LET'S HAVE A CIRCUS!
"Bunny! Bunny! What are you doing?" cried Sue, as she saw her brother
hanging, head down, in such a funny way from the peach tree branches.
"Don't do that, Bunny! You'll get hurt!"
"I--I didn't mean to do it!" cried Bunny, and his voice sounded very
strange, coming from his mouth upside down as it was. Sue did not know
whether to laugh or cry.
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny, is you playing circus?" she asked.
"No--no! I'm not playing circus!" and Bunny wiggled, and wiggled again,
trying to get his feet loose. Both of them were caught between two
branches of the peach tree where the limbs grew close together.
And it is a good thing that Bunny could not get his feet loose just
then, or he would have wiggled himself to the ground, and he might have
been badly hurt, for he would have fallen on his head.
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny! You _is_ playing circus!" cried Sue again. She had
finished her first peach, and now, dropping the stone, from which she
had been sucking the last, sweet bits of pulp, she stood looking at her
brother, dangling from the tree.
"No, I'm not playing circus!" and Bunny's voice sounded now as though he
was just ready to cry. "Run and tell grandpa to help me down, Sue!" he
begged. "I--I'm choking--I can't hardly breathe, Sue! Run for grandpa!"
Bunny was almost choking, and his face, tanned as it was from the sun
and wind, was red now--almost as red as the boiled lobster, the hollow
claw of which Bunny once put over his nose to make himself look like Mr.
Punch, of the Punch and Judy show. For when boys, or girls either, hang
by their feet, with their heads upside down, all the blood seems to run
there if they hang too long. And that was what was happening to Bunny
Brown.
"Are you _sure_ you isn't playin' circus?" asked Sue.
"No--I--I'm not playing," answered Bunny. "Hurry for grandpa! Oh, how my
head hurts!"
"You look just like the circus man," said Sue. For one of the men in the
circus Bunny and Sue had seen a few days before had hung by his toes
from a trapeze, upside down, just as Bunny was hanging, with his head
pointing toward the ground, and his feet near the top of the tent.
But of course the circus man was used to it, and it did not hurt his
head as it did Bunny's.
"Hurry, Sue!" begged the little boy.
"All right. I'll get grandpa," Sue cried, as she ran off toward the tree
where Grandpa Brown was picking peaches.
"Oh, Grandpa!" cried the little girl. "Come--come hurry up.
Bunny--Bunny--he----"
Sue was so out of breath, from having run so fast, and from trying to
talk so fast, that she could hardly speak. But Grandpa Brown knew
something was the matter.
"What is it, Sue?" he asked. "What has happened to Bunny? Did a bee
sting him?"
"No, Grandpa. But he--he's like the circus man, only he says he isn't
playin' he is a circus. He's upside down in the tree, and he's a
wigglin' an' a wogglin' an' he can't get down, an' his face is all red
an' he wants you, an'--an'----"
"My goodness me!" exclaimed Grandpa Brown, setting on the ground his
basket, now half full of peaches. "What is that boy up to now?"
For Bunny Brown, and often his sister Sue, did get into all sorts of
mischief, though they did not always mean to do so. "What has Bunny done
now, I wonder?" asked grandpa.
"He--he couldn't help it," said Sue. "He slipped when he went up the
tree, and now he's swinging by his legs just like the man in the circus,
only Bunny says he isn't."
"He isn't what?" asked Grandpa Brown, as he hurried along, taking hold
of Sue's hand. "What isn't he, Sue? I never did see such children!" and
Grandpa Brown shook his head.
"Bunny says he isn't the man in the circus," explained Sue.
"No, I shouldn't think he would be a man in the circus," said grandpa.
"He _looks_ just like a circus man, though," insisted Sue. "But he says
he isn't playin' that game."
Sue shook her head. She did not know what it all meant, nor why Bunny
was hanging in such a queer way. But Grandpa Brown would make it all
right. Sue was sure of that.
"There he is! There's Bunny upside down!" cried Sue, pointing to the
tree in which Bunny was hanging by his feet.
"Oh, my!" cried Grandpa Brown. Then he ran forward, took Bunny in his
arms, and raised him up. This lifted Bunny's feet free from the tree
branches, between which they were caught, and then Grandpa Brown turned
the little boy right side up, and set him down on his feet.
"There you are, Bunny!" cried grandpa. "But how did it happen? Were you
trying to be a circus, all by yourself?"
"N--n--no," stammered Bunny, for he could hardly get his breath yet.
"I--I slipped down when I was reaching for a big, red peach for Sue. But
I didn't slip all the way, for my feets caught in the tree."
