Laura Lee Hope - Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour

L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour

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"Oh, I see the tents!" cried Bunny, as they neared the ground.

"And I hear the music!" added Sue. "But we mustn't miss the parade."

The children were just in time for this, and when they had seen the
procession wind its way about the streets they went back to the big
white tents. Then the circus began.

What Bunny and Sue saw you can well imagine, for I think most of you
have been to a circus, once at least. There were the wild animals--the
lions and the tigers in their cages, the funny monkeys, the long-necked
giraffes--and then came the performance. The clowns did funny tricks,
the acrobats leaped high in the air, or fell into the springy nets. All
this the children saw, and they ate some popcorn and peanuts, but fed
more than they ate to the elephants.

Uncle Tad seemed to enjoy himself, too, though, every once in a while
he would lean over and say to Bunny and Sue:

"Aren't you tired? Let's go home!"

And the performance was not half through! Bunny and Sue just looked at
him and smiled. They knew he was joking.

But the circus came to an end at last, and though they were sorry they
had to leave, Bunny and Sue were, late in the afternoon, well on their
way to their automobile camp again. They talked of nothing but what they
had seen, and every time they spoke of the show they liked it more and
more.

"I wish we could go again to-night," said Bunny.

"It isn't good for little children to go to a circus at night," said
Uncle Tad. "You've seen enough."

Of course Daddy Brown and Mother Brown had to hear all about it over the
supper table, and they were glad the children had had such a good time.
At night when they sat around a little campfire on the ground near the
automobile, they could hear, in the distance, the music of the circus.

In the middle of the night Mr. and Mrs. Brown were awakened by hearing
the noise of many persons rushing past on the road alongside of which
their automobile was drawn up. Also the chugging of automobiles and the
patter of horses' feet could be heard.

"I wonder what it can be," said Mrs. Brown. "Is it the circus coming
back again?"

"No, they would be going the other way. I'll see if I can find out what
it is."

Slipping on a bath robe, Mr. Brown went to the back door of the
automobile. He saw a crowd of people rushing along.

"What's the matter?" he called.

"One of the circus lions is loose," was the answer, "and we're chasing
it!"

[Illustration: BUNNY AND SUE FED THE ELEPHANTS.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour._ _Page_ 218.]

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SCRATCHED BOY

"What's that? What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown. In the darkness she
had slipped to her husband's side. She, too, looked out on the crowd of
men and boys rushing past in the moonlight. "What has happened?" she
asked again, as Mr. Brown did not appear to have heard what she said.

"As nearly as I could understand," he said slowly, speaking in a low
voice, "one of the men who ran past said a lion had broken loose from
the circus."

"Oh, how dreadful!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "What shall we do? Did Uncle
Tad bring his gun with him?"

"Hush! Don't wake the children," said Mr. Brown. "They might be
frightened if they heard that a lion was loose."

"Frightened? I should think any one would be frightened!" exclaimed
Mrs. Brown. "A savage lion raging around at night, trying to get
something to eat----"

"Now please don't get excited," begged Mr. Brown. "There is no
danger--at least I believe there isn't."

"No danger? And with a lion loose--a hungry lion!"

"That's where I think you're wrong," said her husband. "The circus
people usually keep their lions and other wild animals well fed. They
know the danger a hungry beast might be if he should get loose. And I
dare say they often do get loose, for all sorts of things may happen
when the cages are taken to so many different places.

"But though this lion has broken loose, I don't believe it would bite
even a rooster if it crowed at him. I mean he won't be hungry, because
he'll have been well fed before the circus started away."

"Then you don't believe there is any danger?"

"Well, not enough to worry about. Another thing is that usually circus
lions are so tame, having been caged so long, that they are fairly
gentle."

"I read of one that bit his keeper," said Mrs. Brown.

"Oh, of course there are _some_ dangerous lions in circuses. But we
won't believe this one that got away is that kind until we are sure.
There's a man who seems tired of running. I think he's going to stop and
I'll ask him how it happened."

One of the crowd of men and boys, racing past the "Ark," had slowed his
pace, being tired it seemed. Mr. Brown leaned out of the back door and
called to him:

"What is the matter? Did a lion really get loose from the circus?"

"That's what really did happen, sir. Are you one of the circus folks?"

