“Hush, father!  The people will hear you!” whispered his wife.

“Wa’al, I want ’em to!” he went on.  “That’s a fine piece of meddar!”

Several sitting near the old farmer laughed, but no one minded it.  And then, as the musicians began to play softly, Lucile stepped out from behind a make-believe stone in the meadow beside a pretend brook and began to sing her first song.  Every one grew quiet to listen.

The play, “Down on the Farm,” had been changed somewhat by Mr. Tread well from what he had first planned.  This had to be done as he found out the different things the boy and girl actors could best do.  And the first act had to do with Lucile, a lost girl who wandered to a farm meadow near the house where Bunny Brown and his sister Sue lived, only, of course, they had different names in the play.

Lucile sang her little song, and then she pretended she was so tired, from having walked a long way, that she must lie down and take a rest.

It was while she was lying down on some green carpet that took the place of green grass in the meadow that Bunny and Sue were supposed to come along and find her.

Bunny and Sue had a little act to themselves at this point.  They stood on the stage and talked about the sleeping Lucile.  Bunny said she looked sad and he was going to cheer her up.

“How are you going to make her feel happy?” asked Sue.

“I—­I’m going to turn a pepper—­no, I mean a somersault!” cried Bunny, stammering a trifle and making a little mistake, for this was the first time he had acted before such a large crowd.  But no one laughed.

“Can you turn somersaults?” asked Sue.

“Yes, I’ll show you!” answered Bunny.  And then, on the stage, he began turning over and over.

All this was part of the play, of course, and Bunny was loudly clapped for the way in which he turned head over heels.  He had practiced these somersaults many times, and Mart had helped him.

“Well, if you can make her happy by doing that maybe I can make her happier by singing a song,” said Sue.  “I’ll practice my song while she’s asleep as you practiced your somersaults.”

And so Sue began to sing, while Lucile pretended to be asleep.  After Sue’s song Mart was supposed to come along, being a boy who had run away from a circus, and he was to watch Bunny try to turn a handspring.  Bunny was to make believe he couldn’t turn a handspring very well, and Mart would then take the center of the stage.

“Here!  Look at me do a flipflop!” cried Mart, and then he really did some very good tricks for a boy acrobat.

All this while Lucile was pretending to be asleep, and when Mart’s tricks were over she was supposed to wake up suddenly.  At this point Sue was to see the pretend tramp, who, of course, was only Mr. Treadwell dressed up in old clothes.

Everything went off very well.  Along through the meadow walked the actor tramp, and then, when Sue and Bunny called for “Snap,” out rushed Splash.