THE STORM
"Bunny! Won't it be just grand!" whispered Sue to her brother, as they
walked along ahead of the balloon man.
"Fine!" said Bunny. "We'll have him stand outside the tent, and sell his
balloons. It'll look just like a real circus then. It wouldn't without
the balloons; would it, Sue?"
"No. And, oh, Bunny! I've thought of something else."
"What is it?"
"Pink lemonade."
"Pink lemonade?"
"Yes, we'll have the balloon man sell that, and peanuts. Then it will be
more than ever like a real circus."
"But how can he sell pink lemonade and peanuts and balloons?" Bunny
wanted to know.
"Oh, he can do it," said Sue, who seemed to think it was very easy. "He
can tie his bunch of balloons to the lemonade and peanut stand, and when
anybody wants one they can take it and put down the five cents. Then the
balloon man will have one hand to dish out the hot peanuts, and the
other to pour out the pink lemonade."
"Yes, I guess he could do that," said Bunny. "We'll ask him, anyhow.
Maybe he won't want to."
Bunny and Sue stopped and waited for the balloon man to catch up with
them. The man, seeing the children waiting for him, hurried forward, and
stopped to see what was wanted.
"Well?" he asked, looking at his balloons to make sure none of them
would break away, and float up to the clouds.
"Can you sell pink lemonade?" asked Bunny.
"Penk leemonade," repeated the Italian, saying the words in a funny way.
"Whata you calla dat? Penk leemonade?"
"You know--what they always have at a circus," said Bunny. "This color,"
and he pointed to a pink balloon. "You drink it you know, out of a
glass--five cents."
"No can drinka de balloon!" the man exclaimed. "You put your teeth on
heem and he go--pop! so--no good!"
"No, I don't mean that!" cried Bunny, laughing at the Italian, who made
funny faces, and waved his hands in the air. "I mean can you sell pink
lemonade--to drink--at our circus?"
"And peanuts?" added Sue.
"Yes, we'd want you to sell peanuts, too," went on the little boy.
"Ha! Peanuts? No! I used to pusha de peanut cart--make de whistle
blow--hot peanuts. No more! I sella de balloon!" exclaimed the Italian.
"No more makea de hot peanuts!"
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue. "He won't do it! We'll have to get some one
else, Bunny."
"Well, we can easy do that," said Bunny. "Maybe the hired man will sell
peanuts and lemonade for us. I asked him if he would like to be in the
big circus, and he said he would. I asked him if he could do any acts."
"What'd he say?" Sue wanted to know, while the Italian balloon peddler
stood looking at the two children, as if wondering what they would do
next.
"Well, the hired man said all he could do was milk a cow, and plow up
the ground. He wanted to know if they were circus acts, and I said I
guessed not," replied Bunny. "So maybe he'd be glad to sell lemonade and
peanuts."
"I think he would," said Sue. "You needn't do anything except blow up
your balloons and sell 'em," she went on to the Italian. "Never mind
about the peanuts and the pink lemonade."
"Alla right," said the man, with a smile that showed what nice white
teeth he had. "Me sella de balloon!"
He and the children walked on a little longer. Then the man turned to
Bunny and asked:
"How much farder now--to de circus?"
"Not far now," said Bunny. "The circus isn't quite ready yet, but you
can stay at our grandpa's house until it is. You see we don't get many
balloon peddlers out this way. You're the first one we've seen, so you'd
better stay. It won't be more than a week, or maybe two weeks."
"Circus last all dat time?" asked the Italian. "Sella lot de balloons.
Buy more in New York--sella dem! Mucha de money!"
"We've an aunt in New York," said Sue. "Her name is Aunt Lu. If you sell
all these balloons she'll buy some more for you in New York, so you
won't have to go away."
"Yes," said Bunny, "that would be best. We'll get Aunt Lu to send you
more balloons. And when you haven't any to sell, while you're waiting,
you could help the hired man sell pink lemonade and peanuts. 'Cause,
anyhow, maybe the hired man sometimes would have to go to milk the cows,
and you could take his place."
The Italian shook his head. He did not quite know what Bunny and Sue
were talking about. All he thought of was that he was being taken to a
circus, where he might sell all his balloons, and make money enough to
buy more to sell.
"There's grandpa's house now," said Sue, as they went around a turn in
the road.
"Where de circus--where de tents?" the Italian wanted to know.
"Oh, they're not all up yet," said Bunny. "The big boys are doing that.
You just come with us."
And so Bunny Brown and his sister Sue walked up the front path, followed
by the Italian with the many-colored balloons floating over his head.
