THE WILD ANIMALS
Everyone laughed when Sue said that, and Sue herself blushed as red as
the ribbon on her hair, and the sash her mother had pinned around her
waist.
"Does your elephant eat peanuts?" asked Daddy Brown, smiling.
"No, I don't guess so," answered Sue. "He likes corn better."
"Now the show's going to begin!" cried Bunny Brown. "Get ready
everybody. The first will be a grand trapeze act! Come on, boys! Play
some music, please, Bunker!"
Bunker played a new tune on his mouth organ. Then Bunny, Ned Johnson and
Tom White got on the trapezes, for Bunny had decided that his one act,
like this, was not enough. It would look more like a real circus with
three performers.
Back and forth on the flying trapezes swung Bunny and his two friends.
Of course such little fellows could not do many tricks, but they did
very well, so all the grown folks said. They hung by their hands, and by
their legs, and Ned Johnson, who was quite strong for his age, "turned
himself inside out," as he called it, by pulling up his legs and putting
them over his head, and under the trapeze bar.
Suddenly Bunny Brown gave a call.
"All ready now for our big swing!"
"I'm ready!" answered Tom.
"So am I," added Ned.
The three boys swung back and forth. All at once Bunny cried:
"Let go!"
Away they sailed through the air.
"Oh, they'll be hurt! They'll fall and be hurt!" cried Grandma Brown.
"No, this is only part of the show," said Mother Brown.
And so it was. For Bunny, Ned and Tom landed safely on a big pile of
hay, having jumped into the mow when they let go of the trapeze bars.
"How was that?" cried Bunny, laughing while Bunker and Ben played the
music.
"Fine!" cried Daddy Brown.
"It's almost as good a show as the one I paid real money to see,"
laughed grandpa.
"What's next?" asked Jimmie Kenny's mother, who had come with her
neighbor, Mrs. Smith.
"It's your turn now, Sue," whispered Bunny to his sister. "Do your act."
So Sue, and her little girl chums, sang their doll song. It was very
much liked, too, and the people clapped so that the little girls had to
sing it over again.
The curtain was now pulled across the stage while Ned and Tom got ready
for one of the clown acts. They were dressed in queer, calico suits,
almost like those worn by real clowns in a circus, and the boys had
whitened their faces with chalk, and stuck on red rose leaves to make
red dots.
Ned came out in front, with Tom in a wheelbarrow, for they had decided
this between themselves. Ned wheeled Tom about, at the same time singing
a funny song, and then, out from behind a barrel, rushed Jimmie Kenny.
Jimmie had a pail, and he began crying:
"Fire! Fire! Fire!"
So loudly did he shout, and so much in earnest did he seem, that some of
the farmers began to look about as though they were afraid Grandpa
Brown's barn was on fire.
"Don't worry! It's only in fun," said grandpa.
Ned and Tom did not seem to know what to make of Jimmie's act. He was
not supposed to come out when they did.
"Now this is where I upset you, Tom," said Ned in a low voice.
"Well, as long as you turn me over on the soft hay I don't mind,"
answered the other boy, for they had made this up between them.
Over went the wheelbarrow, and Tom was spilled out.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" cried Jimmie again, and then dashed a pail of water
over Tom and Ned.
"Waugh! Ouch! Stop that!" spluttered Ned. "Stop it!"
"That--that wasn't in the show!" stammered Tom, for some of the water
went in his mouth.
"I know it wasn't in it," laughed Jimmie, "but I thought I'd put it in!"
At first Tom and Ned were a little angry, but when each looked at the
other, and saw how funny he was, with half the white and red spots
washed off his face, each one had to laugh.
The audience laughed, too. The water did no harm, for it was a hot day,
and the boys had on old clothes. So they did not mind. But Tom and Ned
decided to play a little trick on Jimmie. So, while he was laughing at
what he had done to them, they suddenly ran at him, caught him, and put
him in the wheelbarrow. Before he could get out they began wheeling him
around the barn floor.
"Now dump him!" suddenly cried Tom, and out shot Jimmie on a pile of
hay. Before he could get up Tom had dashed some water on him.
