“No can drinka de balloon!” the man exclaimed.  “You put your teeth on heem and he go—­pop! so—­no good!”

“No, I don’t mean that!” cried Bunny, laughing at the Italian, who made funny faces, and waved his hands in the air.  “I mean can you sell pink lemonade—­to drink—­at our circus?”

“And peanuts?” added Sue.

“Yes, we’d want you to sell peanuts, too,” went on the little boy.

“Ha!  Peanuts?  No!  I used to pusha de peanut cart—­make de whistle blow—­hot peanuts.  No more!  I sella de balloon!” exclaimed the Italian.  “No more makea de hot peanuts!”

“Oh, dear!” sighed Sue.  “He won’t do it!  We’ll have to get some one else, Bunny.”

“Well, we can easy do that,” said Bunny.  “Maybe the hired man will sell peanuts and lemonade for us.  I asked him if he would like to be in the big circus, and he said he would.  I asked him if he could do any acts.”

“What’d he say?” Sue wanted to know, while the Italian balloon peddler stood looking at the two children, as if wondering what they would do next.

“Well, the hired man said all he could do was milk a cow, and plow up the ground.  He wanted to know if they were circus acts, and I said I guessed not,” replied Bunny.  “So maybe he’d be glad to sell lemonade and peanuts.”

“I think he would,” said Sue.  “You needn’t do anything except blow up your balloons and sell ’em,” she went on to the Italian.  “Never mind about the peanuts and the pink lemonade.”

“Alla right,” said the man, with a smile that showed what nice white teeth he had.  “Me sella de balloon!”

He and the children walked on a little longer.  Then the man turned to Bunny and asked: 

“How much farder now—­to de circus?”

“Not far now,” said Bunny.  “The circus isn’t quite ready yet, but you can stay at our grandpa’s house until it is.  You see we don’t get many balloon peddlers out this way.  You’re the first one we’ve seen, so you’d better stay.  It won’t be more than a week, or maybe two weeks.”

“Circus last all dat time?” asked the Italian.  “Sella lot de balloons.  Buy more in New York—­sella dem!  Mucha de money!”

“We’ve an aunt in New York,” said Sue.  “Her name is Aunt Lu.  If you sell all these balloons she’ll buy some more for you in New York, so you won’t have to go away.”

“Yes,” said Bunny, “that would be best.  We’ll get Aunt Lu to send you more balloons.  And when you haven’t any to sell, while you’re waiting, you could help the hired man sell pink lemonade and peanuts.  ’Cause, anyhow, maybe the hired man sometimes would have to go to milk the cows, and you could take his place.”

The Italian shook his head.  He did not quite know what Bunny and Sue were talking about.  All he thought of was that he was being taken to a circus, where he might sell all his balloons, and make money enough to buy more to sell.

“There’s grandpa’s house now,” said Sue, as they went around a turn in the road.