Bunny and Sue, but also to +Mart and Lucile. And even Mr. Treadwell had some. + +As for Wango--well, I'll tell you a little secret. He had some of the +cookies, too. For when Miss Winkler wasn't looking, Bunny and Sue fed +the jolly little monkey some bits of their cake. Wango was very fond of +sweet things. + +And so the lost wig was found, and Miss Winkler didn't have to drive the +gray-haired tramp out of her kitchen with a broom, for which I suppose +she was very glad. + +Mr. Treadwell had time, now, to talk to Mart and the other children +about the farm play, and he told them there would have to be a number of +rehearsals, or practices, yet, before they would be ready to give a +performance Christmas afternoon. + +The children were drilled over and over again in their parts, until at +last, a few days before Christmas, the actor said: + +"Well, now I am satisfied. I think we are ready for the show!" + +And, oh, how glad Bunny, Sue, and the others were! All their hard work +would amount to something now. + +One night, about three days before Christmas, Mr. Brown came home from +the dock office one evening with Mr. Treadwell and Mart, who had +finished their work. + +"I had a letter from the Home for the Blind to-day," said Mr. Brown, as +they sat at the supper table, for Mr. Treadwell had been invited to +share the meal. "The superintendent would like to have me call, so he +can tell me something about the work of the home and the poor people who +have to stay there in the darkness. He thinks if I tell the audience +that comes to see the children's play something about the Home for the +Blind more people will be glad to help." + +"I think they would," said Mrs. Brown. "Why don't you go over?" + +"I will," answered Mr. Brown. "There isn't much to do to-morrow, so I'll +go and take Bunny and Sue with me. Would you like to go?" he asked Mart +and Lucile. + +They said they would, and the next day the five of them went over in Mr. +Brown's automobile. Mr. Treadwell was invited, but he said he had to go +to the hall to make sure all the scenery for the play was ready. + +The Home for the Blind was in a big red brick building on the side of a +hill about two miles across the valley from Bellemere. It did not take +long to get there in the automobile, for though there was snow on the +ground the roads were good. + +Mr. Harrison, the superintendent of the home, welcomed Mr. Brown and the +children. + +"Now please don't think this is a sad place," said Mr. Harrison. "Though +the men and women and the boys and girls here can not see, they get +along very well, considering. So don't think it's too sad. + +"Of course it is sad enough, but it might be worse. That's what all our +blind folk have come to think--that it might be worse. They have ways of +'seeing,' even if they have eyes that are no longer any use to them. I +just want you to go over our place, and then you will be more glad than +ever, I hope, that you are going to help us with your little play. For +we need many things. We need books, printed in the kind of type that the +blind can read, and we need many things so that our blind men and women +can work and make articles to sell. The money you are going to give us +from your play will help to buy these things." + +Then, indeed, Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were very glad they had +decided to have a play, and they saw men and women and boys and girls +who did not seem to be without their sight, for they went about almost +as quickly as Bunny and Sue did. + +"That's because they have learned their way," said Mr. Harrison. "Our +blind folks know their way around here just as you can walk around some +parts of your house in the dark." + +He led them toward the music room, for there was one where the blind +inmates played and sang, and as Mr. Brown and the children went through +the door Lucile uttered a low cry at the sight of a man who was just +getting up from the piano. + +"Uncle Bill!" cried Lucile. "Uncle Bill! Oh, we have found you at +last!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE DRESS REHEARSAL + + +Bunny Brown, who had been listening to the piano music of the blind man, +looked quickly at Lucile as she cried out about Uncle Bill. For Bunny +remembered how much the actress girl and her brother had wanted to find +their blind uncle, so he might tell them where their other uncle and +aunt were. + +Sue just said: "O-oh!" + +"Uncle Bill!" cried Mart, in the same sort of wondering voice as had his +sister. "Yes, that's our Uncle Bill!" he went on, as the blind man, who +had been playing, came over toward them. There was a strange look on his +face, and except for a queer look about his eyes, one would hardly have +known he was blind. + +"Who is calling me?" he asked. "I seem to know those voices, though I +have not heard them for a long time. Who is it?" + +Lucile and Mart stepped forward. Mr. Brown was right behind them, and +Bunny and Sue were near their father. Mr. Harrison, who was in charge +of the Home, looked on in surprise. + +"Do you know Mr. Clayton?" he asked Lucile and Mart. + +"Yes, he is our uncle," Mart answered in a low voice, but, low as it +was, the blind piano player heard. Holding out his hands toward the +young theatrical players he cried, + +"Now I know those voices. Lucile! Mart! I have found you at last!" + +"And we have found you!" cried Lucile. "Oh, how wonderful!" + +"Can you tell us where Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie are?" asked Mart. +"We've lost track of them, and we were stranded after the show failed. +We didn't know where to find you, and----" + +"Say, your trouble all came together, didn't it?" cried the blind man. +"But now, perhaps, it is all over. Let me sit down with you, and then +we'll have a long talk." + +"But do you know where Aunt Sallie Weatherby is?" asked Lucile. + +"Yes, of course! I have her address," said the blind Mr. Clayton. + +By this time he had managed to walk up to Mart, clasping his hands. Then +he found Lucile and kissed her. For, though he was blind, Mr. Clayton +could tell by the sound of a person's voice just where they stood in a +room, and walk over to them. + +"Oh, how glad I am to find you again!" he said, as he felt around for a +chair and sat down. "I have been waiting for a letter from Mr. Jackson +so I might find you, but he has been a long time writing, and since my +last letter to him I came to this place." + +"We don't know where Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are," said Lucile. "They left +us, after the company broke up, and we haven't heard from them since. +But we didn't know you were here!" + +"You weren't the last time we inquired," added Mart. "We knew you were +in some such place as this, but Mr. Brown asked and no one here had +heard of you." + +"That's because I only came the other day," said the blind Mr. Clayton. +"You see I am thinking of going back on the stage again, doing a funny +piano act. I can play pretty well, even if I am blind," he said, +turning toward Mr. Brown, for he seemed to know just where the +children's father sat. "And as I don't like to sit around doing nothing +I've decided to go back on the stage again." + +"We're going on the stage!" cried Bunny, who, with Sue, had been waiting +for a chance to get in a word or two. + +"We're going to have a real play on a farm," said Sue. "And you ought to +see our dog Splash hang on to Mr. Treadwell." + +"Treadwell? Is that the impersonator?" asked Mr. Clayton. + +"Yes," answered Mart. "He is helping us with the little play." + +"And maybe you could be in it and play the piano!" cried Bunny. "We +heard you play the piano terrible nice!" + +"Well, I'm glad you liked it," said Mr. Clayton, with a laugh, "but I'm +afraid I'm not quite ready to start a performance yet. I need more +practice. Oh, but I am glad you have found me, and that I have found +you!" + +"Mr. Clayton only came to this Home a few days ago," explained Mr. +Harrison to Mr. Brown. "I had forgotten that you had asked about some +one of his name, or I would have sent you word before that the +children's blind uncle was here." + +"And if I had known they were so near me, and had been looking so long +for me, I'd have sent them word," said Uncle Bill. "And now tell me all +that happened, Mart and Lucile." + +Their story was soon told, just as I have written it here--how they were +"stranded" when the show broke up, and how Mr. Brown took care of them. +The story of Mr. Treadwell was also told to Mart and Lucile's Uncle +Bill, and how the impersonator had written the little play. + +"And once he lost his wig and Wango the monkey had it!" cried Sue. + +"Indeed! Wango must be a funny monkey!" said Mr. Clayton. + +"He's funny, and so's Miss Winkler," said Bunny. + +They all laughed at this, and then Mr. Clayton told his story. + +He had been an actor as were many of his relatives, including Mart and +Lucile. He had been stricken blind some years before, and had been in +many Homes and hospitals, trying to get cured. But at last he had given +up hope, and settled down to make the best of life. + +He often wrote to Lucile and Mart, and also to their Uncle Simon and +Aunt Sallie. But of late he had lost the address of the boy and girl +actor, and they had also lost his. They all traveled around so much that +one did not know where the other was, except that Lucile and her brother +always stayed together, of course. + +"But where is Aunt Sallie?" asked Mart. + +Mr. Clayton said that she and her husband were many miles away, in a far +country, traveling about and acting. But he knew their address, and he +would at once send them word that Lucile and