Early the next morning Bunny and Sue jumped out of bed, and ran down stairs in their bath robes. Out into the kitchen they hurried, where they could hear their grandmother singing.
"Where is he?" asked Bunny, eagerly.
"Did he have his breakfast?" Sue wanted to know.
"Who?" asked Grandma Brown. "What are you children talking about? And why aren't you dressed?"
"We just got up," Bunny explained, "and we came down stairs right away. Where is Ben Hall?"
"Did he go away?" asked Sue, and she looked all around the kitchen.
"Bless your hearts!" exclaimed Grandma Brown. "You mean the strange, hungry boy,who came last night? Oh, he's up long ago!"
"Did he go away?" asked Sue.
"I hope he didn't," cried Bunny. "I like him, and I hope he'll stay here and play with us. He could help us with the circus."
"Did he go away?" asked Sue again, anxiously.
"Oh, no," Grandma Brown answered. "He went out to help Bunker Blue feed the chickens and the cows and horses. He is very willing to work, Ben is."
"Is grandpa going to keep him?" Bunny asked.
"For a while, yes," said his grandmother. "The poor boy has no home, and no place to go. Where he ran away from he won't tell, but he seems badly frightened. So we are going to take care of him for a little while, and he is going to help around the farm. There are many errands and chores to do, and a good boy is always useful."
"I'm glad he's going to stay," said Bunny.
"So'm I," added Sue. "Maybe he can make boats, Bunny, and a water wheel that we can fix to turn around at a waterfall."
"Maybe," agreed Bunny. "Where is Ben, Grandma?"
"Oh, now he's out in the barn, somewhere, I expect. But you two tots must get dressed and have your breakfast. Then you can go out and play."
"We'll find Ben," said Bunny.
"Yes," agreed Sue. "We'll have two boys to play with now—Ben and Bunker Blue."
"Oh, you two children mustn't expect the big boys to play with you all the while," said Grandma Brown. "They have to work."
"But they can play with us sometimes; can't they, Grandma?" asked Bunny.
"Oh, yes, sometimes."
A little later the two children, having had their breakfast, ran to the barn, to look for Ben and Bunker. They found them leading the horses out to the big drinking trough in front. The trough was filled from a spring, back of the barn, the water running through a pipe.
"Oh, Bunker, give me a ride on Major's back!" cried Sue, as she saw her father's red-haired helper leading the old brown horse.
"Put me on his back, Bunker!"
"All right, Sue! Come along. Whoa, there, Major!"
Major stood still, for he was very gentle. Bunker lifted Sue up on the animal's broad back, and held her there while he led the horse to the drinking trough.
"Do you want a ride, too?" asked Ben Hall of Bunny.
"Yes," answered the little boy.
"Here you go then. We'll both ride this horse to water."
Ben Hall did a strange thing. All at once he jumped up in the air, and before Bunny or Sue knew what he was doing the strange boy was sitting on the back of Prince, the other horse. He had jumped up as easily as a bouncing, rubber ball.
"Now then, come over here, and I'll lift you up in front of me!" called Ben to Bunny, and soon the little fellow was sitting on the back of Prince, while Ben guided him to the drinking trough.
"Say, that's a good way to get up on a horse's back, Ben!" called Bunker Blue, whohad seen what Ben had done. "Where did you learn that trick of jumping up?"
"Oh, I—I just sort of learned it—that's all. It's easy when you practise it."
"Well, I'm going to practise then," said Bunker. "I'd like to learn to jump on a horse's back the way you did."
When the horses had had their water Bunker lifted Sue down from the back of Major.
"But I want to ride back to the barn," the little girl said.
"And in a minute so you shall," promised Bunker. "Only, just now, I want to see if I can jump up the way Ben did."
Bunker tried it, but he nearly fell.
"I can't do it," he said. "It looks easy, but it's hard. You must have had to practise a good while, Ben."
"Yes, I did."
"How long?"
"Oh, about five years!"
