THE MISSING MICE
The big tent, once used at the fair, but which the boys had now borrowed
for their circus, was all tangled up in the water. The ropes and cloth
were twisted and wound around among the sticks and stones, where the
tent had drifted, after the flood of the night before had carried it
away.
"Oh, we'll never get that out so we can use it," said Charlie Tenny, one
of the boys who was helping Ben, Bunker and the others.
"Yes, we'll get it out," said Ben. "We've got Bunny Brown to help us you
know."
Some of the boys laughed, and Bunny's face grew red.
"Now I mean just what I say!" cried Ben. "Bunny Brown is a brave little
chap, and if it hadn't been for him and his sister Sue we big fellows
wouldn't have thought of getting up a circus show. So it's a good thing
to have a chap like him with us, even if he is small."
Bunny felt better after this, and he thought Ben was very kind to speak
as he had done.
"Splash is here, too," said Bunny. "He can get hold of a rope and pull
like anything."
"That's right," said Bunker Blue. "Maybe Splash can help us. He is a
strong dog."
"It's a good thing the tent didn't go all the way down to the river,"
said Charlie. "Otherwise we might never have found it."
"Yes," put in Bunker. "And now let's see if we can get it to shore. It's
not going to be easy."
The boys worked hard, and Bunny helped. He could wade out, where the
water was not too deep, and pull on the ropes. There were a great many
of these ropes to hold the tent together, but now they were all tangled.
But Ben Hall seemed to know how to untangle them, and soon the work of
getting the tent to shore began to look easier. Splash did his share of
work, too. He pulled on the ropes Bunker Blue handed him, shutting his
strong, white teeth on them, and straining and tugging until you would
have thought that Splash, all alone, would pull the tent ashore.
And, finally, with all the boys and the dog and Bunny Brown pulling and
tugging, they got the tent out of the water. It was still all twisted
and tangled, but now that it was on shore it was easier to make smooth.
"We'll have to get a wagon to haul it back to the meadow where we are
going to set it up again," said Bunker.
"My grandpa will let us take a horse and wagon," said Bunny. "He wants
to see the circus."
"I guess we'll have to give him a free ticket if he lets us take a horse
and wagon to haul the tent," said Ben with a laugh. "You've a good
grandpa, Bunny Brown."
"Yep. I like him, and so does Sue," said the little fellow.
Grandpa Brown very kindly said he would go down to the river himself, in
his wagon, and help the boys bring up the tent. He did this, and he also
helped them set it up again. This time they put the two circus tents
farther back from the brook.
"Then if it rains again, and the water gets high and makes a flood, it
won't wash away the tents," said Bunker Blue.
"When is the show going to be?" asked Sue. She was anxious to see it,
and she and Bunny were waiting for the time when they could let their
secret become known. For they had told no one yet.
"Oh, we'll have to wait a few days now, before having the circus," said
Ben. "The tents are all wet, and we want them to dry out. Then we've got
to make the seats all over again, because the flood carried them away. I
guess we can't have the show until next week."
There was much more work to be done because the flood had come and
spoiled everything. But, after all, it did not matter much, and the boys
set to work with jolly laughs to get the circus ready again.
Bunny and Sue helped all they could, and the older boys were glad to
have the children with them, because both Bunny and Sue were so
good-natured, and said such funny things, at times, that it made the
others laugh.
The seats for the circus were made of boards, laid across boxes, just as
Bunny and Sue had made theirs when they gave their first Punch and Judy
show in their barn at home.
There were seats all around the outer edge inside the big fair tent. It
was in this one that the real "show" was to be given. Here the big boys
would swing on trapezes, have foot and wheelbarrow races, ride horses
and do all sorts of tricks.
"The people will sit here and watch us do our funny things," said Ben.
"We're going to have clowns, and everything."
"And what's going to be in the little tent--the army one grandpa let you
take?" asked Bunny.
"Oh, that's for the wild animals," said Bunker Blue.
"Are you going to have our dog Splash striped like a blue tiger again?"
asked Sue.
"No, I think we'll have some different wild animals this time," said
Ben. "There'll be some surprises at our show."
"Oh, I wish it were time now!" cried Sue.
"We've got a surprise too; haven't we, Bunny?"
"Yep!" answered her brother. "Come on out to the barn, Sue and we'll
practise it again."
What it was Bunny and Sue were going to do, none of the big boys could
guess. And they did not try very hard, for they had too much to do
themselves, getting ready for the "big" circus as they called it, for
the first one, gotten up by Bunny and Sue, was only a little one.
So the smaller tent was made ready for the "wild" animals, though of
course there would really be no elephants, tigers or anything like that.
You couldn't have them in a boys' circus, and I guess the boys didn't
really want them. "Make-believe" was as much fun to them as it was to
Bunny and Sue.
There was nice, clear weather after the storm and flood, and soon the
circus tents were dried out again. The boards were once more put across
the boxes for seats.
One day Bunker and Ben went into the big tent. There they saw Bunny and
Sue tying some pieces of old carpet on to some of the planks down near
the front sawdust ring. For there was a real sawdust ring, the sawdust
having come from grandpa's ice-house.
"What are you putting carpet on the planks for?" asked Ben, of the two
children.
"To make preserved seats," answered Sue.
"Reserved seats, Sue. _Re_served--not _pre_served seats, Sue," corrected
Bunny.
"Well, it's just the same, 'most," said Sue, as she went on tying her
bit of carpet to a board. "We're making some nice, soft reserved seats
for grandpa and grandma, and mother and daddy."
"Oh, I see!" laughed Bunker. "That's a good idea. We can make soft seats
for the ladies, Ben. We'll get some more pieces of old carpet and have a
lot of reserved seats."
And this the big boys did. Bunny and Sue, little as they were, had given
them a good idea.
And now began the real work of getting ready for the circus. That is the
boys began taking into the smaller tent queer looking boxes and crates.
These boxes and crates were covered with cloth or paper, so no one
could see what was in them.
"What are they?" asked Sue, as she and Bunny stood outside the smaller
tent, for Bunker would not let them go inside.
"Oh, those are some of the wild animals," said the red-haired boy.
"Really?" asked Sue, her eyes opening wide.
"Well--really-make-believe," laughed Bunker.
"And are the white mice there?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, the white mice are in the tent," said Bunker.
One of the country boys, who had a lot of white mice had promised to
lend them to the circus. He had taught them to do some little tricks,
and this was to be a part of the show.
"Oh, I can hardly wait!" cried Sue. "I want to see the circus."
"Well you can now, in a day or so," said Bunker. "Hi there! What have
you?" he asked of a boy who came up to the tent with a box on a
wheelbarrow.
"This is the wild lion," was the answer.
"Oh-o-o-o-o!" exclaimed Sue, getting closer to Bunny. "A lion!"
"Oh, I've got him well trained," said the boy. "He won't hurt you at
all. He won't even roar if I tell him not to."
Certainly the lion in the cage seemed very quiet, and the boy carried
him very easily.
"I guess maybe he's a baby lion," whispered Sue to Bunny.
That afternoon there was a great deal of excitement down at the "circus
grounds," as Bunny and Sue called the place in the meadow where the
tents stood.
One of the boys who had been helping Bunker and Ben, came running out of
the tent crying:
"They're gone! They're gone!"
"What's gone?" asked Ben.
"My white mice! The cage door is open and they're all gone!"