Mart wanted to hear from +them. Mr. Clayton had not heard from the Weatherbys for several months, +he remarked. + +"Very likely they've been trying as hard to find you as you have to find +them," said Mr. Clayton. "They'll be glad to know that I have found +you." + +"And we're glad we've found you!" cried Lucile, as she kissed her blind +uncle again. "Oh, it's so good to have folks!" + +"We would be glad to have you come over to our house and stay with us," +said Mr. Brown to the blind man. + +"Thank you," he answered, "but I must stay here and finish learning to +play the piano for the act I am to do. Of course I'll come over and see +Lucile and Mart, though. I call it 'seeing' them, but of course I can't +use my eyes," he added. "However, I've grown used to that, and I don't +seem to mind being in the dark." + +"You can't ever see anybody make faces at you--if they ever do--can +you?" asked Sue, as she patted his hand. + +"No indeed!" laughed Mr. Clayton. "I never thought of that. But I +suppose some bad people like to make faces at me, and, as you say, if +ever they do I sha'n't see them." + +"I don't guess anybody would make faces at you when you play on the +piano," said Bunny Brown. + +"I don't guess so, either," added Sue. + +There was more talk, and then it was time for Mr. Brown and the children +to go back home. Mr. Clayton promised to write a telegram to Lucile's +other uncle and aunt. He could write even though he was blind, and Mr. +Harrison, at the Home for the Blind, promised to send the message. + +"Then you'll hear from Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie soon," said the blind +man. + +"I hope we hear before the play!" exclaimed Lucile. "It will make me so +much happier when I sing." + +"Perhaps you'll come over to the hall the night or the performance," +suggested Mr. Brown to Mr. Clayton. "You can hear what goes on." + +"I'll try to come," agreed the blind man. + +Very happy, now that they had found their uncle, Mart and Lucile went +home with Mr. Brown, Bunny, and Sue, promising to come often again to +see Mr. Clayton. + +"Wasn't it queer," said Mart, "that, after all, he should come to the +same Home we're going to help with the farm play?" + +"Very strange, indeed," said Mr. Brown. + +"And now, if we can only get word from Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie, how +happy we'll be!" exclaimed Lucile. + +"Oh, I'm sure you'll hear soon, my dear," said Mrs. Brown when they had +reached home and told her the good news. + +Then followed a time of anxious waiting, with Lucile and Mart looking +almost every hour for a message from their uncle and aunt so far away. +And they and the other children were kept busy getting ready for the +play. For it was almost Christmas and time for the great performance. + +The tickets had been printed, and all the mistakes corrected in the type +that Charlie Star had set up. Many tickets had been sold, and it looked +as though everything would be all right. + +"I do hope we won't make any mistakes," said Bunny to his sister one +day, as they were talking about the coming play. + +"I hope so, too," she answered. "Wouldn't it be terrible if we got on +the stage and forgot what we were going to say?" + +"Yes, it would," agreed Bunny. "I'm going to keep on saying my lines +over and over again all the while. Then I won't forget." + +"Don't be too anxious, my dears," said Mrs. Brown, as she heard the +children talking this way. "Sometimes the more you try to remember +things like that, the more easily you forget. Just do your best, put +your whole mind on it, and I'm sure you will remember the right words to +say, and the right actions to do." + +"It's easier to remember what to do than what to say," declared Bunny. +"Mr. Treadwell tells us to act just as we would if we weren't on the +stage, but of course we can't say anything we happen to think of--we +have to say the right words." + +"I remember once, when I was a little girl," remarked Mrs. Brown, as she +threaded her needle, for she was mending one of Sue's dresses, "I had to +speak a piece in school, and I didn't know it at all well." + +"Oh, tell us about it, Mother!" begged Sue. + +"Please do!" cried Bunny Brown. For there was a funny little smile on +his mother's face, and whenever the children saw that they knew there +was a story back of it. + +"Well, it was this way," went on Mrs. Brown. "When I was a little girl I +lived in the country, and I went to school in a little red brick +schoolhouse about half a mile down the road from our house. We had a +very nice teacher, and one day she said we must all learn a piece to +speak for the next Friday afternoon. + +"Well, of course we children were all excited. Some of us had spoken +pieces before, and some of us had not. And I was one that never had, but +I was pleased to think I should get up in front of the whole school and +speak a piece. + +"When I went home that night I asked my mother what I should learn as my +recitation. She got down a book that she had used when she was a little +school girl, and in it were a number of nice pieces. There was one about +Mary and her little lamb, but I thought that was too young for me to +take, so I picked out one about a ship being wrecked at sea. There were +about ten verses to the piece, and they told how a great storm came up +and drove the vessel on the rocks." + +"I'd like to see a big storm!" exclaimed Bunny. + +"Please keep quiet!" begged Sue. "Mother can't tell about her speaking +in school if you're going to talk all the while." + +"I won't talk any more," promised Bunny Brown. "Please go on, Mother. +I'll be quiet." + +So Mrs. Brown continued: + +"I began to learn this piece about the wreck. I don't remember now, how +it all went, but I know the first two lines were like this: + + "'The thunder rolls, + The lightning flashes!' + +"I remember those lines very well," said the children's mother, "and I +thought how wonderful it would be if I could get up there and speak them +in a loud voice. I practiced hard, too--as hard as you have practiced +for your play. And I thought I had the piece learned perfectly. Finally +Friday afternoon came, lessons were finished, books put away and we got +ready for the recitations in the main schoolroom. + +"I forget the different pieces that were spoken. There were all kinds, +but none like mine. Some were sad and some were funny, and some of the +boys and girls got up and were so stage-struck that they couldn't think +of a single word of the pieces they had learned. + +"Then I was afraid this would happen to me, but when my name was called, +and I walked up to the platform, I was glad to find that I could +remember every single word--or at least I thought I could. + +"But dear me! As soon as I opened my mouth and began to speak it was +just as though the bottom had opened and let everything fall out of +everything. All I could think of was the first two lines: + + "'The thunder rolls, + The lightning flashes!' + +"Over and over again I repeated those lines, and I could not get past +them. The teacher looked sorry for me, and some of the boys and girls +began to laugh. This made it all the worse for me, and my face grew red. +Over and over again I told about the thunder and lightning, and at last +I made up my mind I'd have to do something, or else go to my seat as +some of the other girls had done, without finishing. And I didn't want +to do that. + +"So I braced my feet on the platform, and then I stood straight up in +front of the whole school and fairly shouted out this verse: + + "'The thunder rolls, + The lightning flashes! + It broke Grandmother's teapot + All to smashes!' + +"That's what I gave as my first recitation," went on Mrs. Brown, when +Bunny and Sue had finished laughing. "How those words about my +grandmother's teapot popped into my head I don't know. I don't even +remember my grandmother's teapot, though I suppose she had one. But +that's the verse I recited. And you should have heard the children +laugh!" + +"What did the teacher say?" asked Bunny. + +"At the time I thought she was rather angry," answered his mother, +"thinking I had done it on purpose, to make fun of the speaking. But +really I had not. The wrong two lines popped into my head all of a +sudden. And of course; they spoiled the piece. I know now, too, that she +was trying to keep from laughing, and that made her look stern." + +"I hope that doesn't happen to us," said Sue, as she and Bunny thought +over the little story their mother had told them. + +"I hope not, either," agreed her brother. "Come on--let's go up in the +attic and practice." + +So they did, and for some time they went over the lines they were to +speak on the stage. After a while Lucile and Mart came in and helped +Bunny and Sue. The older boy and girl said the two little ones were +doing very well. Mr. Treadwell, too, who heard Bunny and Sue go through +their parts, said they did very well. + +"We'll have a good practice to-morrow," said the impersonator. + +Then Mr. Treadwell called a dress rehearsal. That is generally the last +one before the show, and it is really a complete performance in itself, +though the audience isn't allowed to come in. + +The day before Christmas Bunny, Sue, Lucile, Mart, and the other girls +and boys assembled in the hall over the hardware store for the dress +rehearsal. Mr. Treadwell was there, and the men who were to help set up +the scenery were on hand. + +Just before it was time for the rehearsal to begin George Watson went up +to Mr. Treadwell. + +"If you please," said he, "couldn't Peter be in the play?" + +"Peter? Who is Peter?" asked the impersonator. "I'm afraid it's too late +to put any one else in, George. They wouldn't have time to practice, +and, besides, we really have all the actors we need." + +"Oh, Peter wouldn't need any practice," said George. "He'd be just fine +in the barnyard scene. I brought him with me!" + +"Well, I'm sorry, for I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint your friend +Peter," said Mr. Treadwell. "But where is he?" + +"Here in this basket," answered George, and he held up a small one in +front of the stage manager. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +"WHERE IS BUNNY?" + + +Mr. Treadwell looked first at George, then at the basket, and once more +at George. + +"Now look here, George," said the actor. "I don't mind your making fun +or having jokes, but I'm very busy now, for the first act of the +rehearsal is going to start. Besides, you shouldn't bring your baby +brother to the hall in a small basket like that." + +"My baby brother?" cried George with a laugh. "I haven't any baby +brother! I have a sister Mary, but----" + +"But you said Peter was in there," said Mr. Treadwell. "And if Peter +is----" + +"Oh, Peter isn't a _baby_, and he isn't my brother," said George with +another laugh. "He's only a----" + +But before he could say what Peter was a loud crow sounded from inside +the basket which George held up. + +"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" sounded all through the hall, and Bunny, Sue, and +the others who were getting ready for their parts in the dress +rehearsal of the play, laughed. Mr. Treadwell looked surprised. + +"Why--why--it's a rooster!" he exclaimed. + +"Yes, Peter is my pet bantam rooster," said George. "I brought him with +me because I thought he could crow in the barnyard scene, and make it +more natural like." + +"Well, a crowing rooster would be a good performer to have in a barnyard +scene on a stage," agreed Mr. Treadwell. "But the only thing about it is +that we couldn't be sure that he would crow at the right time. He might +crow when Lucile was singing, or when Bunny Brown was doing some of his +tricks, or when Sue was making believe run away from me when I'm dressed +up like a tramp." + +"Yes," said George, "that's so. Peter crows a lot, and you can't tell +when he's going to do it. But, Mr. Treadwell, he always crows when he +flaps his wings, and if somebody could hold his wings so they couldn't +flap then he couldn't crow. I wish we could have him in the play!" + +"Well, we might try him, anyhow," said Mr. Treadwell, with a laugh. +"Though I haven't anybody I could let stand near and hold the rooster's +wings so he wouldn't crow." + +"I could do that," offered George. "My rooster likes me." + +"Yes, I suppose he does," agreed the stage manager. "But you have to +recite a piece in the play, George, and your rooster might start to crow +when you were reciting." + +"That would make me laugh," said George, with a smile, "and I couldn't +pucker up my mouth to whistle, and I have to do that in my piece." + +"Then I guess we had better not have the rooster in the play," said Mr. +Treadwell. "But since you have brought him we'll let him stay for the +practice, and we'll see how he behaves. He certainly would be good in +the barnyard scene, and make it quite natural, but I'm afraid he'll crow +at the wrong time." + +"And did you really think George had a little baby brother in the +basket?" asked Sue, as the rooster was being shut up again. + +"Yes, I really did," said Mr. Treadwell. "But now everybody get ready! +The rehearsal will begin in a minute." + +It took a little while for all the boys and girls to find their right +places. Their mothers or big sisters were, in most cases, on hand ready +to help them, to see that this little girl's dress was buttoned up the +back, that her hair ribbon was prettily tied and that the little boys +had their hair combed as it ought to be. + +But at last everything was finished, and the stage was set for the first +scene, that of the meadow. Everything was to go on just as if it was the +real play--the scenery, the lights, the curtain being raised and +lowered, and everything. + +Out in front were the mothers, the big sisters, with, here and there, an +occasional father of the children who were taking part. This was the +audience. Of course this audience didn't pay anything, but Bunny, Sue, +and the others who were getting up the play, hoped a large throng would +come Christmas afternoon, when the real play would be given. + +I must not tell you, here, how the rehearsal went, for it was so like +the play that if I set down all that took place I wouldn't have anything +left to tell you about the main performance. All I will say is that +after the meadow scene came the one in the barnyard. + +"Now if the Peter rooster will crow right this will be a good scene," +said Mr. Treadwell. + +Well, the scene was all right--at least at first. Bunny and Sue did +their parts well, and so did the other children. The people sitting in +front of the footlights--which glowed as brightly as they would in the +real performance--said the show was going on finely. And Peter crowed +just at the right time, too, without any one telling him to. + +"That's great!" said Mr. Treadwell. "I think he can be in the play after +all, George. It helps out the barnyard scene." + +George felt quite proud of his bantam rooster, and Bunny and Sue were +glad the feathered actor was in their show. But alas! Toward the end of +the barnyard scene, when Lucile was singing a sad little song, Peter +began to crow. He crowed and he crowed and he crowed, until Lucile could +hardly be heard, and everybody laughed instead of sitting quietly. + +"I'll go and hold his wings," offered George. But even that didn't +quiet Peter. He kept on crowing louder than ever. + +"I know what I'll do," said Bunny Brown. "I'll put Peter in his basket +and carry him down to the cellar. That'll be dark, and he'll think it's +night and he'll stop crowing." + +"That will be just the thing!" said Mr. Treadwell. + +So as Bunny Brown didn't have anything to do just then in the barnyard +scene, he put Peter in the basket and carried the bantam rooster +downstairs. + +"What have you got there?" asked Mr. Raymond, the hardware man, as he +saw Bunny with the basket. + +The little boy told. + +"Yes, put him down in the cellar," said Mr. Raymond. "That ought to keep +him quiet. I'll turn on the electric lights down there for you, so you +can see. Otherwise you might tumble downstairs in the dark." + +Bunny had been down in the hardware store cellar before, once when his +father was looking at a certain piece of iron for a boat, the iron being +stowed away down in the basement, and at other times, when he himself +wanted to buy some odds or ends from the hardware man to make some toy. +So Bunny knew his way down into the cellar. + +"I'll come and get you after the play," said Bunny to Peter, as he set +the basket, with the rooster in it, on a big box. + +Peter didn't answer. He didn't even crow. I guess he didn't like the +dark. He might have thought it was night, when the electric lights were +turned out after Bunny had gone upstairs, and Peter may have gone to +roost. + +Bunny tramped upstairs and went on with his parts in the play. +Everything went along nicely, and every one said the last act, the one +in the orchard, was fine. Bunny and Sue did well, as did Lucile, Mart +and the others. + +"I wish we could think of some way so my rooster would only crow at the +right time," said George, when talking to Bunny, after the rehearsal was +over. + +Bunny Brown wished so, too, for he wanted the little play to be as real +as it could, so the people who saw it would be glad they had come to +pay money to help the Home for the Blind. + +Mr. Clayton sent word from the Home that he would surely be on hand at +the performance Christmas afternoon. He also said he had not yet +received any word from the other uncle and aunt of the two vaudeville +children. + +"Oh, dear," sighed Lucile on Christmas eve, as she and her brother sat +in the Brown home, "I do hope we can find Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie!" + +"So do I hope you do," said Sue. "But, oh, won't we have fun to-morrow +at the play! And to-morrow is Christmas. I'm going to hang up my +stocking. Are you going to hang up your stocking?" she asked Mart and +Lucile. + +"Well, I don't know," answered the boy slowly. "I guess, seeing that we +haven't heard from Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie yet, that maybe it +wouldn't be any use for us to hang up our stockings, Sue." + +"Oh, I think it would," said Mrs. Brown, with a funny little smile. "You +tell Mart and Lucile to hang them up, Sue. I don't believe Santa Claus +will forget them." + +"There!" cried Sue. "You must do as mother says. Come on, Bunny!" she +added. "Let's get our stockings ready, and we'll go to bed early. +Christmas will come sooner then. Why, where's Bunny?" she asked, as she +looked out in the kitchen where she had last seen her brother. "Bunny!" +she called. "Come on, hang up our stockings!" + +But Bunny Brown did not answer. + +"Bunny isn't here!" said Sue. "Where is Bunny?