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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 13. The Wild Animals |
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_ CHAPTER XIII. 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. "Senorita Mozara will show you the blue striped tiger that does tricks. Senorita 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. _ |
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