"Well, it's a good thing they did, or you might have been hurt worse
than you were," said Grandpa Brown. "But I guess you're not hurt much
now; are you?"
Bunny looked down at his feet. Then he felt of his own arms and legs. He
took a long breath. His face was not so red now.
"I--I guess I'm all right," he answered, at last.
"Well, don't climb any more trees," said Grandpa Brown. "You are too
little."
Bunny thought he was quite a big boy, but of course grandpa knew what
was right.
"I--I won't climb any more _peach_ trees," said Bunny Brown.
"No, nor any other kind!" exclaimed his grandfather. "Just keep out of
trees. Little boys and girls are safest on the ground. But now you had
better come over where I can keep my eyes on you. I have my basket
nearly filled. We'll very soon go back to the house."
Bunny Brown was all right now. So he and Sue went over to the tree where
grandpa was picking. They helped to fill the basket, for some of the
peaches grew on branches so close to the ground that the children could
reach up and pick them without any trouble.
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue had been on grandpa's farm since early
summer. Those of you who have read the first book in this series do not
need to be told who the children are. But there are some who may want to
hear a little about them.
In the first book, named "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue," I told you
how the children, with their father and mother, lived in the town of
Bellemere, on Sandport bay, near the ocean. Mr. Brown was in the boat
business, and many fishermen hired boats from him.
Aunt Lu came from New York to visit Mrs. Brown, the mother of Bunny and
Sue, and while on her visit Aunt Lu lost her diamond ring. Bunny found
it in an awfully funny way, when he was playing he was Mr. Punch, in the
Punch and Judy show.
In the second book, "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm,"
I told you how the Brown family went to the country in a big automobile,
in which they lived just as Gypsies do. They even slept in the big
automobile van.
And when Bunny and Sue reached grandpa's farm, after a two days' trip,
what fun they had! You may read all about it in the book. And Bunny and
Sue did more than just have fun.
The children helped find grandpa's horses, that had been taken away by
the Gypsies. The horses were found at the circus, where Bunny and Sue
went to see the elephants, tigers, lions, camels and ponies. They also
saw the men swinging on the trapeze, high up in the big tent.
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue always wanted to be doing something. If
it was not one thing it was another. They often got lost, though they
did not mean to. Sometimes their dog Splash would find them.
Splash was a fine dog. He pulled Sue out of the water once, and she
called him Splash because he "splashed" in so bravely to get her.
In Bellemere, where Bunny and Sue lived, they had many friends. Every
one in town loved the children. Even Wango, the queer monkey pet of Mr.
Winkler, the old sailor, liked Bunny and Sue.
But they had not seen Wango for some time now; not since coming to the
farm in the country. They had seen a trained bear, which a man led
around by a string. The bear climbed a telegraph pole, and did other
tricks. Bunny and Sue thought he was very funny. But they did not like
him as much as they did the cunning little monkey at home in Bellemere.
Carrying the basket of peaches on his arm, and leading the children,
Grandpa Brown walked back to the house. Mrs. Brown, the mother of Bunny
and Sue, watched them come up the walk.
"Oh, Sue!" cried her mother. "Look at your dress! What did you spill on
it?"
"I--I guess it's peach juice, Mother. It dripped all over. But Bunny
hung upside down in the tree, just like the man in the circus, only he
wasn't."
I guess Sue was glad to talk about something else beside the peach juice
stains on her dress.
"What--what happened?" asked Mother Brown, looking at grandpa. "Did
Bunny----?"
"That's right," he said, laughing. "Bunny was hanging, upside down, in a
tree. But he wasn't hurt, and I soon lifted him down."
"Oh, what will those children do next?" asked their mother.
"I--I didn't mean to do it," said Bunny. "It--it just--happened. I--I
couldn't help it."
"No, I suppose not," said his mother. "But you must go and wash now.
Sue, I'll put a clean dress on you, and then I'll see if I can get the
peach stains off this one. You ought to have on an old apron."
A little later, Bunny and Sue, now nice and clean, were sitting on the
side porch. It was almost time for supper.
"Bunny," asked Sue, "did it hurt when you were playin' you were a circus
man only you weren't?"
"No, it didn't exactly _hurt_," he said slowly. "But it felt funny. Did
I really look like a circus man, Sue?"
"Yep. Just like one. Only, of course, you didn't have any nice pink suit
on, with spangles and silver and gold."
"Oh, no, of course not," agreed Bunny. "But did I swing by my feet?"
"Yes, Bunny, you did."
For a moment the little chap said nothing. Then he cried out:
"Oh, Sue! I know what let's do!"
"What?"
"Let's have a circus! It will be lots of fun! We'll get up a circus all
by ourselves! Will you help me make a circus?"