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ACT I + + +"What's that? Isn't Bunny here?" asked Mr. Brown, who was busy talking +to Mr. Treadwell about the play. + +"This is the first I knew he wasn't here," answered Mrs. Brown. "Did any +one see him go out?" + +No one had. + +"Perhaps he is upstairs," said Lucile. + +"No, he wouldn't go up to bed without telling me," said Mrs. Brown. +"Besides, he's been teasing me all evening to get his stockings ready to +hang up, and he wouldn't go without them. Where can he be?" + +"He isn't in the kitchen," said Sue, for she had gone out to look, and +had come back again. + +"Perhaps he is hiding away from you, just for fun," said Mart. + +"He sometimes does play tricks," remarked Mr. Brown. "I'll take a look." + +They all looked, and they called, but Bunny could not be found. He did +not seem to be in the house. Mr. Brown even opened the back door and +shouted, thinking perhaps Bunny had gone out to see that the Shetland +pony was all right, as he sometimes did. + +"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, "where can he be?" + +"Oh, he's all right," said her husband. "It's early yet, even if it is +dark, and maybe he went out to play in the snow, though of course he +shouldn't at this hour." + +"It's snowing, too," said Mrs. Brown, as she stood in the back door +beside her husband. "Snowing hard! There's going to be a big storm, and +if Bunny is out in it--I wish Bunny would not do such things!" + +"Oh, will he get freezed?" cried Sue, her eyes opening big and round. + +"No, dear, he'll be all right," replied her mother. "But he must be +found." + +"Maybe he went out with Bunker Blue," suggested Mart. + +Bunker Blue, the boy, or rather, young man, who worked for Mr. Brown at +the fish and boat dock, had been at the house shortly after supper, and +later had said he was going back to the office to make sure it was +locked, for it would not be open on Christmas Day. + +"Perhaps Bunny did go back with Bunker," said Mr. Brown. "Though he +shouldn't have done that. But he was so excited about the play there is +no telling what he might do." + +"Bunker ought to be at the office about this time," said Mrs. Brown, +looking at the clock. "Call him on the telephone," she begged her +husband, "and ask him if Bunny is there. I hope he is." + +Bunker Blue answered the telephone a few minutes later, when Mr. Brown +had called him on the wire. + +"No, Bunny didn't come out with me," said Bunker. "But I saw him in the +kitchen with his cap, coat, and rubber boots on when I left. He seemed +to be getting ready to go out." + +"Then he's gone off somewhere without telling us anything about it!" +cried Mrs. Brown. "Maybe he went over to Charlie Star's house, to make +sure there would be enough tickets for the show. Oh, I wish he hadn't +gone out!" + +"I can telephone to Mr. Star and ask," suggested Mr. Brown. But when he +had done this, and no Bunny Brown was there, they all began to get +quite excited. + +"I'll get on my coat and rubbers and go out with you," said Mart, as Mr. +Brown began to put on his overcoat. "He might be in the barn, practicing +some of the tricks he is going to do in the play to-morrow." + +"Oh, I don't believe Bunny would go out to the barn alone after dark," +said Mrs. Brown. + +Her husband and Mart were just starting out into the storm to look for +the missing Bunny when the tramp of feet was heard on the porch. + +"Here comes somebody!" cried Sue. "I hope it's Bunny!" + +But it was not. Instead it was Bunker Blue, and he was covered with snow +flakes. His nose was red, too, even if his name was Bunker Blue. + +"Has Bunny come back yet?" asked Bunker, as he stamped his feet on the +porch, to get the snow off. + +"No, he hasn't," answered Mr. Brown. "We are getting very anxious about +him, too, though the worst that can happen is that he may get cold. He +shouldn't have gone out!" + +"Well, I didn't see anything of him," said Bunker Blue. "I was quite +surprised at what you told me, over the telephone, about his not being +in the house in this storm." + +"Oh, maybe he'll never come back, and then we can't have our nice +Christmas play!" exclaimed Sue. + +"Oh, Bunny will come back all right--don't worry about that," said her +father gently. "If he doesn't come we'll go and get him. In fact, now +that you are here, Bunker, we three might as well set out and look for +the little fellow. He's got something on his mind, or he wouldn't go out +as he did." + +"I'm sure I can't see what made him go out," said Mrs. Brown. "It's +snowing very hard, too," she added, as she shaded her eyes from the +light in the room and looked out of the window. + +"But it isn't very cold, that's one good thing," her husband added. "Of +course I wish Bunny hadn't gone out, but, since he has, we must go out +and find him." + +"Could he, by any chance, be hiding somewhere in the house?" asked Mart. + +"We'll look," decided Mr. Brown, "although we looked before." + +He and Mart, as well as Bunker Blue, were dressed to go out into the +storm to look for Bunny, who was so strangely missing, but when Mart +said this Mr. Brown decided that it would be better to go over the house +once more, to make sure Bunny was not hiding away. + +"We'll take Sue with us to help search," said her father, as he took off +his overcoat, for he did not know how long he would stay in the house. +"Bunny and Sue play hide-and-go-seek games in the different rooms," went +on Mr. Brown, "and Sue knows lots of hiding places; don't you, Sue?" + +"Yes, we hide in lots of places," the little girl answered. "But I don't +guess Bunny is hiding now." + +"Oh, well, maybe he is, just to fool us," returned her father. "Come +now, we'll begin the search." + +And while the storm was getting more and more wild outside, with the +wind blowing harder and the snowflakes coming down more and more +thickly, Mr. Brown, Bunker, and Mart, with Sue and Mrs. Brown to help +them, began searching through the house after Bunny. It was a good +thing they took Sue with them, for she knew many "cubby holes" in which +she and her brother often took turns hiding. And some of these even her +mother had forgotten about, though Mrs. Brown thought she knew every +nook and cranny of the house. + +But Bunny was in none of these places, and though they looked and called +his name and called again, from attic to cellar, there was no sign of +the little fellow. + +"He surely must have gone out!" decided Mr. Brown. "Very likely he's +gone to see some of the boys to talk about the play." + +"Then let's go and find him!" cried Bunker Blue, putting on his coat +again. + +"That's what I say!" came from Mart. "This is no night for a little boy +to be out. It's snowing harder than ever." + +So Mr. Brown, Bunker, and Mart started out to look for Bunny. They went +first to one house and then to another, and there were many houses where +Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were in the habit of calling. At most of +the places were boys and girls with whom Bunny and Sue played, or who +were to take part in the Christmas show. But none of these boys or +girls had seen Bunny. + +"Well, this is certainly strange!" declared Mr. Brown, when they had +stopped at the last place where they thought it likely Bunny would be. +"I guess we'll have to tell the police about it and have them help hunt +for him. I don't see what else we can do." + +"Maybe it would be the best way," agreed Bunker Blue. "I'll go down and +tell the chief of police." + +"No, we had better telephone--that's quicker," said Mr. Brown. So they +stopped in the drug store and Mr. Brown talked to the police station on +the wire. + +"All right," the chief answered back. "I'll start some of my men out on +the search. You go back home and let me know as soon as Bunny is found +or comes back." + +This Mr. Brown promised to do, and soon he and Mart and Bunker were back +at the Brown home. Mrs. Brown looked very much disappointed and worried +when her husband came in without Bunny. + +"Oh, where can he be?" she cried. + +Just then the heavy tramp of feet was heard on the porch. + +"Maybe this is Bunny!" exclaimed Mart. + +And Bunny Brown it was, all covered with snow flakes, his eyes shining +and his cheeks red with the cold. He carried a small basket in one hand, +and the other was clasped in that of Mr. Raymond, the man who owned the +hardware store. + +"Why Bunny Brown! where have you been?" cried his mother, as the lamp +light shone on his flushed face, and made the snowflakes sparkle. + +"And what have you got in the basket?" asked Sue. + +"That's Peter," was the answer, and before any one could ask who Peter +was, if they had wished to, there came a loud crow from the basket. + +"A rooster!" cried Mrs. Brown. + +"Yes," said Bunny. "Peter--he's George's pet bantam rooster. And he +crowed at the wrong time in the practice to-day--I mean Peter crowed--so +I took him down into Mr. Raymond's cellar. And then I forgot all about +him, and I left him there, and I thought of him after supper, and I +guessed he'd be hungry, so I went back to get him." + +"Yes, that's just what he did," said the hardware man. "I was busy +waiting on late Christmas Eve customers, when in came Bunny, all covered +with snow. I didn't know what he meant when he told me he'd come back +for the rooster, for I'd forgotten about the bird myself. + +"Nothing would do but he must bring Peter home, and, knowing what a bad +storm it was, I came back with him. I'd have telephoned, but my wire's +out of order, so I couldn't reach you, and I didn't want to stop to go +anywhere else. So I brought him over in my auto." + +"It was very kind of you," said Mr. Brown. + +"And, Bunny, it was very wrong of you to go away without telling us," +said Mrs. Brown. + +"I'm sorry," answered the little boy. "But I thought maybe Peter'd be +lonesome all alone in the dark, and on Christmas Eve too." + +"That's so!" laughed Mr. Raymond. "I guess, Mrs. Brown, you'll have to +forgive Bunny on account of it's being Christmas Eve." + +"Did you hang up your stocking, Mr. Raymond?" asked Sue, and they all +laughed at that, so that every one felt better, and Bunny was not +scolded, as