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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 10. The Old Rooster |
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_ CHAPTER X. THE OLD ROOSTER Again and again Bunny Brown dipped the brush in the green paint the hired man had left, and stripe after stripe did the little fellow put on the calf. "She'll be a regular circus zebra when I'm done," said Bunny Brown to his sister Sue. Both children laughed in glee. "Are you going to paint both sides of the calf, Bunny?" "I am if I can reach. Maybe I can't. Anyhow, a zebra ought to be painted on both sides. Not like we're going to do our dog Splash; only on one side, to make a pretend blue-striped tiger of him." Sue seemed to be thinking of something. "Doesn't he look nice?" asked Bunny of his sister. "Isn't he going to be a fine zebra?" He stood back from the box-stall where the calf was kept, so Sue could see how the little animal looked. "Doesn't he look pretty, Sue? Just like a circus zebra, only of course they're not green. But isn't he nice?" "Yes," said Sue, "he is pretty." The calf, after jumping around some when Bunny first put the paint on, was now standing very still, as though he liked it. Of course the calf did not know that the paint would not wear off for a long time. Then, too, the cow mother had put her head over from the next stall, where she was tied, and she was rubbing her big red tongue on the calf's head. The calf liked its cow mother to rub it this way, and maybe that is why the little calf stood still. "It's going to look real nice, Bunny," said Sue, as she looked at the green stripes Bunny had put on. "I--I guess I'll let you put blue stripes on my half of Splash, too. Then he'll look all over like a tiger; won't he, Bunny?" "Sure. I'm glad you'll let me, Sue. 'Cause a dog, only half striped, would look funny. Now I'll see if I can put some stripes on the other side of the calf." Bunny tried to reach the side of the little animal he had not yet painted, but he could not do it from where he stood. "I'm going over in the stall with it," Bunny said. "You hand me the pail of paint when I get there, Sue." "Oh, Bunny! Are you going right in with the calf?" "Yes." "He--he'll bite you!" "No, he won't. Calves haven't any teeth. They only eat milk, and they don't have to chew that. They don't get teeth until they're big. "I'm not afraid," said Bunny Brown, as he climbed over into the calf's pen. Sue stood as near as she could, so Bunny could dip his brush in the green paint. Bunny was careful not to get any on his own suit, or on Sue's dress. That is he was as careful as any small boy could be. But, even then, he did splash some of the paint on himself and on Sue. But the children did not think of this at the time. They were so busy having fun, turning a calf into a circus zebra. [Illustration: THEY WERE BUSY TURNING A CALF INTO A CIRCUS ZEBRA. _Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus_ _Page 84._] Bunny had put a number of green stripes on one side of the calf, and now he was ready to put some on the other. But the calf did not stand as still with Bunny inside the stall with her, as when he had been outside. The calf seemed frightened. "Baa-a-a-a-a!" it cried. "Baa-a-a-a-a! Baa-a-a-a-a!" And the old mother cow cried: "Moo! Moo! Moo!" She did not like to see Bunny so close to her baby calf, I guess. But the old cow did not try to hook Bunny with her horns. She only looked at him with her big, brown eyes, and tried to reach her tongue over and "kiss" the calf, as Sue called it. "Stand still!" Bunny said to the calf, but the little animal did not want to. Perhaps it thought it had had enough of the green paint. It moved about, from one side of the box to the other, and Bunny had hard work to put on any more stripes. "Isn't that enough?" asked Sue, after a bit. "It looks real nice Bunny. You had better save some green paint for the other calf." "Yes, but I'm only going to stripe one," answered Bunny. "It's too hard. One zebra is enough for our circus. We'll make the other calf into a lion. A lion doesn't have any stripes." "All right," agreed Sue. "Then come on out, Bunny, 'cause I'm tired of holding this paint for you." "In a minute, Sue. I'll be right out. I just want to put some stripes on the calf's legs. They have to be striped same as the sides and back." And that was where Bunny Brown made one of his mistakes. He should have let the calf's legs alone. For, no sooner did the little animal feel the tickling of the paint brush on its legs than it gave a loud cry, and began to kick. Out with its hind legs it kicked, and, as Bunny happened to be stooping down, just then, near the calf's feet, the little boy was kicked over. Right over he went, spilling some of the paint on himself, but the most of it, I am glad to say, went on the straw in the calf's box-stall. "Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue. "Oh, Bunny Brown!" Her brother did not answer. He had fallen down on his face, and his mouth was full of straw. And when he did get up he saw that the calf had kicked open the gate of its stall, and was running around the barnyard, all green striped and spotted. "Moo! Moo!" cried the