ice on. Then
Bunny climbed up, got hold of the swinging bar and swung his legs over.
Then something queer happened, for the first thing Bunny Brown knew,
there he was, hanging upside down with his legs over the trapeze and his
head pointing to the pile of hay in the middle of the barn floor.

CHAPTER XVII

SUE'S QUEER SLIDE

Bunny Brown was at first so frightened, when he found himself swinging
upside downside from Mart's trapeze, that he did not know what to do. He
was too frightened even to call out, as he nearly always did when he
found himself in trouble. Nearly always his first thought was of his
father or mother. But this time he hardly knew what to do.

It had all happened so suddenly. He had not meant to get upside downside
this way. All he wanted to do was to sit on the trapeze, as he had often
sat in a swing, and sway to and fro. But something had gone wrong,
something had slipped, and there Bunny was, hanging by his knees with
his head toward the floor.

Then Bunny had a thought that he might let go with his clinging legs and
drop to the pile of hay. That was what the hay was for--to fall on. It
was a thick, soft pile, but, somehow or other, Bunny did not like to
think of falling on it head first.

"If I could only land on it with my hands or feet it wouldn't be so
bad," thought the little fellow to himself. "But if I hit on my
head----"

And when he thought of that he clung with all his force to the wooden
bar. He was still swinging to and fro, and on this first swing Bunny had
knocked to one side the pile of boxes and the barrel with which he had
made himself a sort of ladder so he could reach Mart's trapeze, which
was several feet above the barn floor. So, now that the boxes by which
he had climbed up were out of reach, Bunny could not get down by using
them.

And he wanted, very much, to get down. He tried to wiggle around in such
a way that he could reach the wooden bar with his hands, but he could
not, and the more he wiggled the more it felt as though he might fall.

Then Bunny decided that he must call for help. He had hoped that Mart
might come back, but the acrobatic boy was in the house helping his
sister learn a new song Lucile was going to sing in the play. So Mart
knew nothing of what was happening to Bunny.

"Mother! Daddy! Come and get me!" cried Bunny as he swung to and fro on
the trapeze, head downward. "Come and get me! Mother! Daddy!"

Bunny might have called like thi