PRACTICE FOR THE CIRCUS
Bunny Brown took a piece of clothes line that hung down from one of the
posts. He was sure his grandma or his mother would not want this end, so
he could take it.
"Anyhow, it isn't wash-day," said Bunny to Sue, "and as soon as I lasso
the rooster I can put the line back again. I can tie on what I cut off."
Bunny had an old knife Bunker Blue had given him. It was a knife Bunker
had used to open clams and oysters, and was not very sharp. That was the
reason Bunker gave it to Bunny. Bunker did not want the little boy to
cut himself. With this old knife Bunny cut off a bit of clothes line. He
had to saw and saw back and forth with the dull blade of the knife
before he could cut the line.
But at last he had a long piece of rope.
"Now I'll make a lasso just like the cowboys have in the Wild West,"
said Bunny.
Bunny had once seen a show like that, so he knew something of what the
cowboys did with their lassos, which are long ropes, with a loop in one
end. They throw this loop around the head, or leg, of a cow or a horse,
and catch it this way, so as not to hurt it.
"Now see me catch the rooster, Sue!" called Bunny.
"I'll help you," offered the little girl. "You stand here by the rose
bush, I'll shoo the rooster up to you, then you can lasso him."
"All right!" cried Bunny, swinging the piece of clothes line around his
head as he had seen the cowboys do in the show.
"Cock-a-doodle-do!" crowed the rooster, and then he made a funny
gurgling noise, as he saw Sue running toward him. The old rooster was
not used to children, as, except when Bunny Brown and his sister Sue
came to their grandpa's farm, there were no little ones about the place.
And when the old rooster saw Sue running toward him, he did not know
what to make of the little girl.
"Shoo! Shoo!" cried Sue, waving her hands. "Shoo! Scat!"
"Cock-a-doodle-do!" crowed the rooster, and it sounded just as if he
said, "I don't know what to do!"
"Shoo! Shoo!" cried the little girl, and she tried to drive the rooster
over toward Bunny, so he could lasso the big crowing bird.
But the rooster was not going to be caught as easily as that. He ran to
one side, around the rose bush and off toward the garden.
"Get him, Bunny! Get him!" cried Sue.
"I will!" shouted the little make-believe cowboy. After the rooster he
ran, swinging his lasso. "Whoa there! Whoa!" called Bunny.
"Shoo! Shoo!" exclaimed Sue.
"No--no! Don't do that!" begged Bunny.
"Don't do what?" Sue asked.
"Don't shoo him that way. That makes him run. I want him to stand still
so I can catch him."
"But you said cowboys catched things when they were running, like this
rooster is," objected Sue.
"Yes," agreed Bunny, "but I haven't been a cowboy very long you see. I
want the rooster to stand still so I can lasso him. So don't _shoo_
him--just whoa him!"
Then Bunny called:
"Whoa! Whoa there!"
"That's what you say to a horse--not to a rooster," said the little
girl.
"I know," Bunny answered. "But I guess this rooster knows horse talk,
'cause there's horses around here. Whoa there!"
But even if the rooster did understand horse talk, he was not going to
stop and let Bunny lasso him. That was sure. On and on the rooster ran,
crowing and cackling. The hens and other roosters heard the noise, and
crowed and cackled too, wondering what it was all about.
"Here he comes, Bunny! Here he comes!" cried Sue, as the big old
rooster, having run toward a fence, until he could go no farther, had to
turn around and run back again. "Get him, Bunny!"
"I will!" cried the little boy. "I'll get him this time."
But the rooster was running very fast now, for he was very much scared.
Back and forth he went, from one side to the other. He did come close to
Bunny, but when the little boy threw his clothes line rope lasso it fell
far away from the rooster.
"Oh, you missed him!" cried Sue, much disappointed.
"But I'll get him next time," said Bunny, as he picked up his lasso and
ran after the rooster.
