he horses were tied in their stalls again, after Bunny and Sue had been
lifted from the backs of the animals. Then Bunny said:

"You are going to stay here and help work on the farm, Ben. My
grandmother said so. And, if you are, will you come out and look at the
barn where we are going to have our circus? Maybe you and Bunker can
help us put up the trapeze."

"Not now, Bunny boy," said Bunker. "We have to go and pull weeds out of
the garden. We'll look at the barn right after dinner."

And this Ben and Bunker did. Bunny and Sue showed Ben the mow, and the
pile of hay, into which the trapeze performers were to fall, instead of
into nets.

"So they won't get hurt," Bunny explained. "We haven't any nets,
anyhow."

"Do you think we could have a circus here?" Sue wanted to know.

"Why, I should think so," Ben answered, looking up toward the roof of
the barn. "Yes, you could have a good make-believe circus here."

"Will you help?" asked Bunny eagerly.

Ben Hall laughed, and looked at Bunny and Sue in a queer sort of way.

"What makes you think I can help you make a play-circus?" he asked.

"Oh, I guess you can, all right," spoke up Bunker Blue. "I guess you
know more about a circus than you let us think. Don't you now?"

"Oh, well, I've seen 'em," said Ben, slowly.

"And the way you jumped on the horse--why, you must have been watching
pretty hard to see just how to do that," Bunker went on. "I've seen
lots of circuses, but I can't jump up the way you can, Ben."

"Then he can ride a horse in our circus," said Sue.

"Can you hang on a trapeze?" asked Bunny.

"Well, maybe," the new boy answered. "But you haven't any trapeze here,
have you?"

"We can make one, out of a broom stick and some clothes line," said
Bunny. "I've got 'em all ready," and he showed where he had put, in a
hole in the hay, the rope and stick.

"Good! That's the idea!" exclaimed Ben Hall. "Now I'll just climb up to
the roof beams, and fasten the rope of the trapeze."

Up climbed Ben, and he was making fast the ropes, when, all at once
Bunny, Sue and Bunker Blue, who were watching the strange boy, saw him
suddenly slip off the beam on which he was standing.

"Oh, poor Ben!" sighed Sue. "He's going to get an awful hard bump, so he
is!"

CHAPTER VII

BUNNY HAS A FALL

Down and down, from the big beam near the top of the barn, fell Ben
Hall. And, as Bunny Brown and his sister Sue watched the new, strange
boy, something queer h