Bunker Blue whistled in surprise.
"Five years!" he cried. "I'll never be able to do that. Let me see once more how you do it."
Ben lifted Bunny down, and once more the strange boy leaped with one jump upon the back of the horse.
"Why, he does it just like the men in the circus!" exclaimed Sue. "Oh, Bunny, Ben will make a good jumper in our circus."
"Yes," agreed the little boy. "Do you think, Ben, you could show me how to get on a horse's back that way?" Bunny asked.
"Well, I'm afraid not—not such a little boy as you," answered Ben, as he lifted Bunny up on Prince's back once more for the ride to the barn.
The horses were tied in their stalls again, after Bunny and Sue had been lifted from the backs of the animals. Then Bunny said:
"You are going to stay here and help work on the farm, Ben. My grandmother said so. And, if you are, will you come out and look at the barn where we are going to have our circus? Maybe you and Bunker can help us put up the trapeze."
"Not now, Bunny boy," said Bunker. "We have to go and pull weeds out of the garden. We'll look at the barn right after dinner."
And this Ben and Bunker did. Bunny and Sue showed Ben the mow, and the pile of hay, into which the trapeze performers were to fall, instead of into nets.
"So they won't get hurt," Bunny explained. "We haven't any nets, anyhow."
"Do you think we could have a circus here?" Sue wanted to know.
"Why, I should think so," Ben answered, looking up toward the roof of the barn. "Yes, you could have a good make-believe circus here."
"Will you help?" asked Bunny eagerly.
Ben Hall laughed, and looked at Bunny and Sue in a queer sort of way.
"What makes you think I can help you make a play-circus?" he asked.
"Oh, I guess you can, all right," spoke up Bunker Blue. "I guess you know more about a circus than you let us think. Don't you now?"
"Oh, well, I've seen 'em," said Ben, slowly.
"And the way you jumped on the horse—why, you must have been watching pretty hard to see just how to do that," Bunker wenton. "I've seen lots of circuses, but I can't jump up the way you can, Ben."
"Then he can ride a horse in our circus," said Sue.
"Can you hang on a trapeze?" asked Bunny.
"Well, maybe," the new boy answered. "But you haven't any trapeze here, have you?"
"We can make one, out of a broom stick and some clothes line," said Bunny. "I've got 'em all ready," and he showed where he had put, in a hole in the hay, the rope and stick.
"Good! That's the idea!" exclaimed Ben Hall. "Now I'll just climb up to the roof beams, and fasten the rope of the trapeze."
Up climbed Ben, and he was making fast the ropes, when, all at once Bunny, Sue and Bunker Blue, who were watching the strange boy, saw him suddenly slip off the beam on which he was standing.
"Oh, poor Ben!" sighed Sue. "He's going to get an awful hard bump, so he is!"
Down and down, from the big beam near the top of the barn, fell Ben Hall. And, as Bunny Brown and his sister Sue watched the new, strange boy, something queer happened.
For, instead of falling straight down, head first or feet first as you would think any one ought to fall, Ben began turning over and over. Over and over he turned, first his feet and then his head and then his back being pointed toward the pile of hay on the bottom of the barn floor.
"Oh, look! look!" cried Sue.
"What—what makes him do that?" asked Bunny Brown.
"I guess he wants to," answered Bunker Blue. Bunny and his sister thought they were going to be frightened when they saw Ben slip and fall. But when the children saw Bunker Blue laughing they smiled too.
It was queer to see Ben turning over and over in that funny way.
"I guess he likes to do it," said Bunker.
"Whoop-la!" yelled Ben as he came somersaulting down, for that is what he was doing; turning one somersault after another, over and over in the air as he fell.
And then, in a few seconds, he landed safely on his feet in a soft pile of hay, so he wasn't hurt a bit.
"Oh!" exclaimed Sue.
"Oh my!" cried Bunny Brown.
"Say, that was fine!" shouted Bunker Blue. "How did you do it?"