"Now we're even!" cried Ned. "You're wet, too!"
It was all in fun, and no one minded getting wet. Then the circus went
on. Sue was ridden in the flower-covered wheelbarrow, driving Ned and
Tom. The boys acted like very nice horses indeed, and went slowly or
fast, just as Sue called to them. She had a wreath of daisies on her
hair, and looked like a little flower queen.
After that Bunker Blue and Ben Hall played some music on the mouth organ
and comb, while Bunny and Sue were getting ready to give their little
Punch and Judy show, which they had played once before, back home.
"Why don't you do some of your tricks, Ben?" asked Bunker of the new
boy, when Bunny and Sue were almost ready.
"Oh, I can't do any tricks," said Ben, turning away.
"Yes you can! I guess you know more about a circus than you are willing
to tell; don't you?"
But Ben did not answer, and then the curtain had to be pulled back to
let Bunny and Sue be seen.
I will not tell you about the Punch and Judy show here, as I have
written about it in the first book. Besides, it was not as well done by
Bunny and Sue as was the first one.
Bunny forgot some of the things he should have said, and so did Sue.
Besides, Bunny had no big, red, hollow lobster claw to put over his
nose, to make himself look like Mr. Punch. But, for all that, the show
was very much enjoyed by all, especially the children.
The race on the two rocking horses was lots of fun, and toward the end
one of the boys rocked his horse so much that he fell over, but there
was some straw for him to fall on, so he was not hurt. Up he jumped, on
to the back of his horse again, and away he rode. But the other boy won
the race.
Then Bunny and Sue jumped from some carpenter horses, through hoops that
were covered with paper pasted over them, just like in a real circus.
"Crack!" went the paper as Bunny and Sue jumped through.
"Oh, it's just like real; isn't it, Mother?" called a little girl in the
audience. It was very still when she said this, and everyone laughed so
loudly that Bunny Brown looked around. And, as he did not look where he
was jumping, he tumbled and fell off the saw-horse.
But Bunny fell in a soft place, and as a saw-horse is only made of wood,
like a rocking horse, it did not kick, or step on, the little boy. So
everything was all right.
The performing part of the circus came to an end with a "grand concert."
Bunny, Sue and all the others stood in line and sang a song, while
Bunker Blue played on the mouth organ, and Ben on the paper-covered
comb.
"And now you are all invited to come and see the wild animals!" called
Bunny. "Señorita Mozara will show you the blue striped tiger that does
tricks. Señorita Mozara is my sister Sue," he explained, "but wild
animal trainers all have fancy names, so I made that one up for her."
Everyone laughed at that.
"Right this way, ladies and gentlemen, to see the wild animals!" cried
Sue. Ben Hall had told her what the circus men said, and Sue tried, in
her childish voice, to do it as nearly like them as possible. "Right
this way!" she cried. "You will see the blue-striped tiger--of course
it's only our dog Splash, and he won't hurt you," said Sue quickly, as
she saw some of the little children hanging back.
"He will eat meat from my hand, and stand up on his hind legs. He will
lie down and roll over. This way, everybody!"
Splash did look funny, all striped with bluing as he was. But he did the
tricks for Sue, and everyone thought it was a very nice part of the
circus.
"Over this way is the striped zebra," went on Sue, as she led the way to
where the green-painted calf was shut in a little pen. The men, women
and children were laughing at the queer animal, when something happened.
Splash got out of his cage. Either some one opened the door, or Splash
pushed it open. And as Splash bounded out he knocked over the cage where
the turkey gobbler "elephant" was kept.
"Gobble-obble-obble!" went the turkey, as it flew across the barn.
Children screamed, and some of them backed up against the cage of
roosters, so it broke open and the crowing roosters were loose.
"Baaa-a-a-a!" went the green striped calf, and giving a big jump, out of
the box it came, and began running around, upsetting both Bunny and Sue.
"Oh, the wild animals are loose! The wild animals are loose!" cried a
little girl, while the big folks laughed so hard that they had to sit
down on boxes, wheelbarrows, boards or whatever they could find. It was
very funny.