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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 12. The Little Circus |
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_ CHAPTER XII. 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. _ |
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