"Oh, I—I just did it," answered Ben, slowly, for he was a little out of breath. "I slipped, and when I found I was going to fall, I began to turn somersaults to make it easier coming down."
"I should think it would be harder," said Bunny Brown.
"Not when you know how," answered Ben, smiling.
"Where'd you learn how?" Bunker wanted to know.
"Oh, a man—a man showed me how," returned Ben. "But never mind about that now. I must fasten the rope to the beam, and then we'll fix the trapeze so Bunny can do some circus acts on it."
"But not high up!" cried Sue. "You won't go on a high trapeze, will you, Bunny?"
"Not very high," he answered. "But I would like to turn somersaults in the air like you, Ben. Will you show me how?"
"Some day, when you get bigger. You're too small now."
"I wouldn't want to turn somersaults," said Sue, shaking her head.
"They aren't for girls, anyhow," flung forth Bunny.
Bunker Blue looked at Ben sharply.
"I think I can guess where you learned to turn those somersaults in the air," said the boat-boy. "It was in a—"
"Hush! Don't tell any one!" whispered Ben quickly. "I'll tell you all about it after a while. Now help me put up the trapeze."
Bunny heard what Ben and Bunker said, but he did not think much about it then. Thelittle boy was looking up to see from what a height Ben had fallen, and Bunny was wondering what he would ever do if he tumbled down so far.
Bunker and Ben climbed the ladder to the beam far above the hay pile, and soon they had fastened up the ropes of the trapeze. They pulled hard on them to make sure they were strong enough, so Bunny would not have a fall.
Then the piece of broom handle was tied on the two lower ends of the ropes, and the trapeze was finished.
"Now you can try it, Bunny," said Bunker, after he had swung on the trapeze for a few times to make sure it was safe.
Bunny walked across the barn floor where some hay had been spread to make a sort of cushion.
"We'll use hay, instead of a net as they do in a circus," Bunny said.
"Anyhow we haven't got any net," put in Sue.
"We can make believe the hay is a new kind," said her brother.
Bunny hung by his hands from the wooden bar of the trapeze, just as he had seen the men do in the circus. Then he began to swing slowly back and forth.
"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue. "That's fine. Now turn yourself inside out, like the circus man did."
"No, Bunny can't do that yet," said Ben. "He must first do easy things on the trapeze. Turning yourself inside out is too hard. Bunny is not strong enough for those tricks."
To and fro swung Bunny, but soon his arms began to get tired.
"I—I want to get down!" he called. "Stop the swing—I mean the trapeze," for the trapeze was very much like a swing, as I have told you, only, instead of a board, it had only a stick to which the little boy was holding by his hands. "I want to get down," Bunny called. "Stop me, Bunker."
"Let go and jump," advised Ben.
"Oh, I—I'm afraid," said Bunny.
"You won't get hurt!" exclaimed the older boy. "You must learn to jump from the trapeze into the soft hay. That's what they doin a circus. Jump while you're swinging. You won't get hurt."
"Are you sure, Ben?"
"Sure. Give a jump now, and see what happens."
Bunny wanted to do some of the things he had seen the circus men do, and one of them was jumping from the trapeze. The little boy looked down at the pile of hay below him. It seemed nice and soft, but it also looked to be a good distance off.
"Come on, Bunny, jump!" called Bunker.
"All right. Here I come!"
Bunny let go of the trapeze bar. He shot through the air, and, for a second or two, he was afraid he was going to be hurt. But, the next thing he knew, he had landed feet first on a soft pile of hay and he wasn't hurt a bit!
"Good!" cried Bunker Blue.
"You did that well!" said Ben Hall.
"Just like in a circus," added Sue.
"Did I do it good?" asked Bunny Brown.
"You surely did. For the first time it was very good for such a small boy," answered Ben. "Now try again."
"Oh, I like it!" Bunny cried. "I'm going to do it lots and lots of times, and then I'm going to turn somersaults."
