"COME ON NOW, LET'S ALL PULL TOGETHER!""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 thegarage. 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, andthen 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 yougoing 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. Thenwe'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 thethings 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 mightget 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.
"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 callit, 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 hallafter 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 theBrown 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 farmscenery 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.
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. Treadwellseemed 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 tangledin 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, forshe 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 awhile 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 busyin 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.
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. Nowwhat 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'sJim 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 thebox 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 newsled 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. "Butwe'reglad 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 withme 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 barnitself, 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!"
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 soticklishwhen 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 differentparts 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 doon 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!"
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 thanI 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 thewhole, 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: