Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm Part 32

"That's so," agreed Bunny. "I'll see if I can get it away from her."

But when Bunny crept under the currant bush, and reached for his ball, the hen made a funny clucking noise, ruffled up her feathers and looked so angry, that Bunny was afraid.

"Maybe she's got little chickens in her nest," said Sue. "If she has she'll peck you if you go close to her--grandma said so."

"Maybe she has," agreed Bunny. "But I'll get a long stick and poke my ball out. Then she can't peck me."

But it was not easy to make the ball roll out of the way of the hen. The stick would slip off it when Bunny reached for it, and whenever the stick came near the hen she would peck at it. Once she almost knocked it from Bunny's hand.

And, all the while, the hen made that queer clucking noise, and fluffed up her feathers so that she looked twice as big as she really was.

"Oh, come away! Come away!" begged Sue. "She'll bite you, Bunny!"

Bunny Brown was a little afraid of the hen. And when he found he could not roll the ball out of her way he ran to the house, with Sue, and told his mother and grandmother what had happened.

"Why, that must be the old gray hen, sitting on her nest that she went off and made by herself," said Grandma Brown. "I wondered where she was hiding, but I never thought to look under the currant bush. I'm glad you found her, Bunny. I'll get your ball for you."

The hen did not seem to mind when Grandma Brown went close to her. Very carefully Grandma reached for Bunny's ball. Then she gently lifted up one of the hen's wings, and showed the children the eggs under her feathers.

"Soon some little chickens will hatch out of the eggs," said grandma.

"Some of the sh.e.l.ls are already cracked, and the chickies may be out to-morrow."

"Oh, I'll just love to see them!" cried Sue.

Now that they had their ball again, Bunny and Sue could play once more.

And the next day the little chickens did hatch. Up to the house came the old mother hen with eleven little, fluffy, yellow b.a.l.l.s, almost as round as Bunny's ball, but of course not so big.

"Peep! Peep!" went the little chickens, as they followed the hen-mother around.

"Cluck-cluck!" said the hen-mother.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "OH, AREN'T THEY CUTE!"--_Page 208._ _Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm._]

"Oh, aren't they cute!" cried Sue.

Every one thought they were, and I think the hen mother was very proud of them, for if any one went too near she would make a queer noise, and ruffle up her feathers, just as she had when Bunny reached for his ball near her.

It was two or three days after this that Bunny Brown and his sister Sue awakened one morning, and saw something queer out on the side of grandpa's barn.

"Oh, look!" exclaimed Sue, who saw it first. "What a big picture, Bunny!"

Indeed it was a large one, brightly colored, showing elephants, lions, tigers and horses, all in a big ring. And there were men and ladies jumping from the top of a tent, into nets underneath.

"Oh, it's a circus picture!" cried Bunny. "How did it get there, Grandpa?"

"A man came along early this morning, and pasted it up," said Grandpa Brown.

Bunny and Sue ran out to look at the circus picture. It was a fine, big one, and the more they looked at it the more the children liked it.

Finally Bunny said:

"Sue, I've got an idea! Such a big idea!"

"Oh, what is it," asked Sue. "What's an idea? Is it good to eat?"

Bunny did not exactly know what an idea was, but he had heard his mother and father say that word.

"Sue!" exclaimed Bunny in a sort of whisper, "if that circus is coming to town we'll go--you and me. We'll go to the circus!"

"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, clapping her hands. "That will be just fine! But how can we go?"

CHAPTER XXII

OFF TO THE CIRCUS

Bunny Brown thought for a minute. He and Sue looked at the gay circus poster, and the more he looked at it the more he felt that he and his sister must go and see the big show in the white tent.

"How can we go, Bunny?" asked Sue.

Bunny Brown wrinkled up his forehead. He always did that when he was thinking hard, and now that the "big idea" had come to him he was thinking harder than ever.

"First we'll have to find out where the circus is going to be," he said.

"We'll ask grandpa. He'll know."

"Do you s'pose mother will let us go?" asked Sue.

"I don't know. We'll have to ask. First we'll find out where the show is going to be."

Bunny and Sue stood a little while longer looking at the circus picture. As they turned this way and that, peering at the big elephant, the savage-looking lion, the striped tiger and the hippopotamus, with his mouth so widely open, Bunker Blue came along whistling.

"Maybe Bunker knows!" cried Sue.

"Knows what?" asked the red-haired lad, stopping near the two children.

"What do you think I know?"

"Where the circus is going to be," replied Bunny. "Do you know where they'll put up the tent?"

Bunker squinted at the circus poster.

"No, I don't know exactly where it will be," he said, "and it doesn't tell on that sign. But it says the circus is coming day after to-morrow.

You could find out from your grandpa's hired man, though, where the tents will be. I guess they will put them up in the same place they had them last year, and the hired man was here then. He's worked for your grandpa a good many years. Ask the hired man."

"We will," Bunny said.

"Are you thinking of going to the circus?" asked Bunker.