perhaps he ought to have been. + +"Well, I must get back to my store," said the hardware man. "Merry +Christmas to you, and I'll see you all at the play to-morrow!" + +"Yes, we'll all be there!" cried Bunny. "You're going to have a free +ticket, you know!" + +This had been decided on, because Mr. Raymond was so kind about letting +the children have the new hall he had fitted up. + +"Good-nights," and more "Merry Christmas" greetings were called back and +forth, and then, as the hardware man left in his automobile, to go +chugging through the storm, Bunny Brown and his sister Sue hung up their +stockings for Santa Claus and went to bed. + +"Oh, I'm so happy; aren't you, Bunny?" laughed Sue. "Christmas will be +here in the morning, and we're going to have a play an'--everything +lovely!" + +"Yes," answered Bunny. "I'm glad, and I'm glad I got Peter so he won't +have to stay all alone, too." + +The little rooster was taken out by Mr. Brown and put in the chicken +house near the barn for the night. Word was telephoned to George that +his pet bantam was all right. In a little while every one in the house +was in bed. + +If this book had started out to be a Christmas story I could put in a +lot about what nice presents Bunny and Sue got. And also how Santa Claus +did not forget Mart and Lucile. But as this is a book about Bunny Brown +and his sister Sue giving a show, I must get to that part of my story. +I'll just say, though, that the little boy and girl thought it was the +finest Christmas they had ever known. + +"I hope it won't snow so hard that nobody will come to the show," said +Sue, when, after breakfast, she stood with her nose pressed in a funny, +flat way against the window. It was snowing, but not too hard. + +"O, I guess every one will come," said Mrs. Brown. "They have all bought +tickets, anyhow, so you'll make some money for the Home for the Blind." + +"And I hope Uncle Bill doesn't forget to come," put in Lucile. + +"I had word from him a little while ago," said Mr. Brown. "I'm going for +him in my auto. And now we must have an early dinner and get ready for +the play." + +I think Bunny and Sue were so excited that they did not eat as much +roast turkey and cranberry sauce at that Christmas dinner as at others. +But they had enough, anyhow, and in due time they were at the hall, +where they met all the other children. Bunny had brought back the bantam +rooster, thinking that perhaps, after all, Peter might have some part in +the play. Will Laydon had his trained white mice with him, Splash was on +hand, ready to cling to the piece of cloth on Mr. Treadwell's coat, and +some other animal pets were ready to do their share in the play. + +There was a final looking over of every one, mothers and sisters saw to +it that the dresses and suits of the girls and boys were all right, and +Mr. Treadwell was here, there, and everywhere, back of the scenes and +curtain. + +"Oh, there's a terrible big crowd!" exclaimed Bunny, as he looked out at +the audience through a peep-hole in the curtain. + +"Then we'll make a lot of money for the Blind Home," said Sue. + +"I see Uncle Bill!" cried Mart, as he, too, looked out. + +"Oh, I'm so glad!" exclaimed Lucile. "Now if we could only hear from +Aunt Sallie and Uncle Simon everything would be all right." + +The musicians were in their places. The hall was well filled, not only +with boys and girls who had come to see their chums and playmates act, +but with grown folks as well. + +"Are you all ready?" asked Mr. Treadwell of Bunny, Sue and the others, +as the musicians finished playing the opening piece. + +"Yes," answered Bunny. "I'm all ready." + +"Is my hair ribbon on right?" Sue wanted to know. + +"Yes, you look sweet!" said Lucile. + +"Now all ready for act one!" exclaimed the impersonator as he made sure +that Snap was in his place. + +And then up went the curtain on the meadow scene! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ACT II + + +There was a moment of silence when the curtain first went up, and then +as the audience, many of them for the first time, saw the pretty meadow +scene, there was loud clapping. For the opening act was very nicely +gotten up. The scenery Mr. Brown had bought from the stranded vaudeville +company had been so set up by Mr. Treadwell that it looked very natural. + +"Why, bless me, if that don't look jest like my south meddar!" exclaimed +old Mr. Tyndell, as he looked at the stage. + +"Hush, father! The people will hear you!" whispered his wife. + +"Wa'al, I want 'em to!" he went on. "That's a fine piece of meddar!" + +Several sitting near the old farmer laughed, but no one minded it. And +then, as the musicians began to play softly, Lucile stepped out from +behind a make-believe stone in the meadow beside a pretend brook and +began to sing her first song. Every one grew quiet to listen. + +The play, "Down on the Farm," had been changed somewhat by Mr. Tread +well from what he had first planned. This had to be done as he found out +the different things the boy and girl actors could best do. And the +first act had to do with Lucile, a lost girl who wandered to a farm +meadow near the house where Bunny Brown and his sister Sue lived, only, +of course, they had different names in the play. + +Lucile sang her little song, and then she pretended she was so tired, +from having walked a long way, that she must lie down and take a rest. + +It was while she was lying down on some green carpet that took the place +of green grass in the meadow that Bunny and Sue were supposed to come +along and find her. + +Bunny and Sue had a little act to themselves at this point. They stood +on the stage and talked about the sleeping Lucile. Bunny said she looked +sad and he was going to cheer her up. + +"How are you going to make her feel happy?" asked Sue. + +"I--I'm going to turn a pepper--no, I mean a somersault!" cried Bunny, +stammering a trifle and making a little mistake, for this was the first +time he had acted before such a large crowd. But no one laughed. + +"Can you turn somersaults?" asked Sue. + +"Yes, I'll show you!" answered Bunny. And then, on the stage, he began +turning over and over. + +All this was part of the play, of course, and Bunny was loudly clapped +for the way in which he turned head over heels. He had practiced these +somersaults many times, and Mart had helped him. + +"Well, if you can make her happy by doing that maybe I can make her +happier by singing a song," said Sue. "I'll practice my song while she's +asleep as you practiced your somersaults." + +And so Sue began to sing, while Lucile pretended to be asleep. After +Sue's song Mart was supposed to come along, being a boy who had run away +from a circus, and he was to watch Bunny try to turn a handspring. Bunny +was to make believe he couldn't turn a handspring very well, and Mart +would then take the center of the stage. + +"Here! Look at me do a flipflop!" cried Mart, and then he really did +some very good tricks for a boy acrobat. + +All this while Lucile was pretending to be asleep, and when Mart's +tricks were over she was supposed to wake up suddenly. At this point Sue +was to see the pretend tramp, who, of course, was only Mr. Treadwell +dressed up in old clothes. + +Everything went off very well. Along through the meadow walked the actor +tramp, and then, when Sue and Bunny called for "Snap," out rushed +Splash. + +"Grab him!" cried Bunny, and his dog caught hold of the loose piece of +cloth sewed to Mr. Treadwell's coat. Then began a funny scene, with the +actor pulling one way and Splash pulling the other, until, with a rip, +the cloth came loose and Splash began shaking it as he might a rat. + +Well, you should have heard the people laugh and clap at that! They +wanted that scene done over again, but of course this wasn't like a +song, with two verses. Mr. Treadwell only had one patch sewed on his +coat, and when that was torn off he didn't want Splash to pretend to +bite him again. + +Finally the dog act came to an end and the little play went on with +George and Mary Watson, Harry Bentley, fat Bobbie Boomer, Sadie West, +Charlie Star and Helen Newton, besides other boys and girls, taking +part. They all did well, and the fathers and mothers and strangers, too, +applauded very loudly. + +Lucile's Uncle Bill could hear all that was said, though he could see +nothing, and he seemed to enjoy it all very much. The first act came to +an end with all the children joining in singing a chorus. + +"And now for act two!" exclaimed Mr. Treadwell, as the curtain went +down. "This is in the barnyard, you know." + +"I hope Peter crows at the right time!" said George, for it had been +decided to try the rooster in that act. + +While the audience sat in front of the lowered curtain, waiting for it +to go up again, the children behind the curtain were very busy. Most of +them had to dress in different clothes, or "costumes," as they are +called, for the next act. And, for a time, there was much hurrying to +and fro, much hunting here and there for things that had been mislaid. + +"Where's my red hat?" called Charlie Star as he looked back of a piece +of scenery that had a little brook painted on it. "Has anybody got my +red hat?" + +"Is it a fireman's hat, Charlie?" asked Sue, who was looking for some +one to help her pin her dress in the back. + +"No, it was a soldier's hat, but I'm going to make believe I'm a +fireman, so I guess you could call it a fireman's hat," explained +Charlie. "Has anybody seen my red hat?" + +"Hush! Not so loud!" called Mr. Treadwell to Charlie. "The audience out +in front will hear you, and they'll all be laughing at us." + +"Oh!" said Charlie more quietly. "But