“Oh!  Oh!” cried Sue.  “What is it?”

But she did not need to ask twice.  She saw a big boy, dressed in a funny clown’s suit, standing up in the straw.  Bunny was now sitting up, and he, too, was looking at the clown.

“Why—­why,” said Sue, “It’s Ben!  It’s our Ben!”

“So it is!” cried Bunny.

“Yes,” answered Ben, rubbing his eyes, for he had been asleep in the straw when Bunny jumped on him.  “Yes, I’ve come back.  I stayed in the field, under a haystack all night, but I couldn’t stand it any longer.  I had to come back.”

“What’d you run away for?” asked Bunny.

“Because I was afraid he’d catch me,” Ben answered.

“Do you mean that—­that man,” whispered Bunny.

“Yes.”

“He isn’t here,” said Sue.  “Did you stay in this tent all the while, Ben?”

“No, Sue.  I ran across the field when I saw that man looking at me, after I made my big jump.  I ran over to the woods and hid.  Then, when it got dark, I crept back and hid under the hay stack.  A little while ago, when I saw Bunker and the other boys drive away with the big tent, I came back here.  I’m awfully hungry!”

“We’ll get you something to eat,” said Sue.  “Won’t we, Bunny?”

“Sure we will.  But come on up to the house, Ben.  That man isn’t there, and we won’t let him hurt you.  What’s it all about, anyhow?”

“I guess I’ll have to tell your folks my secret,” Ben answered.

“Oh, have you a secret, too?” asked Sue, clapping her hands.  “How nice!”

“No, it isn’t very nice,” said Ben.  “But I guess I will go and ask your grandmother for something to eat.  I’m terribly hungry!”

Holding the hands of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, Ben, the strange boy, who had been so queerly found under the straw in the tent, walked toward grandpa’s house.

“Well land sakes!  Where’d you come from?” asked Grandma Brown, as she saw him.  “And such a looking sight!  You look as if you’d slept in a barn all night!”

“I did—­almost,” said Ben, smiling.

“Well, come in and get that clown suit off you,” said Mrs. Brown.  “Then tell us all about it.  What made you run away?”

“I was afraid that man would get me,” said Ben.

“Why should he want to get you?” asked Daddy Brown.

“Because I ran away from his circus where I used to do tricks,” Ben answered.  “That’s my secret.  I used to be a regular circus performer, but I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I ran away.  I didn’t want you to know it, so I didn’t tell you.  But that man, who came into the tent when I was doing the same jump I used to do in the regular circus—­that man knew me.  I thought he had come to take me back, and I didn’t want to go.  So I ran away.”

“You poor boy!” said Grandma Brown.

There came a knock on the door, and when Mrs. Brown opened it there stood the same man from whom Ben had run away the day before.