“I wish we could go again to-night,” said Bunny.

“It isn’t good for little children to go to a circus at night,” said Uncle Tad.  “You’ve seen enough.”

Of course Daddy Brown and Mother Brown had to hear all about it over the supper table, and they were glad the children had had such a good time.  At night when they sat around a little campfire on the ground near the automobile, they could hear, in the distance, the music of the circus.

In the middle of the night Mr. and Mrs. Brown were awakened by hearing the noise of many persons rushing past on the road alongside of which their automobile was drawn up.  Also the chugging of automobiles and the patter of horses’ feet could be heard.

“I wonder what it can be,” said Mrs. Brown.  “Is it the circus coming back again?”

“No, they would be going the other way.  I’ll see if I can find out what it is.”

Slipping on a bath robe, Mr. Brown went to the back door of the automobile.  He saw a crowd of people rushing along.

“What’s the matter?” he called.

“One of the circus lions is loose,” was the answer, “and we’re chasing it!”

[Illustration:  BUNNY AND SUE FED THE ELEPHANTS. Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour. Page 218.]

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SCRATCHED BOY

“What’s that?  What’s the matter?” asked Mrs. Brown.  In the darkness she had slipped to her husband’s side.  She, too, looked out on the crowd of men and boys rushing past in the moonlight.  “What has happened?” she asked again, as Mr. Brown did not appear to have heard what she said.

“As nearly as I could understand,” he said slowly, speaking in a low voice, “one of the men who ran past said a lion had broken loose from the circus.”

“Oh, how dreadful!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown.  “What shall we do?  Did Uncle Tad bring his gun with him?”

“Hush!  Don’t wake the children,” said Mr. Brown.  “They might be frightened if they heard that a lion was loose.”

“Frightened?  I should think any one would be frightened!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown.  “A savage lion raging around at night, trying to get something to eat——­”

“Now please don’t get excited,” begged Mr. Brown.  “There is no danger—­at least I believe there isn’t.”

“No danger?  And with a lion loose—­a hungry lion!”

“That’s where I think you’re wrong,” said her husband.  “The circus people usually keep their lions and other wild animals well fed.  They know the danger a hungry beast might be if he should get loose.  And I dare say they often do get loose, for all sorts of things may happen when the cages are taken to so many different places.

“But though this lion has broken loose, I don’t believe it would bite even a rooster if it crowed at him.  I mean he won’t be hungry, because he’ll have been well fed before the circus started away.”