“I—­I didn’t mean to do it,” said Bunny.  “It—­it just—­happened.  I—­I couldn’t help it.”

“No, I suppose not,” said his mother.  “But you must go and wash now.  Sue, I’ll put a clean dress on you, and then I’ll see if I can get the peach stains off this one.  You ought to have on an old apron.”

A little later, Bunny and Sue, now nice and clean, were sitting on the side porch.  It was almost time for supper.

“Bunny,” asked Sue, “did it hurt when you were playin’ you were a circus man only you weren’t?”

“No, it didn’t exactly hurt,” he said slowly.  “But it felt funny.  Did I really look like a circus man, Sue?”

“Yep.  Just like one.  Only, of course, you didn’t have any nice pink suit on, with spangles and silver and gold.”

“Oh, no, of course not,” agreed Bunny.  “But did I swing by my feet?”

“Yes, Bunny, you did.”

For a moment the little chap said nothing.  Then he cried out: 

“Oh, Sue!  I know what let’s do!”

“What?”

“Let’s have a circus!  It will be lots of fun!  We’ll get up a circus all by ourselves!  Will you help me make a circus?”

CHAPTER III

THE POOR OLD HEN

Sue looked at Bunny with widely-opened eyes.  Then she clapped her hands.  Sue always did that when she felt happy, and she felt that way now.

“Oh, Bunny!” she cried.  “A circus?  A real circus?”

“Well, of course not a real, big one, with lions and tigers and all that,” said the little boy.  “We couldn’t get elephants and camels and bears.  But maybe grandpa would let us take his two horses, that he got back from the Gypsies.  They have lots of horses in the circus.”

“I’d be afraid to ride on a horse,” objected Sue, shaking her head.

“You wouldn’t if Bunker Blue held you on; would you?”

“No, maybe not then.”

“Well, we’ll get Bunker Blue to hold us on the horse’s back,” said Bunny.

Bunker Blue was a big, red-haired boy—­almost a man—­and he worked for Mr. Brown.  Bunker was very fond of Bunny and Sue.  Bunker had steered the big automobile in which the Brown family came to grandpa’s farm, and he was still staying in the country.

“Do you think we could really get up a circus?” asked Sue, after thinking about what Bunny had said.

“Of course we can,” answered the little boy.  “Didn’t we get up a Punch and Judy show, when I found Aunt Lu’s diamond ring?”

“Yes, but that wasn’t as big as a circus.”

“Well, we need only have a little circus show, Sue.”

“Where could we have it, Bunny?”

The little boy thought for a moment.

“In grandpa’s barn,” he answered.  “There’s lots of room.  It would be just fine.”

“Would you and me be all the circus, Bunny?”

“Oh, no.  We’d get some of the other boys and girls.  We could get Tom White, Nellie Bruce, Jimmie Kenny, Sallie Smith and Ned Johnson.  They’d be glad to play circus.”