As this was not what is called a “dress rehearsal” neither Mr. Treadwell nor the children had on any special costumes.  They were wearing their everyday clothes.

Bunny, Sue, and the others took their places, and spoke their proper lines.

“Oh, here comes a tramp!” suddenly cried Sue to her brother, as she was supposed to do in the play when Mr. Treadwell appeared on the stage.  “Here comes a tramp!”

Now Bunny was supposed to have a speech at this point, but no sooner had Sue cried out just as she had been taught to do, than a strange voice answered her, saying: 

“A tramp is it!  Set the dog on him!  Here, Towser!  Get after the tramp!  No tramps allowed around here!  Bow!  Wow!  Wow!” and then came a shrill whistle as of some one calling a dog.

CHAPTER XII

A SURPRISE

Mr. Treadwell, who was closely watching Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, to see that they did their first part in the play all right, looked up in surprise as he heard the strange voice speaking about the tramp, calling the dog and whistling.

“Please don’t do that,” said the actor.  “That isn’t in the play.  Who said it?”

“No—­nobody—­I guess,” replied Charlie Star.

“Well, somebody must have said it, for I heard it,” replied Mr. Treadwell, with a smile.  “Don’t do it again!  Now Bunny and Sue try it again.  Make believe, Sue, that you see a tramp coming down the road.  I’m to be the tramp, you know, and on the night of the show I’ll really dress up like one.  Now go on.”

Bunny looked at Sue and Sue looked at Bunny.  The other children in the play also looked at one another.  They were sure none of them had spoken, and yet Mr. Treadwell seemed to think the voice had been one of theirs.

“Oh, here comes a tramp!” cried Sue once more, and Bunny was just about to repeat his part, when, again, came the strange, shrill voice, saying: 

“No tramps allowed!  No tramps wanted!  Give him a cold potato and let him go!”

“Oh, I’m not going to stay here!” suddenly cried Sadie West.

“There is something funny here,” said Bunny Brown.  “None of us is talking and yet we hear a voice.”

Mr. Treadwell, who had been looking over the papers on which he had written down the different parts of the play, looked up quickly when he again heard the strange voice.  He was just about to ask who had called out when something fluttered down out of the stage tree which was to be set up in the orchard scene.  The tree was off to one side, in what are called in theater talk, the “wings.”  Out of the tree fluttered something with flapping wings.

“It’s a big owl!” cried George Watson.

“Don’t let it get hold of your hair or it’ll pull it all out!” called Sue.  “Owls feets gets tangled in your hair,” and she put her hands over her head.

“Pooh!  They don’t either!” cried Helen Newton.