Back and forth around the garden, under the lilac and rose bushes, ran
Bunny and Sue after the old rooster. The rooster was getting tired now,
and could not go so fast. Neither could Bunny nor Sue, and Bunny's arm
was so tired, from having thrown his lasso so much, that he wanted to
stop and rest. But still he wanted to catch the rooster.
"Here he comes now--get him, Bunny!" cried Sue, as she went around one
side of the currant bush, while Bunny came around the other side. The
rooster was right between the two children, and as there was a fence on
one side of him, and the bush on the other, it looked as if he would be
caught this time.
"Oh, get him, Bunny!" Sue called. "Get him!"
"I--I will!" answered her brother. "I'll just grab him in my arms. I can
put the lasso on him afterward."
The rooster was running away from Sue who was right behind him, and the
rooster was heading straight for Bunny. The little boy put out his arms
to grab the big fowl, when the rooster, with a loud crow and cackle,
flew up over Bunny's head, over the fence and into the meadow beyond.
And Bunny was running so fast, and so was Sue, that, before they could
stop themselves, down they both fell, in the soft grass. For a moment
they sat there, looking at one another. Then Sue smiled. She was glad to
sit down and rest, even if she had fallen. And so was Bunny.
"Well, we didn't get him," said Bunny slowly, as he looked at the
rooster, now safe on the other side of the fence.
"No," said Sue. "But you can climb over the fence in the meadow."
"I--I guess I don't want to," said the little fellow.
"Hello! What's going on here? Who's been chasing my old rooster?" asked
Grandpa Brown, coming up just then, and looking at the two children.
"We--we were chasing him Grandpa," said Bunny, who always told the
truth.
"We was goin' to make a ockstritch of him," Sue explained. "A ockstritch
for our circus in the barn."
"Oh, an ostrich!" laughed Grandpa Brown. "Well, I'd rather you wouldn't
take my best big rooster. I have some smaller, and tamer ones, you may
take for your circus."
"Really?" asked Bunny. "And can we pretend they are ostriches?"
"Yes, you can put them in wooden cages and make believe they are
anything you like," said Grandpa Brown. "Only, of course, you must be
kind to them."
"Sure!" said Bunny Brown. "We won't hurt the roosters."
"When are you going to have your show?" asked Grandpa Brown.
"Oh, next week," Bunny answered. "Some of the boys and girls are coming
over to-day, and we're going to practise in the barn."
"Well, be careful you don't get hurt," said their grandpa.
"And can we have the green-striped calf for a zebra?" Bunny wanted to
know.
"Oh, I guess so; yes. The stripes haven't worn off him yet, and they
won't for some time. So you might as well play with him."
"We don't want to play with him," Bunny explained. "He--he jumps about
too much. We just want to put him in a cage and make believe he is a
wild animal."
"Like a ockstritch," added Sue. The ostrich seemed to be her favorite.
"An ostrich isn't an animal," carefully explained Bunny. "It's a big
bird, and it hides its head in the sand, and they pull out its tail
feathers for ladies' hats."
"Well, it's wild, anyhow," said Sue.
"Yes, it's wild," admitted Bunny.
Grandpa Brown showed the children two tame roosters, that would let
Bunny and Sue stroke their glossy feathers.
"You may put them in a box, and make believe they are any sort of wild
bird or animal you like," said the farmer.
The children promised to be kind to the roosters. They did not put them
in cages that day, as it was too soon.
That afternoon Tom White, Nellie Bruce, Jimmie Kenny, Sallie Smith and
Ned Johnson came over to see Bunny and Sue. They all went out to the
barn, and there they got ready for the circus. Bunny and Sue, as well as
the other children, were to be dressed up in funny clothes, which their
mothers said they would make for them.
Bunny was to do some "acts" on the trapeze, and fall down in the hay.
Then he and Sue were to do part of a little Punch and Judy show they had
once given, though Bunny, this time, had no big lobster claw to put on
his nose.
"All ready now!" called Bunny, when his friends were in the barn. "All
ready to practise for the circus!"