would do as they wanted him to.

"I'm afraid, though," said Mr. Brown, "that getting up a show in town
will be harder, Bunny and Sue, than getting up a circus. In the circus
you could use your dog Splash and some of the animals from Grandpa's
farm. But a theater show, or one like it, hasn't many animals in it. You
ought to do more acting than you do trapeze work."

"Oh, we can do it!" cried Bunny Brown. "They're going to help, aren't
you?" and he looked over at Lucile and Mart.

"We'll help all we can," Mart promised. "That is, if we're here, and I
don't see how we can get away, for we haven't any money to pay our fare
on the train."

"That's my trouble, too," said Mr. Treadwell, with a smile. "I'd offer
to help too, if I thought I was going to be here."

"Oh, then we'll be sure to have a show!" declared Bunny. "You can be
General Washington and maybe some soldier, and we'll pretend you came
down to the farm to see us. Then I'll turn somersaults and Sue can bring
me out some cookies to eat, 'cause I get hungry when I turn somersaults.
And you can do tricks like those you did in the Opera House," he added
to Mart.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Lucile, with a smile.

"Oh, you--you can help Sue bring out the cookies for Mart and me,"
decided Bunny. "And--oh yes--you can sing--those songs you sang in the
show we went to see, you know."

"All right, I'll help all I can--if I'm here," said Lucile.

"Well, suppose we talk a little about the trouble you good theater folks
are in," suggested Mr. Brown. "The show Bunny and Sue are going to give
can wait for a while. Now what do you want to do--get back to New York,
all three of you?"

"Well, New York is the place almost all show people start from," said
Mr. Treadwell, "but I don't know that there's much use going back there
now. All the places in other shows will be taken. If I could get some
sort of work here for the winter I'd stay."

"So would I!" declared Mart. "I like to stay in a place two or three
weeks at a time, and not have to move to a new town every night, like a
circus. Have you any work you could let me do?" he asked Mr. Brown.

"I was going to speak of that," replied the father of Bunny and Sue.
"One of the young men in my office is going on leave, and I could hire
you in his place. The wages aren't very big," he said, "but it would be
enough for you to live on and take care of your sister."

"I suppose I could board here in Bellemere," suggest