mother cow, when she saw her little one break out. Then the old cow pushed very hard on the gate that shut her in. Open went the gate, and out ran the cow to be with her little calf. "Oh, Bunny! Look!" cried Sue. "Our circus zebra-cow will run away!" Bunny jumped to his feet, and, leaving the overturned pot of paint behind him, out he ran into the barnyard. "Whoa! Whoa there, bossy-calf!" he cried. "You don't say whoa to cows, you say that to horses!" called Sue to her brother. "What do you say to cows?" Bunny wanted to know. "You call 'Co boss! Co boss! Co boss'!" answered Sue. "I know 'cause I heard grandma call them to be milked. Call 'Co boss!' Bunny." The little boy did, but there was no need to, for the little calf, once it found that the mother cow was with it, did not run any farther. The mother cow put out her red tongue and "kissed" her little calf some more. She did not seem to mind the green paint, though perhaps if she had gotten some in her mouth she might not have liked it. "Well, anyhow," said Bunny Brown, "we have a striped zebra for our circus. And when I get some blue paint I'll paint our dog Splash, and make a tiger of him, Sue." "Did the calf-zebra hurt you when she kicked you over, Bunny?" Sue wanted to know. "No, hardly any. Her feet are soft, and I fell on the straw. But all the paint is spilled." "Maybe there's a little left so Henry can finish the wheelbarrow," suggested Sue. "I'll go and look," offered Bunny. But he did not get the chance. For just then Henry came into the barnyard. "Have you seen my pot of green paint," he asked. "I left it--" Then he saw the green striped calf. At first he laughed and then he said: "Oh, this is too bad! That's one of your grandpa's best calves, and he won't like it a bit, painting him that way." "He's a zebra," said Bunny. "No matter what he is," and Henry shook his head, "it's too bad. I shouldn't have left the paint where you could get it. I'll have to tell Mr. Brown." Bunny and Sue felt bad at this. They had not thought they were doing anything wrong, but now it seemed that they were. "Will--will grandpa be very sorry?" asked Sue. "Yes, he'll be very sorry and angry," answered the hired man, "he'll not like it to see his calf all streaked with green paint." But Grandpa Brown was not as angry at Bunny and Sue as he might have been. Of course he said they had done wrong, and he felt bad. But no one could be angry for very long at Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. They were so jolly, never meaning to be bad. They just didn't think. But of course you know that not thinking what you are doing often makes as much trouble as though you did a thing on purpose. "Well, I guess I'll have to forgive you youngsters this time," said Grandpa Brown. "But don't paint any more of my farm animals without asking me. Now I'll see if we can get the green paint off the calf." "Oh, can't you leave it on, Grandpa?" asked Bunny. "It was awful hard to make him striped like a zebra, and we want him in our circus to be one of the wild animals. Let the stripes stay on." And grandpa had to, whether he wanted to or not, for they would not come off. The hired man tried soap and water. But the calf would not stand still long enough to let him scrub her. "I guess we'll just have to let the green paint wear off," said Grandpa Brown. "But never do such a thing again, Bunny." "I won't," promised the little boy. The calf and the mother cow were put back in their stalls. Bunny and Sue were cleaned of the green paint that had splattered on them, and Henry found enough paint left in the can to finish the wheelbarrow. "Well, we've got a start for our circus, anyhow," said Bunny to Sue a few days after he had painted the calf. The green stripes had dried now, and made the calf look very funny indeed. Some of the other cows and calves seemed frightened at the strange, striped one, but the mother cow was just as fond of her little one as before. "You'll need other animals besides a striped calf, and your dog Splash, in the circus," said Bunker Blue to Bunny one day. "Yes, I guess we will. I'll go and ask Sue about it." Bunny always liked to talk matters over with his sister. He found her on the side porch, making a doll's dress. "Sue," said Bunny, "we have to have more make-believe wild animals for our show." "Yes?" asked Sue. "What kind?" "Well, maybe we ought to have a camel." "Camels is too hard to make," said Sue. "Their humps might fall off. Why don't you make a ockstritch, Bunny? An ockstritch what lays big eggs, and has tail feathers for ladies' hats. Make a ockstritch." "How?" asked Bunny. Sue thought for a minute. Just then the old big rooster strutted past the porch. "He would make a good ockstritch, Bunny," said Sue. "He has nice long tail feathers. Can you catch him?" "Maybe," hesitated Bunny. "Oh, I know what I'll do!" he exclaimed. "I'll get the clothes line for a lasso, and I'll pretend to be a Wild West cowboy. Then I can lasso the rooster and make an ostrich of him." "Oh, fine!" cried Sue, clapping her hands. The rooster, who did not in the least guess what was going to happen to him, flapped his wings and crowed loudly. _ |
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