MR. TREADWELL'S WIG
Bunny Brown, swinging by his knees from the trapeze, had just one little
look at his sister Sue, and then he didn't see her again. At first Bunny
thought perhaps he had fallen asleep and had dreamed that he had seen
Sue. So many things had happened since he climbed up on the funny swing
that it would not have surprised Bunny to have learned that he had
fallen asleep and dreamed.
But a moment later he heard Sue's voice, and then Bunny felt sure it was
not a dream. For as Sue slipped and fell down a deep hole, together with
a lot of hay, she called:
"Oh, oh! Oh, Bunny! Oh, Mother! Oh, Daddy!"
She wanted all three of them to help her and she didn't know which one
she wanted most.
"Oh, Sue! Sue!" cried Bunny, as soon as he felt sure it was his sister
he had seen and not a dream. "Sue! Come and help me!"
"Somebody's got to help me!" half sobbed Sue, and her voice seemed very
faint and far away.
And no wonder! For Sue had slipped down the little hole over the manger,
or feed-box, in the stall of Toby, the Shetland pony. In this barn, as
perhaps you have seen in barns at your grandpa's farm in the country,
there is a little hole cut in the floor of the loft, or upstairs part,
so hay can be pushed down from the mow into the stall of a horse or a
pony. There was a little hay covering this hole, so Sue did not see it
when she went up to look for her doll. And it was down this hole that
Sue had fallen.
Right down she went, into the manger of the pony's stall, but as the
manger was filled with hay Sue didn't get hurt a bit. But the pony was
very much surprised. It was just as if, when you were eating your bread
and milk at the table some day, the ceiling over your head should
suddenly have a hole come in it, and down through the hole, from
upstairs, should slide a little horse.
"Oh! Oh!" cried Sue, in surprise. Of course the Shetland pony didn't say
anything, but he was surprised just the same.
Sue wasn't hurt a bit, and soon she scrambled out of the manger and ran
out of the stall. As she did so the little girl heard a bump, or thud,
over her head. That bump made her think of Bunny, and how he was
swinging on the trapeze.
"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, running up the stairs again. "Did you see me
slide down the hay hole?"
"Yes," answered Bunny, "I did. And did you hear me fall on the pile of
hay under the trapeze?"
"I heard a bumpity-bump sound!" said Sue.
"That was me," explained Bunny. "I couldn't hold on any longer, so I had
to let go. But I fell in the hay and I didn't hurt myself at all. I
thought I would hurt myself, or I'd have let go before this. Now I'm all
right. I can do a trapeze swing almost as good as Mart. I'm all right
now!"
Certainly he seemed so to Sue, who by this time had got to the top of
the stairs and was looking across the loft at her brother. Bunny wasn't
hurt--the hay on which he had fallen was just like a feather bed.
"Well, we better go in now," said Sue. "We both falled down but we both
didn't get hurt."
Bunny stood looking up at the trapeze. He was thinking of getting on it
again, but as he remembered how frightened he was he made up his mind
that he had better let Mart do those risky tricks.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" exclaimed Sue, as she and Bunny were going out of
the barn toward the house. "I forgot my Jane Anna for Helen. I was
coming out to get her when I heard you holler."
"I yelled a lot of times before anybody heard me," said Bunny, and he
told Sue how he had climbed up on the pile of boxes, and how they had
fallen so he could not get down off the trapeze.
"Well, you're down now," said Sue.
Mrs. Brown guessed that something was the matter when she saw Bunny and
Sue coming back from the barn, looking rather excited, and she soon had
the whole story. Then she told Bunny he must not get on Mart's trapeze
again, as he was too little for that sort of play.
"Even if there's a lot of hay under it can't I get on?" asked Bunny.
"No, not even if there's a lot of hay under it," answered Mrs. Brown.
So that ended Bunny's hopes of becoming a trapeze performer in the show.
But Mart still kept on practicing, and soon he could do a number of good
tricks. Lucile, too, practiced her songs, and those who heard the
children at their rehearsals said the show, which had first been thought
of by Bunny and Sue, would be a good one.