"Well, not right away," advised Ben. "Try the easy part for a while yet."
Bunny swung on the trapeze some more, and dropped into the soft hay. He was not at all afraid now, and each time he did it he liked it more and more.
Sue, also, wanted to try it, and so she hung by her little hands. But Bunker Blue put his strong arms under her so, in case she slipped, she would be caught. Sue did not swing on the trapeze, nor jump, as Bunny had done.
Bunker and Ben put up more trapezes in the barn—big ones for themselves. Ben could swing and turn somersaults and drop off into the hay from away up near the roof of the barn. Bunker could not do quite as well as this, but, for all that, he was pretty good.
"Will you two act in our circus?" asked Bunny of Bunker and Ben.
"Why, yes, I guess I will, if your grandfather lets me stay here on this nice farm," Ben answered.
"Oh, he'll let you stay," Bunny said. "I'll tell him we want you in our circus."
"All right," laughed Ben. "Bunker and I will practise some trapeze acts for your show."
For a little while longer Bunny and Sue played about in the barn. Bunny found an old strawberry crate, with a cover on.
"This will make a wild animal cage," he said. "The slats are just like the bars of a cage, and the animal can look through."
"What wild animal will you put in there?" asked Bunker.
"Oh, I guess I'll put in Splash. He is going to be half a blue striped tiger."
"No! No!" cried Sue. "That crate isn't big enough for Splash. You'll squash him all up. I'm not going to have my half of Splash all squashed up, Bunny Brown!"
"Well, then I'll get a bigger cage for Splash. We can get a little dog, and put him in here."
Two or three days after this Bunny and Sue again went out to the barn to look at the circus trapezes, and play. Bunker Blue and Benwere not with them this time, as the two older boys were weeding the garden for Grandpa Brown.
Bunny swung on his little, low trapeze, and then, after he had jumped off into the hay as Ben had taught him, the little fellow began climbing the ladder to the beam on which was fastened the big and high trapeze.
"Oh, Bunny! Where you going?" asked Sue.
"Up here. I want to see how high it looks."
"Oh, Bunny Brown! You come right down, or I'll go and tell mamma! She said you weren't to climb up high."
"I—I'm not going very high, Sue."
Bunny was half way up the ladder. And, just as he spoke to Sue, his foot slipped, and down he fell, in between two rounds of the ladder.
"Oh! oh!" cried Sue. "Oh, Bunny! You're going to fall!"
But Bunny did not fall all the way. As he slipped, his hands caught hold of a round of the ladder, and there he clung, just as if he had hold of the bar of his swinging trapeze.
Bunny Brown hung there on the ladder, swinging to and fro. On the barn floor below him, stood his sister Sue, watching, and almost ready to cry, for Sue was afraid Bunny would fall.
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny!" she exclaimed. "Don't fall! Don't fall!"
"I—I can't help it," Bunny answered. "My fingers are slipping off!"
And indeed they were. He could not hold to the big round stick of the ladder as well as he could to the smaller broom-handle stick of his trapeze.
Bunny Brown looked down. And then he saw something that frightened him more than had Sue's cries.
For, underneath him was the bare floor of the barn, with no soft hay on which to fall—on which to bounce up and down like a rubber ball.
"Oh, Sue!" cried Bunny. "I'm going to fall, and—and—"
He did not finish what he started to say, but he wiggled his feet and legs, pointing them at the bare floor of the barn, over which he hung.
But Sue saw and understood.
"Wait a minute, Bunny!" she cried. "Don't fall yet! Wait a minute, and I'll throw some hay down there for you to fall on!"
"All—all right!" answered Bunny. He did not want to talk much, for it took nearly all his breath and strength to hold on to the ladder. But he was glad Sue had thought of the hay. He was going to tell her to get it, but she guessed it herself.
Putting her doll carefully in a corner, on a little wisp of hay, Sue ran to the edge of the mow, where there was a big pile of the dried grass, which the horses and cows eat.
With both her chubby hands, Sue began to pull the hay out, and scatter it on the barn floor under Bunny. Her brother hung rightover her head now, clinging to the ladder.
"Haven't you got 'most enough hay there now, Sue?" asked Bunny. "I—I can't hold on much longer."
"Wait just a minute!" called Sue, as she ran back to the mow. This time she managed to gather up a lot of hay in her two arms. This she piled on the other, and she was only just in time.
"Look out!" suddenly cried Bunny. "Here I come!"
And down he did come. Plump! Right on the pile of hay Sue had made for him. And it was a good thing the hay was there, or Bunny might have hurt his legs by his tumble. He did not try to turn a somersault as Ben did, the time he fell. Bunny was glad enough just to fall down straight.
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny! Did you hurt yourself?" cried Sue, as she saw her brother sit down in the pile of hay.
Bunny did not answer for a minute. He looked all around, as though he did not know exactly what had happened. Then he glanced up at the ladder to which he had clung.
"That—that was a big fall," he said slowly. "I—I'm glad the hay was there, Sue. I'm glad you put it under me."
"So'm I glad," declared Sue. "I guess you won't want to be in a circus, will you, Bunny?"
"Sure I will. Men fall in circuses, only they fall in nets. But hay is better than a net, 'cept that it tickles you," and Bunny took from his neck some pieces of dried grass that made him wiggle, and "squiggle," as Sue called it.
"Hello! What happened here?" asked a voice, and the children looked up to see, standing in the door of the barn, Grandpa Brown. "What happened?" asked the farmer. "Did you fall, Bunny?"
I think he must have guessed that, from seeing the way Bunny was sitting on the little pile of hay.
"Yes, I—I slipped off the ladder," said the little boy. "But I didn't get hurt."
"'Cause I spread hay under him," said Sue. "I thought of it all by myself."
"That was fine!" said Grandpa Brown. "But, after this, Bunny, don't you climb up on any ladders, or any other high places. Ifyou are going to use my barn for your circus, you must not get hurt."
"We won't!" Bunny promised.
"Then keep off ladders. Your little low trapeze is all right, for you will fall in the hay if you slip off that. But no more ladder-climbing!"
"All right, Grandpa." Bunny got up. Sue picked up her doll, and Grandpa Brown put back the hay into the mow, for he did not like his barn floor covered with the dried grass, though, of course, he was very glad Sue had put some there for Bunny to fall on.
Bunny and Sue went out of the barn, and walked around to the shady side. It was only a little while after breakfast, hardly time to go in and ask for something more to eat, which the children did every day about ten o'clock. At that hour Grandma Brown generally had some bread and jam, or jelly tarts, ready for them.
"What can we do until jam-time?" asked Sue, of her brother.
"I don't know," he answered. "It's pretty hot."
There was nothing more they could do about the circus just then. Bunker and Ben were to make some more trapezes, put other things in the barn, and make the seats. Several other boys and girls had been asked to take part in the "show," but they were not yet sure that their mothers and fathers would let them.
So, for a few days, Bunny and Sue could do no more about the circus.
"But we ought to dosomething," said Bunny. "It's so hot—"
That gave Sue an idea.
"We could go paddling in the brook, and get our feet cooled off," said Bunny's sister.
"Yes, but we wouldn't be back here in time to get our bread and jam."
"That's so," Sue agreed.
It would never do to miss "jam-time."
"My doll must be hot, too," Sue went on. "I wonder if we could give her a bath?"
"How?" Bunny wanted to know.
"Why, down in the well," suddenly cried Sue. "We could tie a string around her, and let her down in the well water. That wouldgive her a bath. She's a rubber doll, and a bath won't hurt her. It will do her good."
"We'll do it!" cried Bunny.
The well was not far from the house. A little later, with a string he had taken from his kite, Bunny was helping Sue lower her rubber doll down the big hole, at the bottom of which was the cool water that was pulled up in a bucket.
