UPSIDE DOWNSIDE BUNNY
For a few seconds Bunny, Sue, Mart and Lucile looked over the shoulders
of one another at the ticket which Charlie Star had brought to show
them.
"I didn't know we were going to have real tickets!" exclaimed Bunny.
"This is lots more fun than I thought."
"It's just like a real show, with real tickets an' everything!"
exclaimed Sue.
"'Course that isn't a very good ticket, yet," explained Charlie. "I just
got it set up and there's a couple mistakes in it. I'll have them fixed
before the show."
"Yes, I guess it would be better to have the mistakes fixed before you
print the tickets for the show," replied Mart, with a smile. He knew
something about show tickets, and he could see more mistakes in the one
Charlie had made than could the young printer himself.
"But it's very nice," said Lucile, not wanting Charlie's feelings to be
hurt. "Only you aren't going to charge twenty-five dollars to come to
the show, are you?" she asked with a smile.
"Oh, no, that ought to be twenty-five cents," said Charlie, "only I made
a mistake. Or else Harry Bentley did. He helped me set the type."
"Where did you get the printing press?" asked Mart.
"It's one my father had when he was a little boy," answered Charlie. "He
had it put away in the attic, and he always said I could take it when I
got old enough. So I asked him for it to-day.
"He said I wasn't quite old enough, but when I told him about the show
we're going to have for the Blind Home he said he guessed I could print
the tickets. So I set up the type. Harry helped me, and when we get it
fixed right I'll print all the tickets for nothing."
"That will be very nice," said Mrs. Brown, who came in to look at what
Charlie had brought over. "You did very well for the first time, I
think."
I suppose you children can see where Charlie made the mistakes in
setting up the type. But with the help of his father he corrected them,
and when the tickets were printed for the show they were all right,
even to the price to get in, which was twenty-five cents.
But of course I haven't really reached the show part of this story yet.
I just thought I'd mention the tickets. There was still much to be done
before Bunny, Sue, and the other children were ready for the first act
of the play, "Down on the Farm."
Mr. Treadwell gave a great deal of his time to telling the boys and
girls what to do, and in going over the little farm play. All the time
he could spare away from Mr. Brown's office the actor gave to the show.
If you have ever been in a play you know how often you must do the same
thing over. Finally the time comes when you are as nearly perfect as
possible. It was that way with Bunny and Sue. Sometimes they were tired
of saying over and over again such things as: "Here come a tramp!" or
"Let's call Snap, he'll make the tramp go away!"
Those were only two "lines" in the play, but these, as well as others,
had to be said over and over again, until Mr. Treadwell was sure the
children would not forget.
Mart and Lucile, also, had to practice their parts, but as the boy and
girl actor and actress had been in plays before, it was not so hard for
them. And though the two little strangers gave much of their time to
getting ready for the performance they still had hours when they thought
of their missing relations--Uncle Bill, Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie.
For, though many letters had been written by Mr. Brown and Mr.
Treadwell, no answers had come, and at times Lucile and Mart were very
sad.
But no one could be sad very long when they were near Bunny Brown and
his sister Sue. These two were always doing such funny things and saying
such funny things that Mart and Lucile laughed more often than they were
sad.
"Do you think, we can have Mr. Winkler's monkey and Miss Winkler's
parrot in the show?" asked Bunny of Mart one day.
"I guess we can if Mr. Treadwell will write parts for them," answered
Mart. "But the trouble is, you can't be sure that Wango and the parrot
will do the things you want them to. The parrot might speak at the wrong
time, and Wango might cut up by chasing his tail or hanging by his
hind paws from the ceiling, and so make the audience laugh when we
didn't want them to."
"That's so," agreed Bunny. "Then I guess we'll only just have our dog
Splash in the play. He'll do whatever you tell him."
"He certainly chases after the tramp in a funny way," laughed Lucile. "I
should think Mr. Treadwell would be afraid the dog would tear his coat."
"Oh, Splash only bites the old piece of cloth," said Mart. "It's a good
trick."
A little while after this Bunny saw Mart going out to the garage with
some ropes and straps under his arm. The garage was partly a barn, for
the Shetland pony was kept in it and some hay for Toby, the pony, to eat
was also stored in the same place.
"What are you going to do?" Bunny asked the boy acrobat.
"Practice a few of my new tricks that I'm going to do in the play," Mart
answered. "There's a new kind of back somersault I want to turn, and a
new kind of flipflop I want to make. You know in the play I do some
tricks in front of the stage barn to make the farmers laugh. I'm
supposed to be a boy who has run away from a circus."
"We knew a boy who really ran away from a circus once," said Bunny. "And
he was in our show when we had one down at grandpa's farm."
"Well, I'm going to do a few circus tricks, as well as I can, though I
never was in a tent show," said Mart.
"Please, may I come and watch you?" asked Bunny.
"Yes," answered Mart kindly.
So the acrobat and Bunny went out to the little barn, and there, with
ropes and straps, Mart made a trapeze, such as you have often seen on
the stage or in a circus. On the floor of the barn Mart spread a pile of
hay.
"Is that for our pony to come out and eat?" Bunny wanted to know.
"Oh, no," answered Mart. "That's to make something soft for me to fall
on, in case I slip. In the circus the performers have nets under them to
catch them in case they slip. But you can't have nets in a garage very
well, so I use the hay."
Bunny watched his friend swing to and fro, sometimes by his hands and
sometimes by his toes, on the trapeze in the barn. And Mart was so sure
and careful that he didn't slip once. So he didn't fall down on the hay.
"Did you ever fall?" asked Bunny, as he watched the young acrobat swing
to and fro, with his head down.
"Oh, yes indeed! More than once. And once I broke my leg so I couldn't
go on the stage for over a month."
"I don't want to break my leg," said Bunny.
"I hope you never do," answered Mart. "But, of course, as you aren't
going on a trapeze you won't fall and break anything."
"I wish I could go on a trapeze," murmured Bunny. "I could do some of
the things you do I guess."
"I'm afraid not," laughed Mart, with a shake of his head. "It isn't as
easy as it looks, and you are not big enough. If you do your somersaults
and part of a flipflop in the play, as you are going to do, you'll make
a hit, Bunny."
"Do you mean I'll hit the floor?" asked the little boy.
"No," laughed Mart. "Though if you aren't careful that may happen. But
when I say you'll make a 'hit' I mean that the audience will like the
tricks you do and they'll clap."
"Like they did in the circus?" asked Bunny.
"Just like that," said Mart.
Bunny sat and watched his friend. It looked so easy when Mart swung to
and fro on the rope, twisting and turning this way and that.
"I could do it," said Bunny to himself.
When Mart was called to the house by his sister he forgot to take down
the ropes and straps that made the trapeze in the barn. They hung right
before Bunny Brown's eyes.
"I believe I can do it!" said Bunny to himself, as he looked at the
swinging trapeze. "Anyhow, if I do fall, there's some soft hay."
And then Bunny did what he should not have done. He pulled some boxes
and rolled a barrel over to the middle of the barn floor until he had a
sort of platform under the trapeze Mart had put up to practice on. Then
Bunny climbed up, got hold of the swinging bar and swung his legs over.
Then something queer happened, for the first thing Bunny Brown knew,
there he was, hanging upside down with his legs over the trapeze and his
head pointing to the pile of hay in the middle of the barn floor.