Charlie Star fixed the mistakes in the tickets he was printing for the
farm play and soon they were ready to be sold. All the fathers and
mothers of the children who were to be in the play bought tickets, and
so did other persons in Bellemere. The tickets were put on sale in the
hardware store, in the drug store, in the grocery of Mr. Sam Gordon, and
in other places about town.
Mr. Treadwell also made some big posters, telling about the show. These
posters were hung in the window of the barber shop, and one was tacked
up in the railroad station and another on Mr. Brown's dock office.
Everything was being made ready for the show which would be given
Christmas afternoon. The children could hardly wait for the time to
come, but, of course, they had to. Meanwhile, they had as much fun as
they could when they were not at school or practicing their parts in the
new hall built over the hardware store.
"How happy we could be living here and going to take part in a nice play
if we only knew where our people were," said Lucile to her brother Mart
one day.
"Yes, that's all we need to make us quite happy," said he. "But I guess
we'll never see our uncles or Aunt Sallie again. Why, we haven't even
heard from Mr. Jackson since our vaudeville show busted up.
"Well, I'm going to write just one more letter," went on Mart, and he
got out pen, ink, and paper. "I'm going to write to that man in New York
who used to act in the same play with Uncle Simon. Mr. Treadwell found
that man's address the other day, and I'm going to write to him. He may
know where Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie are."
"Does he know where Uncle Bill is?" asked. Lucile.
"I don't know. I'll ask him," decided Mart.
When the letter had been written Bunny and Sue came in from school. It
was snowing again, and the ground was white with the beautiful flakes.
The coats of Bunny and Sue were also covered, for they had been throwing
snowballs at one another. Their cheeks were red and their eyes
sparkling.
"Want to walk down the street with me while I mail this letter?" asked
Mart of the two children.
"Oh, yes!" cried Sue.
"Can't we go in the pony sled?" Bunny asked. "There's enough snow to
make it slip easy now."
"Yes, I guess we could go in the pony sled," agreed Mart. "And we can
stop at Mr. Winkler's and ask Mr. Treadwell, if he's at home, if he
wants us to come to rehearsal to-night."
Soon Bunny, Sue, Mart, and Lucile were riding down the street in the
pony sled, having a fine time in the snow storm. It was quite a heavy
fall of snow, but the weather was not very cold.
After mailing the letter the four children drove to the home of Mr.
Winkler.
"I hope the monkey does something queer," said Bunny.
"I wish the parrot would sing a funny song!" exclaimed Sue.
"Something seems to be the matter, anyhow," said Lucile, as they got out
of the little sled and walked toward the front door of Mr. Winkler's
house, where the actor boarded. "Look at Miss Winkler running around,"
and she pointed to the sister of the old sailor. Miss Winkler could be
seen hurrying about the room from one window to another.
"Do you want us all to come to practice to-night, Mr. Treadwell?" asked
Mart, as he and the children entered the house and saw the actor
hurrying around after Miss Winkler.
"Come to practice? Oh, I don't know!" was the answer. "I can't talk to
you right away, Mart. Something has happened!"
"What is it?" asked Lucile. "Have you heard anything about----?"
"Oh, it isn't about your kin, I'm sorry to say," was the actor's answer.
"It's just that one of my best wigs is missing--the one I wear when I
dress up like General Washington. Those wigs are scarce, and I hardly
ever let it out of my box. But now it is gone!"
"And I've searched high and low for it all over this house, but I can't
find it!" said Miss Winkler.
Bunny and Sue did not know quite what to make of all the excitement over
the lost wig which Mr. Treadwell wore on his head in certain parts of
the play. So they stood to one side while the search went on. Sue looked
in the sitting room, while Mr. Treadwell and Miss Winkler went into the
parlor that was hardly ever opened.
Something that Bunny saw in a chair in front of the kitchen stove made
him call out:
"Oh, Miss Winkler! there's a funny old man in your kitchen, and he's
trying to open the cupboard door where you keep the cookies. Come and
see the funny old man!"