Mr. and Mrs. Brown were surprised, and not a little worried, when they heard what had happened to Sue.  But the little girl herself was quite calm about it.

“I just held my breath,” she said.  “I knew Bunny or somebody would get me out.”

“I was going to,” declared Bunny.

“Yes, I guess he’d have dived over in another second,” remarked Uncle Tad.  “But Dix was ahead of both of us.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re all right,” said Mother Brown.  “I do hope you won’t take cold.  We must get your wet clothes off.”

Just then Mr. Jason came back with his horses and wagon, and he quickly drove the whole party to a near-by farmhouse where Sue, and all the others, were made welcome.  Before the warm kitchen fire Sue was dressed in some dry clothes of a little girl who lived on the farm, while her own were put near the kitchen stove.

In a few hours the party was ready to go back to the “Ark,” meanwhile having spent a good time at the farmhouse.  Sue seemed all right, and really she had not been in much danger, for the water was not deep, and Uncle Tad was a good swimmer.

Bunny and Sue slept rather late the next morning, but when they did awaken they heard a queer rumbling on the road beside which their automobile was drawn up.

“Is that thunder?” asked Bunny.

“It sounds like it,” answered Sue, who showed no signs of having caught cold from her bath in the lake.

The children peered from the little windows near their bunks.  They saw going along the road a number of gaily painted wagons—­great big wagons, drawn by eight or ten horses each, and with broad-tired wheels.

Together Bunny and Sue cried: 

“It’s a circus!  It’s a circus!  Hurrah!”

CHAPTER XXII

A LION IS LOOSE

Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue lost no time in getting dressed that morning, and hurrying out to the tiny dining room where their mother was getting breakfast.

“Did you see it?” gasped Sue.

“Have the elephants gone past yet?” Bunny inquired, his eyes big with excitement.

“Oh, you mean the circus,” said Mrs. Brown.  “No, I haven’t seen any elephants yet.  The big wagons just started to go past.”

“Then let’s hurry up our breakfast and watch for the elephants and the tigers,” cried Bunny, greatly worried lest he miss any of the animals.

“You have plenty of time,” said Uncle Tad, who was out near the back steps of the automobile, sorting his fish lines and hooks.  “The circus has just started to go past.  Those wagons have in them the tent poles, the canvas for the tents, the things for the men to eat and the big stoves.  These are always unloaded first—­in fact, they are sent on ahead of the rest of the show.

“Not until later in the morning will the animals and the other wagons come along.  The circus must have unloaded over at Kirkwell,” and he pointed to a railroad station about a mile away.  “The tents are going up on the other side of this town, I heard some of the circus drivers say.”