THE CHURCH FAIR
Bunny Brown and his boy chums stopped what they were doing toward
making it possible for Patter to swing on the trapeze. They had found
that the dog could not hang by his paws, as they hung by their hands,
and Bunny had said:
“Let’s make a little platform, like a seat, on the trapeze bar, and
Patter can sit on that as he sits on Toby’s back. Then we can swing him
and it will be as good as if he hung by his legs.”
After a little talk the boys decided on this and that is what they were
doing when Mrs. Brown came to the barn and asked about Sue.
“We’ll help find her,” said Bunny.
“She must be around here somewhere,” added George.
“’Cause she was here only a little while ago,” remarked Charlie.
The trapeze, with the seat for Patter partly finished, was left hanging
by its swaying ropes, and the boys scattered through the barn calling
Sue’s name and looking for her. Mrs. Brown also looked, and so did
Patter.
But for all their looking and for all their calling, Sue could not be
found. They tossed aside the hay, for once Sue had gone into the barn
to play with Bunny, and she had fallen asleep. Some hay was scattered
over her, and it was a long time before she was found. Mrs. Brown had
been very anxious then and Bunny was so frightened that he cried.
“So this time we must first make sure that Sue isn’t under the hay,”
said the little girl’s mother.
The boys searched and tossed the hay this way and that, even looking
under the pile they had put on the floor for Patter to jump upon. But
Sue was not there.
“Maybe she’s in the oat bin,” suggested Bunny.
Now, as there was only Toby, the pony, and only one old horse, used to
haul the boats up on the beach, not many oats were needed, and only a
few were kept in the big bin that, formerly, was filled. The bin made a
good hiding place and Bunny and Sue often used it when playing games.
“Yes, we’d better look in the oat bin,” agreed Mrs. Brown.
The cover was raised, and the boys and Sue’s mother peered into the big
box, hoping to see the little girl. But Sue was not there.
“Where can the child be?” exclaimed Mrs. Brown.
“Maybe Patter can find her,” said George.
“Oh, that’s right!” chimed in the other boys.
“Patter found the caps we threw into the water,” said Charlie. “So he
ought to find Sue.”
“Go find her, Patter!” ordered Bunny, snapping his fingers. “Go find
Sue!”
Patter seemed to understand. He pricked up his ears and cocked his head
on one side. Then, with a bark, he ran to different parts of the barn,
poking his nose into all sorts of odd places. Bunny had taught him
this trick, which, in a way, was like playing hide-and-seek.
Once, when he was running around this way, looking for little lost Sue,
Patter stopped near a hole and began barking loudly.
“Oh, he’s found her! He’s found her!” cried Bunny.
They all hurried to the place where Patter was barking at the hole.
Mrs. Brown, reaching the spot first, said:
“Only a big rat!”
And, truly, a big brown rat ran out of the hole and scurried across the
barn floor.
“Sue can’t be in that hole!” said Bunny.
“It isn’t big enough,” added Charlie.
“And, anyhow, she’d be afraid of the rats,” said George.
“My sister isn’t afraid of white rats,” declared Bunny, “cause when we
had our circus she picked a white rat right up in her hands.”
“Pooh! Nobody’s afraid of _white_ rats!” said Charlie.
“They is so! Aren’t some girls afraid of white rats, Mother?” asked
Bunny.
“I think so, yes, my dear. But don’t bother about rats now. We must
find Sue.”
“Let’s look under the hay again,” suggested Charlie.
“Here’s a place where we didn’t look very well,” said George, and he
pointed to a heap of hay near a small outside door of the barn, close
to the ground. Mr. Brown had had this door made when he kept a cow,
and it was opened when he wanted to take hay out of the barn for the
cow, and did not want to open the big doors. This door was open now,
swinging to and fro in the wind.
As this heap of hay had been forgotten and not turned over in the other
search, Mrs. Brown thought perhaps Sue might be under it, having fallen
asleep, not hearing the calls that were given.
Bunny and his chums tossed this hay aside with their hands. They had
not gone down very far in it when, all of a sudden, something moved
under the pile of dried grass fodder.
“Oh, she’s here! She’s here!” cried Bunny.
But when a little more of the hay had been pushed aside, instead of
seeing Sue Brown, her mother and the boys saw the queer, wizened face
of Mr. Winkler’s monkey, whose name was Wango.