"Splash!" went the doll down in the well. By leaning over the edge of the wooden box that was built around the water-place, Bunny and Sue could see the rubber doll splashing up and down in the water far below them.
"Oh, she likes it! She likes it!" cried Sue, jumping up and down in delight. "Doesn't she just love it, Bunny?"
"I guess so," her brother answered. "But she can't talk and tell us so, of course."
"Course not!" Sue exclaimed. "My dolls can't talk, 'ceptin' my phonograph one, and she says 'Mamma' and 'Papa,' only now she's broken, inside, and she can't do nothin' but make a buzzin' sound, but I like her just the same."
"But if a doll can't talk, how do you know when she likes anything?" asked Bunny.
"Why, I—I just know—that's all," Sue answered.
"All right," agreed Bunny. "Now it's my turn to pull her up and down, Sue."
There was a long string tied around the doll, and the two children were taking turns raising and lowering Sue's play-baby, so the rubber doll would splash up and down in the water.
"All right. I'll let you do it once, and then it's my turnagain," Sue said. "I guess she's had enough bath now. I'll have to feed her."
"And we'll get some bread and jam ourselves, Sue."
Just how it happened neither Bunny nor Sue could tell afterward, but Bunny either did not get a good hold of the string, or else it slipped through his fingers.
Anyhow, just as Sue was passing the cord to him, it slipped away, and down into the well went doll, string and all.
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny Brown!" cried Sue. "You've drowned my lovely doll! Oh, dear!"
Bunny Brown was so surprised at seeing the rubber doll and string slip back with a splash into the well, that, for a moment, he did not know what to do or say. He just stood leaning over, and looking down, as though that would bring the doll back.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue again. "Oh, Bunny!"
"I—I didn't mean to!" pleaded Bunny sadly enough.
"But I'll never get her back again!" went on Sue. "Oh, my lovely rubber doll!"
"Maybe—maybe she can swim up!" said Bunny.
"She—she can not!" Sue cried. "How can she swim up when there isn't any water 'cept away down there in the bottom of the well?"
"If she was a circus doll she could climb up the bucket-rope, Sue."
"Yes, but she isn't a circus doll. Oh, dear!"
"And if I was a circus man, I could climb down the rope and get her!" Bunny went on.
"Oh, don't you dare do that!" Sue fairly screamed. "If you do you'll fall in and be drowned. Don't do it, Bunny!" and she clung to him with all her might.
"I won't, Sue!" the little fellow promised. "But I can see your doll down there, Sue. She's floating on top of the water—swimming, maybe, so she isn't drowned.
"Oh, I know what let's do!" Bunny cried, after another look down the well.
"What?" Sue wanted to know.
"Let's go tell grandpa. He'll get your doll up with the long-handled rake."
"With the rake?" cried Sue.
"Yes. Don't you remember grandpa told us how once the bucket of the well got loose from the rope, and fell into the water. He fished the bucket up with the rake, tied to a long pole. He can do that to your doll."
"But he might stick her with the teeth of the rake," said Sue. She knew the iron teeth of a rake were sharp, for once she had steppedon a rake when Bunny had left it in the grass, after raking the lawn at home.
"Well, maybe grandpa can tangle the rake in the string around the doll, and pull her up that way. It wouldn't hurt then."
"No," agreed Sue. "That wouldn't hurt."
"Then let's go tell grandpa," urged Bunny once more.
Leaving the doll to swim in the well as best she could, the two children ran toward the house. They saw their grandpa coming from it, and at once they began to cry:
"Oh, Grandpa, she fell in!"
"Come and get her out of the well!"
"Bring the long-handled rake, Grandpa!"
Grandpa was so surprised, at first, that he did nothing except stand still and look at the children. Then he managed to ask:
"Who is it? What is it? What happened? Who fell down the well? Did Bunny fall in? Did Sue?"
Then as he saw the two children themselves standing and looking at him, Grandpa Brown knew nothing had happened to either of them.
