Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus | Page 5

on Grandpa's Farm," I told you how the Brown family went to the country in a big automobile, in which they lived just as Gypsies do. They even slept in the big automobile van.
And when Bunny and Sue reached grandpa's farm, after a two days' trip, what fun they had! You may read all about it in the book. And Bunny and Sue did more than just have fun.
The children helped find grandpa's horses, that had been taken away by the Gypsies. The horses were found at the circus, where Bunny and Sue went to see the elephants, tigers, lions, camels and ponies. They also saw the men swinging on the trapeze, high up in the big tent.
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue always wanted to be doing something. If it was not one thing it was another. They often got lost, though they did not mean to. Sometimes their dog Splash would find them.
Splash was a fine dog. He pulled Sue out of the water once, and she called him Splash because he "splashed" in so bravely to get her.
In Bellemere, where Bunny and Sue lived, they had many friends. Every one in town loved the children. Even Wango, the queer monkey pet of Mr. Winkler, the old sailor, liked Bunny and Sue.
But they had not seen Wango for some time now; not since coming to the farm in the country. They had seen a trained bear, which a man led around by a string. The bear climbed a telegraph pole, and did other tricks. Bunny and Sue thought he was very funny. But they did not like him as much as they did the cunning little monkey at home in Bellemere.
Carrying the basket of peaches on his arm, and leading the children, Grandpa Brown walked back to the house. Mrs. Brown, the mother of Bunny and Sue, watched them come up the walk.
"Oh, Sue!" cried her mother. "Look at your dress! What did you spill on it?"
"I--I guess it's peach juice, Mother. It dripped all over. But Bunny hung upside down in the tree, just like the man in the circus, only he wasn't."
I guess Sue was glad to talk about something else beside the peach juice stains on her dress.
"What--what happened?" asked Mother Brown, looking at grandpa. "Did Bunny----?"
"That's right," he said, laughing. "Bunny was hanging, upside down, in a tree. But he wasn't hurt, and I soon lifted him down."
"Oh, what will those children do next?" asked their mother.
"I--I didn't mean to do it," said Bunny. "It--it just--happened. I--I couldn't help it."
"No, I suppose not," said his mother. "But you must go and wash now. Sue, I'll put a clean dress on you, and then I'll see if I can get the peach stains off this one. You ought to have on an old apron."
A little later, Bunny and Sue, now nice and clean, were sitting on the side porch. It was almost time for supper.
"Bunny," asked Sue, "did it hurt when you were playin' you were a circus man only you weren't?"
"No, it didn't exactly hurt," he said slowly. "But it felt funny. Did I really look like a circus man, Sue?"
"Yep. Just like one. Only, of course, you didn't have any nice pink suit on, with spangles and silver and gold."
"Oh, no, of course not," agreed Bunny. "But did I swing by my feet?"
"Yes, Bunny, you did."
For a moment the little chap said nothing. Then he cried out:
"Oh, Sue! I know what let's do!"
"What?"
"Let's have a circus! It will be lots of fun! We'll get up a circus all by ourselves! Will you help me make a circus?"
CHAPTER III
THE POOR OLD HEN
Sue looked at Bunny with widely-opened eyes. Then she clapped her hands. Sue always did that when she felt happy, and she felt that way now.
"Oh, Bunny!" she cried. "A circus? A real circus?"
"Well, of course not a real, big one, with lions and tigers and all that," said the little boy. "We couldn't get elephants and camels and bears. But maybe grandpa would let us take his two horses, that he got back from the Gypsies. They have lots of horses in the circus."
"I'd be afraid to ride on a horse," objected Sue, shaking her head.
"You wouldn't if Bunker Blue held you on; would you?"
"No, maybe not then."
"Well, we'll get Bunker Blue to hold us on the horse's back," said Bunny.
Bunker Blue was a big, red-haired boy--almost a man--and he worked for Mr. Brown. Bunker was very fond of Bunny and Sue. Bunker had steered the big automobile in which the Brown family came to grandpa's farm, and he was still staying in the country.
"Do you think we could really get up a circus?" asked Sue, after thinking about what Bunny had said.
"Of course we can," answered the little boy. "Didn't we