THERE WAS WANGO PERCHED HIGH ON A BIG TREE.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 Ican 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!"
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 toleap 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 hisshoulder. 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 tablewith 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 myreal 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.
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 baggagehad 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. "Andwe 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 husbandis 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 othersheard 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.
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 GeneralGrant 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'veheardthat 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 theman, "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 themoney 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 farmscene 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.
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'sma-chinery, Sue, andsceneryis what we saw in the Opera House—make-believe trees, and the brook, you know."
"Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "Well, can we havethat—thatsheeneryfor 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 backthere 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 MartClayton 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 toWayville 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 wasgoing 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 thetrip 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 threesets 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!"
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 wereput 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 thatgoes 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 likethose 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 fastenedacocoanut 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. Thenwe'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, andBunny 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!"
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, andthere 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 inas 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.