"But who is in the well?" he asked.
"My rubber doll," answered Sue. "Bunny let the string slip when we gave her a bath."
"But I didn't mean to," Bunny said. "I couldn't help it. But you can get her out with the rake; can't you, Grandpa. Same as you did the bucket."
"Well, I guess maybe I can," Grandpa Brown answered. "I'll try anyhow. And, after this, you children must keep away from the well."
"We will," promised Bunny.
The well bucket often came loose from the rope, and grandpa had several times fished it up with the rake, which he tied to a long clothes-line pole. In a few minutes he was ready to go to the well, with Bunny and Sue. Grandpa Brown carried the rake, and, reaching the well, he looked down in it.
"I don't see your doll, Sue," he said.
"Oh, then she's drowned! Oh, dear!"
"But I see a string," went on Grandpa Brown. "Perhaps the string is still fast to the doll. I'll wind the string around the end of the rake, and pull it up. Maybe then I'll pull up the doll too."
And that is just what grandpa did. Up and up he lifted the long-handled rake. Around the teeth was tangled the end of the string. Carefully, very carefully, Grandpa Brown took hold of the string and pulled.
"Is she coming up, Grandpa?" asked Sue anxiously.
"I think she is," said grandpa slowly. "There is something on the end of the string, anyhow. But maybe it's a fish."
Grandpa smiled, and then the children knew he was making fun.
"Oh, dear!" said Sue. "I hope my doll hasn't turned into a goldfish."
But nothing like that had happened. Up came the rubber doll, safely, on the end of the string. Water ran from the round hole in the doll's back—the hole that was a sort of whistle, which made a funny noise when Sue squeezed her doll, as she did when "loving" her.
"There you are! Your doll's all right," said Grandpa Brown. "Now you children must not come near the well again. When you want to give your doll a bath, Sue, dangle her in the brook, where it isn't deep. And ifyou put a cork in the hole in her back, she won't get full of water and sink."
"That's so," said Bunny Brown. "The water leaked in through that hole. We'll stop it up next time, Sue."
"Oh, no!" Sue cried. "That hole is where she breathes. But I'll only wash her in a basin after this, so she can't get drowned."
It was now time for bread and jam, and Sue and Bunny were soon eating it on the shady back porch. Mother Brown told them, just as their grandpa had done, to keep away from the well, and they said they would.
Bunny and Sue then went wading in the brook until dinner time. And then they had a little sleep in the hammocks in the shade, under the apple tree.
"What shall we do now, Bunny!" asked Sue when she awoke from her little nap, and saw her brother looking over at her from his hammock. Sue always wanted to be doing something, and so did Bunny. "What can we do?" asked the little brown-eyed girl.
"Let's go out to the barn again," said Bunny. "Maybe Bunker Blue, or Ben, is outthere now, making some more circus things."
But when Bunny and Sue reached the place where they were going to have their show in a few weeks, they saw neither of the big boys. They did see something that interested them, though.
This was the hired man who, with a big pot of green paint, was painting the wheelbarrow.
"Hello, Henry!" exclaimed Bunny to the man, who was working in the shade at one side of the barn.
"Hello, Bunny!" answered Henry. "How are you this afternoon?"
"Good. How is yourself?"
"Oh, fine."
Henry went on putting green paint on the wheelbarrow. Then Bunny said:
"I couldn't do that; could I, Henry? I mean you wouldn't let me paint; would you?"
"No, Bunny. I'm afraid not. You'd get it all over your clothes. I couldn't let you."
"I—I thought you couldn't," returned Bunny with a sigh. "But I just asked, you know, Henry."
"Yes," said the hired man with a smile. "Iknow. But you'd better go off and play somewhere else."
It was more fun, though, for Bunny Brown and his sister Sue to watch Henry paint, and they stood there for some time. Finally the hired man stopped painting.
"Guess I'll go and get a drink of water," he said, putting the brush in the pot of green paint. "Now don't touch the wheelbarrow."
