Bunny’s breath was so nearly squeezed out of him that he could not answer for a moment.  But his mother had reached him now.  So had Daddy Brown, his grandpa and some other men.  In another moment the rope that held up the big pole was unwound from Bunny’s waist and made fast to a peg in the ground.

“Now the pole can’t fall!” said Grandpa Brown.  “We’re safe now!”

“Is—­is the tent all right?” asked Bunny, as his father picked him up in his arms.

“Yes, brave little boy.  The tent is all right!  You stopped it from falling on the people’s heads.”

“And the bear—­is the bear all right?” asked Bunny.  From where his father held him Bunny could not see the shaggy creature.

“Yes, the bear is all right,” answered Mr. Brown.  “He is coming down the pole now.”

“That bear is too big and heavy to climb the tent pole,” said Grandpa Brown.  “He is too fat.  But it’s lucky Bunny grabbed that rope.”

“I—­I saw it slipping,” said Bunny, “and I—­I just grabbed it!”

The bear came to the ground, and made a low bow, as his master had taught him to do.  The tent pole was now made tight and fast, and the circus could go on again.  Some of the ladies, with their little boys and girls, who had run out of the tent when they thought it was going to fall, now came back again.

“The show in the animal tent is now over,” said Ben Hall.  “We invite you, one and all, into the next tent where we will do some real circus tricks.”

“And there’s preserved seats for grandpa and grandma, and daddy and mother!” called out Sue, so clearly that everyone heard her.  “The preserved seats have carpet on,” said Sue.

“Reserved seats, Sue, not preserved,” said Bunny in a shrill whisper, and everyone who heard him laughed.

Into the big tent, with its rows of seats around the elevated stage and sawdust ring the people walked.  They were still laughing at the funny sights they had seen, the lion, made from a parlor rug, with a boy inside it.  And they were talking about Bunny’s brave act, in stopping the pole of the tent from falling down.

“You and Sue go and get ready for what you are to do,” whispered Bunker Blue to the two children.  “I’ll tell you when it’s your turn to come out on the stage.”

“All right,” answered Bunny.  “Come on, Sue.  Now’s the time for our secret.”

He and Sue went into a little dressing room that had been made especially for them.  It was a part of the big tent, curtained off with blankets.

In this little room Bunny and Sue, earlier in the day, had taken the things they needed to do their “trick.”  You will soon learn what it was they had kept secret so long.

It took some little time for all the people to take their places in the “preserved” seats, as Sue called them.  Daddy Brown and his wife, and grandpa and grandma were given places well down in front, where they could see all that went on.