“Hey!  Hi there!” called Bunny.

The man stopped and turned around.  Seeing the two children, he smiled.

“You wanta de balloon?” he asked, for he was an Italian, just like the one who had a hand organ, and whose monkey ran away, as I have told you in the book before this one.

“We want lots of balloons,” said Bunny.

“Oh, sure!” said the man, smiling more than ever.

“We want all the balloons for our circus,” Bunny explained.

“Circus?  Circus?” repeated the balloon man, and he did not seem to know what Bunny meant.  “What is circus?” he asked.

“We’re going to have a circus,” Bunny explained.  “My sister Sue says we must have toy balloons.  You come to our circus and you can sell a lot.  You know—­a show in a tent.”

“Oh, sure!  I know!” The Italian smiled again.  He had often sold balloons at fairs and circuses.  “Where your circus?” he asked.

“Come on, we’ll show you,” promised Bunny.  Then he and Sue started back toward Grandpa Brown’s house, followed by the man with the balloons floating over his head—­red balloons, green, blue, purple, yellow, white and pink ones.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE STORM

“Bunny!  Won’t it be just grand!” whispered Sue to her brother, as they walked along ahead of the balloon man.

“Fine!” said Bunny.  “We’ll have him stand outside the tent, and sell his balloons.  It’ll look just like a real circus then.  It wouldn’t without the balloons; would it, Sue?”

“No.  And, oh, Bunny!  I’ve thought of something else.”

“What is it?”

“Pink lemonade.”

“Pink lemonade?”

“Yes, we’ll have the balloon man sell that, and peanuts.  Then it will be more than ever like a real circus.”

“But how can he sell pink lemonade and peanuts and balloons?” Bunny wanted to know.

“Oh, he can do it,” said Sue, who seemed to think it was very easy.  “He can tie his bunch of balloons to the lemonade and peanut stand, and when anybody wants one they can take it and put down the five cents.  Then the balloon man will have one hand to dish out the hot peanuts, and the other to pour out the pink lemonade.”

“Yes, I guess he could do that,” said Bunny.  “We’ll ask him, anyhow.  Maybe he won’t want to.”

Bunny and Sue stopped and waited for the balloon man to catch up with them.  The man, seeing the children waiting for him, hurried forward, and stopped to see what was wanted.

“Well?” he asked, looking at his balloons to make sure none of them would break away, and float up to the clouds.

“Can you sell pink lemonade?” asked Bunny.

“Penk leemonade,” repeated the Italian, saying the words in a funny way.  “Whata you calla dat?  Penk leemonade?”

“You know—­what they always have at a circus,” said Bunny.  “This color,” and he pointed to a pink balloon.  “You drink it you know, out of a glass—­five cents.”