I've got to have my hat, or I +can't be in the next act." + +"I'll help you hunt for it," said Bunny Brown. "I know where all my +things are for the next act and I have time to help you, Charlie, 'cause +you helped me a lot by printing the tickets for our show." + +The two little boys began to hunt behind the scene, on the stage, for +the missing red hat. They searched all around for it, but it seemed to +have disappeared. Even Mr. Treadwell helped look, for he knew the play +would not go right unless Charlie was dressed as had been planned for +him. + +"Did anybody see Charlie's red hat?" finally the impersonator called, +when he managed to stop all the others from talking for a moment. +"Please think, and see if you can remember seeing a red hat." + +Then the buzz of talk broke out again, while the men who had been hired +to do it kept on setting up the scenes for the second act. But all the +children who had time to _do_ so helped Bunny look for the red hat. + +"Maybe Splash took it," suggested Sue, when she had finally gotten her +dress pinned to suit her. "I saw him dragging something off to one +corner a while ago." + +"Was it a bone?" asked Bunny. + +"I couldn't see very well, 'cause I was in a hurry," Sue answered. + +"Come on--we'll find Splash!" called Bunny to Charlie and some of the +others who were helping in the search. + +But even the dog seemed to have hidden himself. At last, however, he was +heard growling in a dark corner, and Bunny saw that his pet was chewing +something, and tossing it up in the air, as he often tossed a bit of +cloth or an old shoe. + +"Splash! What have you got?" cried Bunny. "Bring it here!" + +At first the dog did not mind, but finally, when both Sue and Bunny told +him to come, out he came, dragging something after him. + +"Oh, it is my red hat!" cried Charlie, when he saw it. "It's my nice red +hat that mother made for me to wear in the show!" + +And that is what it was. But the red hat was nice and red no longer. +Splash had chewed all the red off it, and the hat was also very much out +of shape. + +"Splash! You're a bad dog!" cried Bunny, shaking his finger at his pet, +and Splash slunk away with his tail between his legs. He always did that +whenever any one called him a bad dog. + +"Oh, see how bad he feels," said Sue, in her gentle voice. "I guess he +didn't mean to be bad and chew your hat, Charlie." + +"But he did chew it!" replied the little boy who was to wear it in the +next act. "Look! I can't even get it on! It isn't a hat at all!" + +"Let me see," said Mr. Treadwell, coming up just then. He looked at what +Splash had left of the hat. It was torn and chewed and the color was all +gone, for the red had been only red ribbons pinned on an old cap, and +Splash had made them look very sad indeed. + +"What can I do?" asked Charlie. "Have I got to stay out of the play?" + +Mr. Treadwell thought for a moment. + +"No," he said. "I'll tell you what we'll do. You were to be a fireman +and wear this red hat, weren't you?" + +"Yes," answered Charlie. + +"Well, you can still be a fireman, but instead of a red hat you can wear +a tin one. A tin hat will be just the thing for a fireman. It will keep +the make-believe hot sparks, as well as the water, off his head." + +"But where can I get a tin hat?" asked Charlie. + +"I'll have Mr. Raymond bring up a small tin pail from his hardware store +downstairs." + +And that's what was done, and the new, shiny tin pail made a very funny +hat for Charlie. He liked it better than the red one that Splash had +chewed. + +After some delay the curtain went up again, showing the barnyard scene, +and in this Bunny and Sue were to drive Toby, their Shetland pony, on +the stage. It had been decided they could do this, as the pony was a +very little one. + +Up went the curtain again, and once more the big crowd clapped as they +saw how pretty and natural it was. There was part of a barn with a real +door that opened, and when it swung wide and out trotted the Shetland +pony on to the stage, drawing a little cart in which sat Bunny and Sue, +why, then you should have heard the applause! + +And then something happened. Just how it came about no one knew, but, +all of a sudden, there was a loud crow, and out from his basket, which +had been hidden back of the wings, flew Peter, the rooster. + +At first no one paid much attention to this, as they all knew it was +part of the play. But when Peter suddenly flew out from back of the +stage and alighted right on the pony's back, Toby was much frightened. + +Up he rose on his hind legs, and then he made a dash for the edge of the +stage. Straight for the footlights he started, dragging Bunny and Sue in +the cart after him! + +Men jumped to their feet and women screamed. It looked as if Bunny and +Sue would be hurt. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +ACT III + + +Lucky it was for every one that Mr. Treadwell was an old actor and stage +manager and that he was used to slight accidents happening during a +show. Just at the time Bunny and Sue, in the pony cart, were seemingly +about to be run over the footlights. Mr. Treadwell was at one side of +the stage, waiting for his turn to go on, dressed as an old soldier. +When he saw what was happening to the little boy and girl he did not +stop. + +Rushing out he fairly slid across the smooth boards, in front of the +make-believe barn, and he grabbed the pony's bridle in one hand. In the +other he held the sword that he was supposed to use as a soldier. + +"Halt!" cried the impersonator. "Stop right where you are, and surrender +to General Grant!" + +Mr. Treadwell really was dressed up like General Grant, but Bunny and +Sue were surprised to hear him use these words, which were not in the +play at all, "General Grant" had quite a different part to perform, and +at first Bunny and Sue could not understand it. All they knew was that +Mr. Treadwell had caught the pony's bridle in time to stop the +frightened animal from walking over the edge of the stage, when Peter +the rooster crowed so loudly from his back. Perhaps the sharp claws of +the rooster may have tickled the pony. I should think they would. Anyhow +the pony was stopped just in time. + +"Don't be frightened, Bunny and Sue!" whispered Mr. Treadwell, as he +motioned for the orchestra to play a little louder, so no one in the +audience could hear what he said. Then he went on: "Just pretend it is +all part of the show! Make believe I was to rush out this way, and call +on you to surrender. I'll take Peter off the pony's back. The rooster +makes him afraid. Now, Bunny, you say: All right General Grant! I'll +surrender if it takes all summer!" + +Bunny had been told so many times by Mr. Treadwell just what other +things to say that this time he did not waste a second. So, almost as +soon as the impersonator, dressed as General Grant, had rushed out, +grabbed the pony's bridle, and called on Bunny and Sue to surrender, +Bunny answered: + +"All right, General Grant. I'll surrender if--if it takes all summer!" + +Bunny didn't know why some of the old men in the audience laughed so +hard when he said this, but later on his father told him that some of +them, like Uncle Tad, had fought under General Grant in the Civil War +and that he had said words that were a "take-off" of one of General +Grant's real speeches. + +So, in less time than I have taken to tell you about it, the danger was +over, Mr. Treadwell had turned the pony around so that it was headed +back toward the make-believe barn, Peter, the crowing rooster had been +taken from the back of the little horse, and the play was going on as +usual. + +Lucile came out and sang another song, Mart did some acrobatic feats, +and the other boys and girls did their parts in the play, while "General +Grant" appeared again and amused the audience. + +"Dear me, Mrs. Brown!" exclaimed Mrs. Newton, who sat next to the +mother of Bunny and Sue, "I thought at first that was an accident--the +way the pony started off the stage when the rooster got on his back--but +I guess it was all part of the play." + +"It was clever of them to get up something to fool us like that--almost +too real and life-like, I think, though," said the mother of one of the +little boys in the play. + +Mrs. Brown knew, from the looks on the faces of Bunny and Sue, that it +was an accident, and not intended, but she said nothing, for she did not +want to spoil any one's pleasure in the show. + +And so the performance went on, the boys and girls doing simple little +things they had been taught by Mr. Treadwell. There were dances and +drills, for it was a sort of mixed-up play, without very much of what +grown folks call "plot." But it was just the thing for Bunny Brown and +his sister Sue, and the only sort of play they could have given, for +they were not very old. + +In one scene George Watson, Harry Bentley, and Charlie Star played +leapfrog, jumping over one another's backs. Bunny also had a part in +this. + +George tried to get his rooster to do a little trick in the barnyard +scene. The boy stood near the barn door and held a piece of bread in his +hand. He wanted Peter, the rooster, to fly up, perch on his head, and +eat the crumbs of bread. But the rooster seemed to think he had done +enough by perching on the pony's back, and he wouldn't fly on top of +George's head at all. So they had to leave that trick out of the second +act. + +Then the curtain went down on the second act, the barnyard scene, and +the boy and girls got ready for the last, the third act, in the orchard. +This was to be the prettiest of all, for it was supposed to be in +apple-blossom time, and the scene was a beautiful