“This will make a wild animal cage,” he said.  “The slats are just like the bars of a cage, and the animal can look through.”

“What wild animal will you put in there?” asked Bunker.

“Oh, I guess I’ll put in Splash.  He is going to be half a blue striped tiger.”

“No!  No!” cried Sue.  “That crate isn’t big enough for Splash.  You’ll squash him all up.  I’m not going to have my half of Splash all squashed up, Bunny Brown!”

“Well, then I’ll get a bigger cage for Splash.  We can get a little dog, and put him in here.”

Two or three days after this Bunny and Sue again went out to the barn to look at the circus trapezes, and play.  Bunker Blue and Ben were not with them this time, as the two older boys were weeding the garden for Grandpa Brown.

Bunny swung on his little, low trapeze, and then, after he had jumped off into the hay as Ben had taught him, the little fellow began climbing the ladder to the beam on which was fastened the big and high trapeze.

“Oh, Bunny!  Where you going?” asked Sue.

“Up here.  I want to see how high it looks.”

“Oh, Bunny Brown!  You come right down, or I’ll go and tell mamma!  She said you weren’t to climb up high.”

“I—­I’m not going very high, Sue.”

Bunny was half way up the ladder.  And, just as he spoke to Sue, his foot slipped, and down he fell, in between two rounds of the ladder.

“Oh! oh!” cried Sue.  “Oh, Bunny!  You’re going to fall!”

But Bunny did not fall all the way.  As he slipped, his hands caught hold of a round of the ladder, and there he clung, just as if he had hold of the bar of his swinging trapeze.

CHAPTER VIII

THE DOLL IN THE WELL

Bunny Brown hung there on the ladder, swinging to and fro.  On the barn floor below him, stood his sister Sue, watching, and almost ready to cry, for Sue was afraid Bunny would fall.

“Oh, Bunny!  Bunny!” she exclaimed.  “Don’t fall!  Don’t fall!”

“I—­I can’t help it,” Bunny answered.  “My fingers are slipping off!”

And indeed they were.  He could not hold to the big round stick of the ladder as well as he could to the smaller broom-handle stick of his trapeze.

Bunny Brown looked down.  And then he saw something that frightened him more than had Sue’s cries.

For, underneath him was the bare floor of the barn, with no soft hay on which to fall—­on which to bounce up and down like a rubber ball.

“Oh, Sue!” cried Bunny.  “I’m going to fall, and—­and—­”

He did not finish what he started to say, but he wiggled his feet and legs, pointing them at the bare floor of the barn, over which he hung.

But Sue saw and understood.

“Wait a minute, Bunny!” she cried.  “Don’t fall yet!  Wait a minute, and I’ll throw some hay down there for you to fall on!”