"Mercy me! What's all this?" cried Mother Brown, when she saw the little
procession. "What does this mean, Bunny--Sue?"
"It's balloons, for the circus," explained Bunny. "We saw this man down
the road, and we invited him to come with us. He's going to stay here
until it's time for the circus, next week, and then he's going to sell
balloons outside the tent."
"We wanted him to sell pink lemonade and peanuts," said Sue, "but he
wouldn't. So the hired man can do that. Now, Grandma," went on the
little girl, "maybe this balloon man is hungry. We're not, 'cause we
had some cookies and milk; didn't we, Bunny?"
"Yep."
"But he didn't have any," Sue went on. "And he'll have to have a place
to sleep, 'cause he's going to stay to the circus, and sell balloons.
And if he sells them all Aunt Lu will send him more from New York and he
can sell them. Won't it be nice, Mother?"
Mrs. Brown did not know what to say. Neither did Grandma Brown. They
just looked at one another, and then at the Italian, and next at Bunny
and Sue.
"Me sella de balloon!" explained the Italian, as best he could in his
queer English. "Little boy--little gal--say circus. Me likea de circus.
But me no see any tents. Where circus tents?"
"Oh these children!" cried Mrs. Brown. "What in the world are we to do
with this Italian and his balloons?"
"Me sella de balloons!" said the dark-skinned man.
"Yes, I know," sighed Mrs. Brown. "But the circus is only a make-believe
one, and it isn't ready yet, and--Oh, I don't know what to do!" she
cried. "Bunny--Sue--you shouldn't have invited the balloon man to come
here!"
"But you can't have a circus without balloons," said Bunny.
"Yes, my dear, I know, but----"
"What's all the trouble?" asked Papa Brown, coming out on the porch just
then.
Bunny and Sue, their mother and the Italian, told the story after a
while.
"Well," said Mr. Brown, to the Italian, after he had listened carefully,
"I'm sorry you had your trip for nothing. But of course the children did
not know any better. It is only a little circus, and you would not sell
many balloons. But, as long as you came away back here, I guess we can
give you something to eat, and we'll buy some balloons of you for the
children."
"Thanka you. Mucha de 'bliged," said the Italian with a smile.
He seemed happy now, and after Grandma Brown had given him some bread
and meat, and a big piece of pie, out on the side porch, he started off
down the road again, smiling and happy. Bunny and Sue were each given a
balloon by their father, who bought them from the Italian.
"And don't invite any more peddlers to your circus, children," said Mr.
Brown.
"We won't," promised Bunny. "But we thought the balloons would be nice."
"We can have the hired man sell pink lemonade and peanuts; can't we?"
Sue wanted to know.
"Yes, I guess so--if he wants to," laughed Grandpa Brown.
"Well, we have some balloons ourselves, anyhow," said Bunny to his
sister that night.
The children had much fun with their balloons next day. They tied long
threads to them, and let them float high in the air. Once Sue's nearly
got away, but Bunny ran after the thread, which was dragging on the
ground, and caught it.
The big boys had not forgotten about the circus, all this while. Bunker,
Ben and their friends had put up the tent Grandpa Brown let them take,
and Bunny and Sue went inside.
"My! It's terrible big!" said Sue, looking about the white canvas house.
It was not so very large, but it seemed so to Sue.
"Just wait until you see the other," said Bunker. "The fair tent is
three times as big as this."
And so it was. When that was put up in the meadow, near the army tent of
Grandpa Brown's, the place began to look like a real circus ground.
"When are you going to have the show?" asked Bunny of Ben.
"Oh, in a few days now. Have you and Sue made up what you are going to
do?"
"Yes, but it's a secret," Sue answered.
"So much the better!" laughed Ben. "You'll surprise the people."
The two tents were put up, and the big boys were getting ready for the
circus. One night, about four days before it was to be held, Bunker Blue
and Ben came in from where they had been, down near the tents, and
looked anxiously at the sky.
"What's the matter," asked Bunny.
"Well," said Bunker, "it looks as if we would have a big rain storm.
And if we do, and the meadow brook gets too full of water, it may wash
the tents away."
"Oh, I guess that won't happen," said Ben.
But in the night it began to rain very hard. It thundered and lightened,
and Bunny and Sue woke up, frightened. Sue began to cry.
"Why, you mustn't cry just because it rains," said Mother Brown.
"But I'm afraid!" sobbed Sue. "And it will wash away our circus tents!"
and she sat up in bed, and shivered every time it thundered. "Oh,
Mother! It will wash away all the nice circus tents!"