one, though it was +cold, snowy, and wintry weather outside. Mr. Treadwell had done his best +on this act. + +It was hard work for some of the children, though most of them thought +of it as play, but they had spent long hours in drilling. + +As I have told you, there was a real tree in the scene, and a house, and +the play was supposed to end with every one saying how happy he or she +was to be "Down on the Farm," when they all sang a song with those words +in it. + +Everything went off very nicely. Bunny and Sue did even better in this +third act than in the first or second, and there was no little accident +like that with the pony and rooster. + +They were coming to the climax of the third act. Sue was supposed to be +lost, and Bunny was supposed to hunt for her. He was to look everywhere, +and at last find her up in an apple tree--or what passed for an apple +tree--on the stage. + +All went well until Sue slipped out of the farmhouse, ran to the apple +tree and climbed up in it to hide among the artificial branches. Then +Bunny started to pretend to look for her. He stood under the tree, but +didn't let on he knew she was there, though of course he really did +know. + +"I wonder where she can be?" he said aloud, just as he was supposed to +say in the play. "Where can she have hidden herself?" + +And just then little Weejie Brewster piped up from where she was sitting +with her mother: + +"Dere she is, Bunny! Dere's Sue hidin' up in de apper tree! I kin see +her 'egs stickin' out! She's in de tree, she is!" + +Of course everybody burst out laughing at hearing this, but the play was +so near the end that what Weejie said did not spoil it. Bunny had to +laugh himself, and so did Sue. Then Bunny looked up among the branches, +pretended to discover Sue, and on he went with the rest of his talk. + +The little white mice performed once again. Splash did another trick +quite well, too. And then Peter, the rooster, as if to make up for not +behaving nicely in the second act, flew out on the head of George just +as he was handing Lucile a bouquet when she sang her "Rose Song." + +Of course the rooster, coming out at that time, rather spoiled Lucile's +song, but she didn't mind, and when the audience got over laughing she +went on with it as if nothing had happened. + +It was just before the last scene, where the whole company of boys and +girls was to gather around Mr. Treadwell, in front of the house, and +sing the farm song, that something else happened. + +Down the aisle came Mr. Jed Winkler, and in his hand he held a yellow +telegram envelope. He marched up to Mr. Brown and said, so loud that +every one could hear him: + +"This message just came! I was over at the telegraph office and the +operator gave _it to_ me to bring to you." + +"Oh, thank you," said Mr. Brown. + +There was a little pause in the play while the children were getting +ready to sing the last song. Mr. Brown tore open the message. + +"I hope there is no bad news," some one said, and every one in the +audience hoped the same thing, for they all liked Mr. Brown. + +Bunny and Sue, up on the stage, looked at their father in some +wonderment, while Lucile, who was to lead in the singing, glanced at her +brother. Could the telegram be about them? + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE FINAL CURTAIN + + +Mr. Treadwell, who was off to one side of the stage getting everything +ready for the last scene, came out now to tell Bunny, Sue, and the +others to start the singing. + +"And sing good and loud," said the impersonator, who was dressed in a +funny clown suit. "Sing your best, so all the people will like the show +that Bunny and Sue started." + +The piano player struck a few notes and then Mr. Brown, who had finished +reading the telegram, held up his hand and stepped out into the aisle, +walking toward the stage. + +"Wait a minute!" called Mr. Brown, and the piano player stopped. + +"Is there anything the matter?" asked Mr. Treadwell, and Lucile's Uncle +Bill seemed a bit uneasy, for, being blind, he could not so well take +care of himself in case of accident as could the others. + +"Don't you want Bunny and me to sing any more, Daddy?" called out Sue, +from where she stood on the stage, and nearly every one in the hall +laughed. + +"Oh, yes, indeed, I want you to sing," said Mr. Brown. "But I have some +good news, and I might as well tell it to those to whom it comes before +the show goes on. It will not take more than a few minute. +Lucile--Mart--the good news is for you!" And Mr. Brown waved the +telegram at the boy acrobat and his sister, the singer. + +"Is it from our kin?" asked Mart. + +"Yes," answered Bunny's father. "This message came to me because, I +suppose, your uncle, Mr. William Clayton, gave my address when he +telegraphed to your uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie." + +"And is the message from them?" asked Lucile. + +"Yes," replied Mr. Brown. "It's from your Uncle Simon, and he says he +and your aunt will be here in about a week. They have been giving a show +in a far-off country, and they did not know you had lost track of them +and your Uncle Bill. But everything is all right now. Your uncle and +aunt are coming to look after you, and they say they are sorry you had +so much trouble." + +"We didn't have much trouble after we met you, and you took care of us," +said Mart. + +"Well, I'm glad you feel that way about it," replied Mr. Brown. "And +I'll be glad to have you and Lucile stay with me until your uncle and +aunt come back. It's well they telegraphed instead of waiting to send a +letter, for the good news came more quickly. They say they just received +the first letter your Uncle Bill sent, and they made haste to answer by +telegraph." + +"So everything is all right, is it?" asked Mart's Uncle Bill, from where +he sat with a friend from the Home for the Blind. + +"Yes," answered Mr. Brown. "Lucile and Mart have found their relatives, +and I hope they never lose them again." + +"That's fine!" cried the blind man. "This will be a jolly Christmas for +everybody!" + +And so it was, and no one was happier than Lucile and Mart that they had +found their missing uncle and aunt. + +"Oh, I can sing my last song so much more happily now!" said Lucile +softly. + +"And I'm going to turn three flipflops instead of one!" cried Mart. + +"And I'll help you!" added Bunny Brown, and every one laughed again. It +was a merry, happy, jolly time, just right for Christmas. + +"Well, all ready now, children!" called Mr. Treadwell when Mr. Brown had +taken his seat. "Now for the last grand chorus then the final curtain +and the play will be over!" + +Once more the piano played, and then the children, led by Lucile, lifted +up their sweet voices in song. And it seemed to be a hymn of +thanksgiving for the two children who had found their lost ones. + +Circling around the tree in the stage orchard marched Bunny Brown, his +sister Sue, and the other children. Then out danced Mr. Treadwell, in +another funny suit, and then, all at once, out from the wings rushed +Splash the dog. He stood up on his hind legs put his paws on Mr. +Treadwell's shoulders, and marched across the stage that way, while the +audience clapped and Bunny and Sue stared with wide-opened eyes. + +"I--I didn't know my dog could do that trick!" cried Bunny. + +"I taught it to him for a surprise," said the actor. "Hi, Splash! Come +on and have another dance with me!" And the dog walked across the stage +again on his hind legs. + +And then, with another song, given as the children stood in a double row +facing the audience, the show of "Down on the Farm" came to a close and +the final curtain fell, while the crowd of fathers, mothers, sisters, +brothers, uncles, aunts and friends applauded as loudly as they could. +Mr. Brown gave a little talk about the Home for the Blind and many +persons said they would help it. + +"Well, from what I heard of it, I'll say that was a fine show!" said +Lucile's Uncle Bill. "And one of the best parts was that telegram Mr. +Brown read." + +"Yes, I think so myself," said Bunny's father. + +Back on the stage the children were hurrying to get off their costumes +and into their regular garments, so they might go home and look at their +Christmas presents once more. + +"Shall we ever give the show again?" asked Charlie Star. + +"Well, we might, in a day or so," said Mr. Treadwell. "If the audience +would like to see it, we might give it some afternoon next week." + +"Oh, yes, let's do it!" cried Bunny. + +"Oh, yes!" cried Sue and the others. + +While this talk was going on Mr. Raymond, the owner of the hall, came up +to where Bunny Brown stood. + +"I guess you're the treasurer of this show, aren't you?" he asked, and +Sue noticed that the hardware man had something in his hand. + +"No--no," said Bunny, shaking his head, "I wasn't a--a treasure. I was a +farm boy in one act and I turned somersaults in another act." + +"Well, I don't exactly mean that," said Mr. Raymond, with a laugh. "I +mean you got up the show, didn't you?" + +"Yes, Bunny and Sue really started it," said Mr. Treadwell. + +"That's what I thought," said the hardware man. "Well, then, Bunny, this +money comes to you. It's what was taken in at the door, and what was +paid for tickets. Your father asked me to take charge of it, but, now +that the first show, at least, is over, you'd better have it." + +He handed a box that seemed to be full of silver money and bills to +Bunny and Sue Brown. + +"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "It's most a thousand dollars I guess!" + +"No, not quite as much as that," said Mr. Raymond. "But your show was a +great success, and