Sue Giving a Show._ _Page 96_]

As many of the boys and girls as could, gathered around the trough and
tried to pull Bunny loose. But he stuck fast in spite of all they could
do. Then Sue said:

"I'm going to tell mother. She'll know how to get him loose. Once he was
stuck in the rain water barrel, when it was empty, and my mother got him
out. She can do 'most everything. I'll go for her."

"Yes, I guess you'd better," agreed Bunny. "We've got a lot to do to get
ready for the play, and I can't do anything while I'm stuck fast here."

"It's a good thing this isn't in the play, or everybody in the audience
would be laughing at us," said Harry Bentley.

"I--I guess I won't get in the trough when we give our play real,"
decided Bunny. "I might get stuck then. I'll think up some other trick
to do."

Sue was about to hurry away, intending to call her mother, when some one
was heard coming up the stairs that led to the loft over the garage. A
moment later the head and shoulders of Mart Clayton came into view.

"Oh, Mart!" cried Sue, for she and Bunny felt quite well acquainted with
the boy and girl performers, "Bunny is stuck in the trough and he can't
get out!"

"Is there water in it?" asked Lucile's brother quickly, as he jumped up
the rest of the stairs.

"No!" answered a chorus of boys and girls. "Not a drop."

"Oh, then he's all right," said Mart. "I'll soon have him out."

And he did. It was very simple. Mart simply pulled Bunny's coat off,
over the little fellow's head, and then Bunny was small enough to slip
out of the trough himself. He had so wiggled and squirmed after getting
into the tin thing like a bath tub that his coat was all hunched up in
bunches. This kept his shoulders from slipping out, but when the coat
was off everything was all right.

"What did you get in there for?" asked Mart, when Bunny was on his feet
once more.

"I was practising my act," was the answer. "I'm going to be a farmer boy
in the play, and then I hide in the trough so I can scare an old tramp
that comes to get a drink of water. Only there isn't going to be any
water in the trough when I do my act," said Bunny. "I wanted there to be
some, but mother won't let me."

"I guess we can do that act just as well without water as with it," said
Mart with a smile. "An audience likes to see real water on the stage,
but we can use some in the pump, I guess. Now then, boys and girls, are
you all going to be in the new play, 'Down on