“How?” Sam wanted to know.  He and the others, including Bunny and Sue, had gone inside the tent to look at the empty mouse cage.

“With cheese,” answered Sue.  “Don’t you know the little verse:  ’Once a trap was baited, with a piece of cheese.  It tickled so a little mouse it almost made him sneeze.’  And when your mices sneeze, when they smell the cheese, you could hear them, and catch them, Sam.”

“Yes, maybe that would be a good plan,” laughed Bunker Blue.  “But do your mice like cheese, Sam?”

“Yes, they’ll eat almost anything, and they’ll take it right out of my hand.  Oh dear!  I hope they come back!”

Sam felt very bad, for he had had his white mice pets a long time, and had taught them to do many little tricks.

“We’ll all help you look for them,” said Ben.  “Did you ever teach any of them the trick of opening the cage door?” he asked.

“No,” replied Sam.  “I don’t believe they could do that, for the door was fastened on the outside, and white mice haven’t paws like a trained monkey.  Maybe I didn’t fasten the cage door good last night.”

“Oh, Bunny!” cried Sue.  “Wouldn’t it be fun if we could send and get Mr. Winkler’s monkey Wango for our circus?  Wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, maybe it would,” replied Bunny.  “But I don’t guess we could do it.  Come on, Sue, I’m going to look for the white mice.”

“All right,” Sue said.  Maybe some little girls would be afraid of mice, white, black or gray.  But Sue was not.  Perhaps it was because she knew Bunny was going to be with her.  Then, too, Sue was very anxious to have the circus as good as it could be made, and if the mice were missing some of the people who came might not like it.  So Sue and Bunny said they would help hunt for the lost white mice.

With the big boys, the children looked all around the animal tent.  The ground had been covered with straw, and the mice might be hiding in this, or among the boxes and barrels in the tent.  But, look as every one did, the mice were not to be found.

“What’s in that box?” asked Sue, pointing to one covered with a horse blanket.

“That’s the lion,” answered Bunker Blue.  “But don’t be afraid,” he went on, as he saw Sue step to one side.  “He’s asleep now.  Besides he can’t hurt anyone.  You’ll see, when we have the circus.”

No one knew where the white mice had gone.  Even Splash could not find them, though both Bunny and Sue told their dog to look for Sam’s pets.

“I guess Splash isn’t a rat dog,” said Ben.

“No, and I’m glad he isn’t,” Sam said.  “Rat dogs might think white mice were made for them to shake and kill, just as they shake and kill the other kind of rats and mice.  I’d rather lose my white mice, and never see them again, than have them killed.”

But, even though the white mice were missing, the circus would go on just the same.  And now began a busy time for all the big boys.  The show would be given in two more days, and there was much to be done before that time.