"We won't!" promised Bunny and Sue.
Just then, inside the barn, there sounded a loud:
"Baa-a-a-a-a!"
"What's that, Bunny?" asked Sue.
"One of the new little calves. Want to see them?"
Of course Sue did, and soon she and Bunny were petting one of the calves. They were in little pens, by themselves, near the mother cows, and the children could reach over the sides of the pens, inside the barn, and pat the little animals.
All at once Bunny cried:
"Oh, Sue. I know what we can do!"
"What?" she asked.
"We can stripe a calf green, with the green paint, and we'll have a zebra for our circus."
"What's a zebra?" Sue wanted to know.
"It's a striped horse. They have 'em in all circuses. We'll make one for ours."
"Does zebras have green stripes, Bunny?"
"I don't know. But green paint is all we have, so we'll use that. A green striped zebra would be pretty, I think."
"So do I, Bunny. But Henry told us not to touch the paint."
"No, he didn't, Sue. He only told us to keep away from the wheelbarrow, and I am. I won't go near it. But we'll get the pot of paint, and stripe the calf green."
"All right," agreed Sue. "I'll hold the paint-pot, and you can dip your brush in."
Not meaning to do anything wrong, of course, Bunny and Sue hurried to get the pot of paint. Henry had not come back. Leaning over the edge of the calf's pen, Bunny dipped the brush in the paint, and began striping the baby cow.
"Baa-a-a-a-a!" went the little animal, and the old cow went: "Moo!"
Again and again Bunny Brown dipped the brush in the green paint the hired man had left, and stripe after stripe did the little fellow put on the calf.
"She'll be a regular circus zebra when I'm done," said Bunny Brown to his sister Sue. Both children laughed in glee.
"Are you going to paint both sides of the calf, Bunny?"
"I am if I can reach. Maybe I can't. Anyhow, a zebra ought to be painted on both sides. Not like we're going to do our dog Splash; only on one side, to make a pretend blue-striped tiger of him."
Sue seemed to be thinking of something.
"Doesn't he look nice?" asked Bunny of his sister. "Isn't he going to be a fine zebra?"
He stood back from the box-stall where thecalf was kept, so Sue could see how the little animal looked.
"Doesn't he look pretty, Sue? Just like a circus zebra, only of course they're not green. But isn't he nice?"
"Yes," said Sue, "he is pretty."
The calf, after jumping around some when Bunny first put the paint on, was now standing very still, as though he liked it. Of course the calf did not know that the paint would not wear off for a long time. Then, too, the cow mother had put her head over from the next stall, where she was tied, and she was rubbing her big red tongue on the calf's head. The calf liked its cow mother to rub it this way, and maybe that is why the little calf stood still.
"It's going to look real nice, Bunny," said Sue, as she looked at the green stripes Bunny had put on. "I—I guess I'll let you put blue stripes on my half of Splash, too. Then he'll look all over like a tiger; won't he, Bunny?"
"Sure. I'm glad you'll let me, Sue. 'Cause a dog, only half striped, would look funny. Now I'll see if I can put some stripes on the other side of the calf."
Bunny tried to reach the side of the little animal he had not yet painted, but he could not do it from where he stood.
"I'm going over in the stall with it," Bunny said. "You hand me the pail of paint when I get there, Sue."
"Oh, Bunny! Are you going right in with the calf?"
"Yes."
"He—he'll bite you!"
"No, he won't. Calves haven't any teeth. They only eat milk, and they don't have to chew that. They don't get teeth until they're big.
"I'm not afraid," said Bunny Brown, as he climbed over into the calf's pen. Sue stood as near as she could, so Bunny could dip his brush in the green paint. Bunny was careful not to get any on his own suit, or on Sue's dress. That is he was as careful as any small boy could be. But, even then, he did splash some of the paint on himself and on Sue. But the children did not think of this at the time. They were so busy having fun, turning a calf into a circus zebra.