“We—­we thought you were lost, Sue,” said Bunny.  “And we came to find you.”

“I—­I wasn’t losted at all!” Sue protested.  “I was here all the while!  I just went to sleep!”

And that was what had happened.  When Bunny was busy helping Ben and Bunker pull on some of the tent ropes, Sue had slipped off by herself, and had lain down on the pile of canvas.

Feeling sleepy, she had pulled a part of the tent over her.  She made believe it was a white spread, such as was on her bed in her Grandpa Brown’s house.  This covered Sue from sight, so Bunny and none of the others could see her.  And there she had slept, while the others looked.  And had not Splash known where to find the little girl, she might have slept a great deal longer, and Bunny and the boys might not have found her until dark.

“But I’ve slept long enough, now,” said Sue.  “Is the tent ready for the big circus?”

“Not yet,” answered Bunker Blue.  “We’ve got to use the piece of canvas you were sleeping on, so it’s a good thing you woke up.  But we’ll soon have the tent ready, and then we’ll go and get the bigger one.”

“Oh, are you going to have two?” asked Sue.

“Yes,” answered Ben.  “Oh, we’re going to give a fine show!  And we want you and your sister Sue in it, too, Bunny,” went on the strange boy who had come to Grandpa Brown’s so hungry that night.  “You’ll be in the big circus; won’t you?”

“To give the Punch and Judy show?” asked Sue.

“Well, maybe that, and maybe some of the things you did in your own little circus,” Bunker said.  “There’s time enough to get up something new if you want.”

“All right.  That’s what we’ll do,” said Bunny.  “Come on, Sue, and we’ll practise a new act for the big boys’ circus.”

The little circus, gotten up by Bunny and Sue, had made quite a jolly time for the people in the country where Grandpa Brown lived.  It was talked of in many a farmhouse, and it was this talk of the little circus that had made Bunker, Ben and the other big boys want to give a larger show of their own.

Some of the boys were quite strong, and they could do tricks on the trapeze that Bunny and his little friends did not dare try.  Then, too, one of the boys had a trained dog, that had once been in a real city theatre show, and another had some white mice that could do little tricks, and even fire a toy cannon that shot a paper cap.

“Oh, it’s going to be a real circus all right, in real tents,” said Bunker Blue.

As I have told you, Grandpa Brown let the boys take his old army tent, and they were to have another, and larger one, that had once been used at a county fair.

Leaving Bunker, Ben and the other big boys to put up their tent, Bunny and Sue, with Splash, their dog, went back to the farmhouse.

“What trick can we do, Bunny?” asked Sue.  “What can we do in the circus?”

“Oh, we’ll make up a surprise, so they’ll all laugh,” he said.  “I wish I had another big lobster claw, so I could put it on my nose, and look funny.”