there's ninety dollars and fifteen cents there. The +fifteen cents is from a boy who couldn't raise the quarter admission, so +I let him in for fifteen. I'd have let him in for nothing, but he said +he wanted to do all he could to help the Home for the Blind." + +"Yes, this money's for the Blind Home," said Bunny. "I'm glad we got +such a lot. I didn't think we'd get more than ten dollars." + +"Indeed, you did very well, and I want to thank you on behalf of the +blind people," said Mr. Harrison, manager of the Home, to whom Mr. Brown +handed the money, after Bunny, Sue, and the other children had all had a +look at it. "This will buy many a little comfort for my people." + +Then, indeed, Bunny, Sue and the others felt repaid for all they had +done to get up the show; and some of them had worked very hard to give +the audience a pleasant and amusing time. + +So everything came out well, and the finding of the uncle and aunt of +Lucile and Mart was one of the nicest parts of the little play. + +Soon the hall was deserted, and the children were on their way home. Mr. +Bill Clayton--though I presume his name was William, and not just +Bill--and Mr. Harrison went to the Brown house to stay for supper, and +there the telegram from their Uncle Simon was read again by Lucile and +Mart. + +"I'm going to be a show actor when I grow up," declared Bunny Brown. + +"And I'm going to sing on the stage--I like it," said Sue. + +"Well, it will be a good many years before you are old enough to go on +the real stage," said her mother, with a laugh. "You or Bunny either." + +And so the show that Bunny and Sue gave came to an end--yet not quite an +end, either. For the play was given over again the week after, and more +money raised for the Home for the Blind. And among those in the audience +were Mart and Lucile's Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie. They had hurried +their trip back to this country to look after Lucile and Mart, and they +were glad to find their niece and nephew in such good hands. + +"And if it hadn't been for Bunny Brown, thinking of getting up a show, +maybe you'd never have found us," said Mart to his Uncle Simon. + +"Maybe," agreed Mr. Weatherby. "Bunny did a lot, and so did his sister +Sue! They're just the kind of children to do things!" + +And perhaps, if all goes well, you may read of other doings of Bunny +Brown and his sister Sue. + +THE END. + + + + +THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES + +By LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of the Popular "Bobbsey Twins" Books + + * * * * * + +Wrapper and text illustrations drawn by + +FLORENCE ENGLAND NOSWORTHY + + * * * * * + +=12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING= + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOW + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE + + * * * * * + +=GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK= + + + + +THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SERIES + +By LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of "The Bobbsey Twins Series." + + * * * * * + +=12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING= + + * * * * * + +The adventures of Ruth and Alice DeVere. Their father, a widower, is an +actor who has taken up work for the "movies." Both girls wish to aid him +in his work and visit various localities to act in all sorts of +pictures. + +THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS +Or First Appearance in Photo Dramas. + +Having lost his voice, the father of the girls goes into the movies and +the girls follow. Tells how many "parlor dramas" are filmed. + + +THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM +Or Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays. + +Full of fun in the country, the haps and mishaps of taking film plays, +and giving an account of two unusual discoveries. + + +THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND +Or The Proof on the Film. + +A tale of winter adventures in the wilderness, showing how the +photo-play actors sometimes suffer. + + +THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS +Or Lost in the Wilds of Florida. + +How they went to the land of palms, played many parts in dramas before +the camera; were lost, and aided others who were also lost. + + +THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH +Or Great Days Among the Cowboys. + +All who have ever seen moving pictures of the great West will want to +know just how they are made. This volume gives every detail and is full +of clean fun and excitement. + + +THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA +Or a Pictured Shipwreck that Became Real. + +A thrilling account of the girls' experiences on the water. + + +THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS +Or The Sham Battles at Oak Farm. + +The girls play important parts in big battle scenes and have plenty of +hard work along with considerable fun. + + * * * * * + +=GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK= + + + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES + +By LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of the "Bobbsey Twin Books" and "Bunny Brown" Series. + + * * * * * + +=12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING= + + * * * * * + +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. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE +Or Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health. + +Telling how the girls organized their Camping and Tramping Club, how +they went on a tour, and of various adventures which befell them. + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE +Or Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem. + +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. + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR +Or The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley. + +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. + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP +Or Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats. + +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. + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA. +Or Wintering in the Sunny South. + +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. + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW +Or The Box that Was Found in the Sand. + +The girls have great fun and solve a mystery while on an outing along +the New England coast. + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND +Or A Cave and What it Contained. + +A bright, healthful story, full of good times at a bungalow camp on Pine +Island. + + * * * * * + +=GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK= + + + +THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL + +HIGH SERIES + +By GERTRUDE W. MORRISON + + * * * * * + +=12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING= + + * * * * * + +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. + +THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH +Or Rivals for all Honors. + +A stirring tale of high school life, full of fun, with a touch of +mystery and a strange initiation. + + +THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON LAKE LUNA +Or The Crew That Won. + +Telling of water sports and fun galore, and of fine times in camp. + + +THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH AT BASKETBALL +Or The Great Gymnasium Mystery. + +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. + + +THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON THE STAGE +Or The Play That Took the Prize. + +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. + + +THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND FIELD +Or The Girl Champions of the School League + +This story takes in high school athletics in their most approved and +up-to-date fashion. Full of fun and excitement. + + +THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH IN CAMP +Or The Old Professor's Secret. + +The girls went camping on Acorn Island and had a delightful time at +boating, swimming and picnic parties. + + * * * * * + +=GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK= + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Table of Contents: Chapter XVIII. MR. TREADWELL'S WIG 161 changed to +162. + +Page 57: line ends travel- +next line begins +Brown. "Haven't you any +words in between have been presumed and do not appear in the original. + +Page 66: "hard" changed to "heard" (I've heard that) + +Page 89: repeated word "a" removed (a cocoanut on it) + +Page 127: "were're" changed to "we're" (we're glad you) + +Page 157: "though" changed to "thought" (thought the little) + +Page 162: "though" changed to "thought" (Bunny thought perhaps) + +Page 163: "did't" changed to "didn't" (hay Sue didn't get) + +Page 163: "break" changed to "bread" (bread and milk) + +Page 164: "though" changed to "thought" (I thought I would) + +Page 209: "yyet" changed to "yet" (come back yet) + +Page 223: "Teadwell" changed to "Treadwell" (Treadwell dressed up) + +Page 226: "Maye" changed to "Maybe" (Maybe Splash took) + +Page 237: "aound" changed to "around" (around Mr. Treadwell) + +Page 237: "boquet" changed to "bouquet" (a bouquet when she) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue Giving +a Show, by Laura Lee Hope + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER *** + +***** This file should be named 17878.txt or 17878.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/8/7/17878/ + +Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Emmy and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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