THE LITTLE CIRCUS
"Bunny! Bunny Brown! What am I going to be in the circus? I want to be a
clown!"
"Yes, I want to be a clown, too, and throw water over another clown,
like I saw in a circus once!"
"Well, you're not going to throw any water on me!"
"Yes I can if Bunny Brown says so! It's _his_ circus!"
Tom White, Jimmie Kenny and Ned Johnson were talking together in one
corner of the barn. Ned wanted to be a clown, and throw water on some
one else. Jimmie did not want to be the one to get wet, nor did Tom
White.
"Bunny, can't I be a clown?" asked Ned.
"I'm going to be a wild animal trainer--make-believe!" exclaimed Sue,
"and I'm going to be near the cage where the blue-striped tiger is. I'm
going to make him roar."
Sallie Smith looked a bit scared.
"Oh, it's only make-believe," Sue explained.
"Yes, I know," said Sallie. "But--Oh, dear! a blue-striped tiger!"
"Oh, it's only our big dog Splash," went on Sue. "First I was only going
to let Bunny stripe his half of Splash. But a half a blue-striped tiger
would look funny, so I said he could make my half of Splash striped too.
It will wash off, for it's only bluing, like mother puts on the
clothes."
"And we're going to have a striped zebra, too," said Bunny.
"Oh, let's see it!" begged the three boys.
"It's only one of grandpa's calves," cried Sue, "but it really has green
stripes on it. Bunny put them on, and they're green paint, and they
won't come off 'till they wear off, grandpa says, and the calf ran away,
and kicked Bunny over and----"
"Oh, Sue, don't tell everything!" cried Bunny. "You'll spoil the show."
"Let's see the striped calf!" begged the three boys.
"No, we've got to practise for the circus," Bunny insisted. "Now I'll do
my trapeze act," and he climbed up to the bar that hung by the long
ropes from the beam in the barn.
"I want to do a trapeze act, too!" cried Tom White.
"Say, we can't all do the same thing!" Bunny said. "That isn't like a
real circus. It's got to be different acts."
"Oh, say!" cried Ned Johnson. "I know what I can do! I can ride you in a
wheelbarrow, Tom, and upset you. That will make 'em all laugh."
"It won't make me laugh, if you upset me too hard!" declared Tom.
"I'll spread some hay on the floor, like the time I did when Bunny
fell," said Sue. "Then you won't be hurt. It doesn't hurt to fall on
hay; does it, Bunny?"
"Nope."
"All right. Ned can upset me out of the wheelbarrow if he does it on the
hay," agreed Tom.
So those two boys began to practise this part of the circus, while Bunny
swung from the trapeze. Jimmie Kenny said he would climb up as high as
he could and slide down a rope, like a sailor.
"I'll have some hay under me, too, so if I slip I won't be hurt," he
said.
Indeed, if it had not been for the big piles of soft hay in grandpa's
barn I don't know what the little circus performers would have done.
While the boys were practising the things they were going to do, Sue and
her little girl friends made up a little act of their own.
Each one had a doll, and they practised a little song which they had
sung in school. It was about putting the dollies to sleep in a cat's
cradle, and a little mouse came in and awakened them, and then they went
out to gather flowers for the honey bees.
Just a simple little song, but Sue and her friends sung it very nicely.
"And I know something else you can do, Sue, besides being a keeper of
wild animals," said Bunny.
"What?" asked his sister.
"You can ride in the wheelbarrow and drive Ned and Tom for your
horses--make-believe, you know."
"But I don't want to be upset, even on the hay!" Sue said.
"No, we won't upset you," promised Ned.
Then they practised that little act with Sue.
"When we give our real circus," said Bunny, "we can cover the
wheelbarrow with flowers, and nobody will know what it is you're riding
in, Sue."
"That will be nice!"
As the days went on, Bunny and Sue found they would have to have more
children in their little circus, so others were invited. One boy brought
an old rocking horse, and another had one almost like it, so they gave a
"pretend" horse race around the barn floor.
Bunker Blue made a big sea-saw for the children, and every one who came
to the show was to have a free ride on this.
"We ought to have a merry-go-'round," said Bunny one day.
"I'll make you one," offered Ben Hall, the strange boy, who was still
working on grandpa's farm.
"Oh, will you! How?" asked Bunny.
Ben took some planks and nailed them together, criss-cross, like an X.
Then he put them on a box, and on the ends of the planks that stuck out
he fastened some wagon wheels. When four children sat down on the
planks, and some one pushed them, they went around and around as nicely
as you please, getting a fine ride around the middle of the barn floor.
"But we ought to have music," said Sue.
"I'll play my mouth organ," offered Bunker Blue.
At last the day of the little circus came. Bunny and Sue had decided
that it was to be free, as they did not want pins, and none of the
country children had any money to spend. So the circus was free to old
folks and young folks alike.
"You'll come; won't you, Mother?" asked Bunny the morning of the circus.
"Oh, yes, of course."
"And will you, Daddy?" Sue wanted to know.
"Yes, little girl. I want to see you ride in your chariot, as you call
it." For Bunny had named the wheelbarrow that was to be covered with
flowers, a chariot, which is what they use to race with in a real
circus.
Splash had been most beautifully striped with blue, and, though he did
not like being shut up in a box, with slats nailed in front to serve as
iron bars, still the big dog knew it was all in fun, so he stayed
quietly where Bunny put him.
The striped calf was in another cage, and he was given a nice pail full
of milk to keep him quiet, so he would not kick his way out. Calves like
milk, you know.
The two roosters, which Sue said were the wild "ockstritches," behaved
very nicely, picking up the corn in their cage as though they had been
in a circus many times before. Grandpa also let the children take the
old turkey gobbler and put him in a box.
"What shall we call him?" asked Sue, just before the show was about to
begin.
"Oh, he'll be the elephant," said Bunny. "See, he's got something
hanging down in front like an elephant's trunk. And we didn't get time
to dress the pig up like an elephant."
"But a elephant has four legs, Bunny, and the turkey has only two."
"Oh, well, we can pretend he was in a railroad wreck, and lost two of
his legs. Circuses do get wrecked sometimes."
"All right, Bunny."
All the children who were to take part in Bunny's and Sue's show were in
the barn, waiting for the curtain to be pulled back. For grandmother and
Mother Brown had made a calico curtain for the children. Bunker Blue and
Ben said they would stand, one on either side, to pull the curtain back
when the show started.
Bunker was going to play his mouth organ, while Ben said he would make
what music he could by whistling and blowing on a piece of paper folded
over a comb. You can make pretty good music that way, only, as Ben said,
it tickles your lips, and you have to stop every once in a while.
Many children from nearby farms came to the little circus in the barn,
and some of their fathers and mothers also came. It was a fine day for
the show.
"Are you all ready, Bunny?" asked Bunker, who, with Ben, stood behind
the curtain.
"All ready," answered the little boy.
"Here we go!" cried Bunker. Then he played on his mouth organ, Ben
tooted on the comb and the curtain slid back on the wires by which it
was stretched across the stage, or platform, in the barn.
"Welcome to our show!" cried Bunny Brown, making a bow to the audience
which was seated on boxes and boards out in front. "We will now begin!"
he went on. "And after the show you are all invited to stay and see the
wild animals. We have a blue-striped tiger, a wild zebra and an----"
"An elephant, only he lost two legs in a accident," said Sue in a shrill
whisper, fearing Bunny was going to forget about the turkey.