“Oh, look!” cried Charlie.
“It isn’t Sue at all!” gasped Bunny.
“Unless she’s turned into a monkey,” added Harry, who was fond of
reading fairy stories.
“She couldn’t turn into _this_ monkey, ’cause he’s Mr. Winkler’s
Wango,” said Bunny.
“Oh, dear! I’m afraid something has really happened!” exclaimed Mrs.
Brown. “Sue, where are you?” She called this last out loudly.
Then a voice outside the low, swinging door of the barn answered and
said:
“Here I am! Is Wango there? Were you looking for me?”
“Were we looking for you, child? Well, I should say we were!” exclaimed
Mrs. Brown. “Where in the world have you been?”
“I went over to get Wango,” answered Sue. “But he ran away from me,”
and then, in through the low door came Sue herself, her dress torn and
dirty and with streaks of mud on her face. But she was safe and sound,
and when she saw Wango, who was sitting on the pile of hay looking at
the boys, Sue exclaimed:
“Oh, there you are, you bad monkey! You ran away from me, didn’t you?
And you tore my dress and made me all muddy!”
“Yip! Yip! Yip!” chatted Wango, which seemed to be his way of saying:
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”
“Sue, why did you run away?” asked her mother. “We have been looking
everywhere for you!”
“Well, I came out here to play with the boys, and they were making a
trapeze for Patter to do tricks on,” said Sue, and she looked at her
dog and the monkey, who had quickly made friends. “Then I thought maybe
it would be nice if we could have Wango and Patter on the same trapeze,
so I went over to get the monkey.”
“Did Mr. Winkler say you could take him?” asked Mrs. Brown. Sometimes
the old sailor who owned Wango let the children play with his pet.
“No, he wasn’t at home, and I knew it wouldn’t be any use to ask his
sister,” went on Sue. “She doesn’t like the monkey, anyhow.”
This was very true. Miss Euphemia Winkler, sister of the old sailor,
who kept house for him, did not like Wango. She often said she wished
he would run away and never come back.
“Well, what did you do?” asked Bunny.
“Oh, the monkey was sitting out on the porch, chained to a post, so
I unchained him and started over here with him,” said Sue. “But he
pulled his collar loose and got away. Then I chased after him and he
ran across the brook on the little plank bridge. I ran after him, and I
almost caught him, but he got away and I fell down and I tore my dress
and I got muddy.”
“I see you did,” said Mrs. Brown. But she knew children must play and
get a bit dirty, so she did not scold Sue for that.
“So I thought maybe Wango would run over here, and he did,” went on
Sue. “And I came and here he is and that’s all.”
“Quite enough I should say!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown. “Now, Sue, you must
come in and wash.”
“Can’t I stay and help the boys put Wango and Patter on the trapeze?”
begged Sue.
“Not until you have another dress on,” said Mrs. Brown.
“It’ll take us quite a while to fix up the platform, anyhow,” said
George. “We’ll let you see it when we get it fixed so Wango and Patter
swing on it.”
“All right,” agreed Sue.
As Sue and her mother started from the barn Mary, the maid, came out
and said:
“Oh, Mrs. Brown, there are a lot of ladies in the parlor waiting to see
you. They’re from the church.”
“Goodness! I forgot that they were coming,” said Mrs. Brown. “They said
they would call to talk about the church fair.”
“What church fair, Mother?” asked Sue.
“One we are getting up,” her mother answered. “We are trying to raise
money for the poor, and we are going to have a fair and entertainment
in the opera house. I must go in and talk to the ladies about it.”
“Oh, Mother, wait a minute!” called Bunny.
“Well, what is it, little son? I am in a hurry.”
“Mother, if you have a church fair we could have Patter do tricks at it
and that would make a lot of money for you!” went on Bunny. “Couldn’t
we have the trick dog at the fair?”
“And the monkey, too?” added Sue. “Don’t forget Wango!”
“Great!” cried Charlie.
“That’s a good idea!” said George.
The boys shouted and hurrahed and Patter barked while Wango chattered:
“Yip! Yip! Yip!” and there was great excitement for a minute.
“We’ll talk a little later about the monkey and the dog at the fair,”
promised Mrs. Brown. “Just now I must go in and see the ladies.”