“Don’t let them blow away!” begged Bunny.

“Or wash down the brook,” added Sue.

“We won’t!” promised the big boys.

Then they went out into the storm.  The wind was blowing so hard they could not carry umbrellas, for if they had taken them the umbrellas would have been blown inside out in a minute.  But with rubber hats, coats and boots Bunker and Ben could not get very wet.

Bunny and Sue, looking from their windows, saw the flicker of the lantern, as Bunker and Ben walked with it toward the circus tents.

Harder rumbled the thunder, and brighter flashed the lightning.  The rain pounded on the roof as though it would punch holes in it, and come through to wet Bunny and Sue.  But nothing like that happened, and soon the two children began to feel sleepy again, even though the storm still kept up.

“I—­I guess I’ll go to bed,” said Sue.  “Will you stay by me a little while, Daddy?”

“Yes,” answered her father.  “I’ll sit right by your little bed.”

“And hold my hand until I get to sleep?”

“Yes, I’ll hold your hand, Sue.”

“All right.  Then I won’t be scared any more.  You can hold Bunny’s hand, Mother.”

“Pooh, I’m not afraid!” said Bunny.  “But I like you to hold my hand, Mother!” he added quickly, for fear his mother would go away and leave him.

“All right, I’ll sit by you,” she said, with a smile.

Bunny and Sue soon fell asleep again.  The thunder was not quite so loud, nor the lightning so bright, but it rained harder than ever, and as Bunny felt his eyes growing heavy, so that he was almost asleep, he again thought of what might happen to the circus tents.

“If they wash away down the brook, we can’t have any show,” he thought.  “But maybe it won’t happen.”

Bunny roused up a little later, when some one came into the farmhouse.  The little boy thought it was Bunker and Ben, but he was too sleepy to get up and ask.  He heard some one, that sounded like his grandpa, ask: 

“Did they wash away?”

Then Bunker’s voice answered: 

“Yes, they both washed away.  It’s a regular flood down in the meadow.  Everything is spoiled!”

“I wonder—­I wonder if he means the circus?” thought Bunny, but he was too sleepy to do anything more, just then, than wonder.

In the morning, however, when the storm had passed, Bunny Brown and his sister Sue heard some bad news.  After breakfast Bunker and Ben came in and Bunker said: 

“Well, little folks, I guess we can’t have any circus!”

“No circus!” cried Bunny, and he was so surprised that he dropped his fork with a clatter on his plate, waking up Splash, the big dog, who was asleep in one corner of the room.

“Why can’t we have a circus?” asked Sue.  She and Bunny had almost forgotten about the storm the night before.

“We can’t have a circus,” explained Bunker, “because both our tents were washed away during the night.  The brook, that is generally so small that you can wade across it, was so filled with rain water that it was almost turned into a river.  It flooded the meadow, the water washed out the tent poles and pegs, and down the tents fell, flat.  Then the water rose higher and washed them away.”