"No, we are just travelers. We are stopping here because one of the
springs of our automobile is broken."

"Oh, excuse me. I thought this was one of the circus wagons. Yes, as
they were loading the lion's cage on the train a few hours ago, it
slipped, fell on its side and broke. The biggest lion in the circus got
away before they could catch him, and they say he headed down this way.
The circus men started after him with nets and ropes, and they offered a
reward of twenty-five dollars to whoever caught him. So a lot of us
started out, but I guess I'll go back. I'm tired out. I didn't have an
automobile like some."

"Then the lion didn't get loose while the circus performance was going
on?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"Oh, no. And it's a good thing it didn't, or there'd have been a
terrible scare and maybe lots of folks hurt in the rush. The show was
over, and most of the animal tent stuff was loaded on the flat cars when
the lion's cage broke."

"Aren't you afraid to try to catch him?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"Well, I didn't stop to think of that. I don't know though that I am. I
just started off with a rush--the same as lots of others did who were
watching the circus load--when the lion got loose. I thought maybe I
could earn that twenty-five dollars. You see that's given to whoever
finds where the lion is hiding. The circus men just want to know that
and then they'll do the catching. There really isn't much danger."

"Well, I shouldn't like to try it," murmured Mrs. Brown.

"I guess I'll give up, too," said the man.

He called a "good-night!" to Mr. and Mrs. Brown and went back along the
road. There were no more people to be seen, those who had gone
lion-hunting being now out of sight.

"Well, I'm glad the children didn't wake up," said Mrs. Brown, for,
strange as it may seem, Bunny and Sue had slept all through the noise.
But then they were tired because of having gone to the circus. "Shall
you tell them about the lion being loose?"

"Oh, yes, to-morrow, of course. While I think there is little danger I
would not want them to stray too far away, for the poor old lion may be
hiding in the woods or among the rocks, and he might spring out on
whoever passed his hiding place."

"Why do you call him a 'poor old lion'? I think he must be a _very_
savage fellow."

"Oh, I think he'll turn out to be a gentle one," said her husband with a
laugh.

Then Mr. and Mrs. Brown went to bed, after Uncle Tad had heard the
story, and the rest of the night passed quietly. At the breakfast table
Bunny and Sue were told of what had happened.

Bunny wanted to go right out with Uncle Tad, who was to take his gun.

"We'll hunt him and get the twenty-five dollars," said the little
fellow.

"No. You'd better play around here for a while," ordered his father. "It
will be safer."

"I wouldn't let him out of my sight for a million dollars!" cried Mrs.
Brown.

"But we could take the two dogs, Dix and Splash, with us, and they could
bite the lion if he chased us," said Bunny.

His mother shook her head, and Bunny knew there was no use teasing any
more.

"I wouldn't go after any lion!" declared Sue. "And I want to find a good
place to hide Sallie Malinda."

"What for?" asked Bunny.

"So the lion can't find her," said the little girl. "Lions don't like
bears and this one might bite Sallie Malinda. Then maybe she couldn't
flash her eyes any more." The Teddy bear had dried out after the fall
into the lake, and was as good as ever.

So Bunny and Sue had to stay and play around the automobile, not going
far away. Though at first they missed the long tramps in the fields and
through the woods, they were good children and did as they were bid.
Besides, deep down in his heart, Bunny was just a _little bit_ afraid of
the lion, even though he had said he wanted to go hunting for him with
Uncle Tad.

Two days passed, and the lion had not been found. The circus had gone
on, leaving two men in the town near which the automobile was stranded.
These men, with a spare cage which had been left with them, were ready
to go out with nets and ropes and capture the lion as soon as any one
should bring in word as to where it was hiding.

The countrymen and the boys, who had no other work to do, still kept up
the lion hunt, some with dogs, but the big circus animal was well
hidden.

"If he was playing hide-and-go-seek," said Bunny, "I'd holler 'Givie-up!
Givie-up! Come on in free!' For I never could find him, he has hidden
himself so good."

"Well, I wish he would go and hide himself far, far away," almost
snapped Sue. "Then we could go around like we used to, and go on the
lake."

"I wish so too," agreed Bunny.

It was getting rather tiresome for the children to stay so close to
"home," as they called the automobile, but Mr. Brown said the new spring
would arrive in a few days, and then they would travel on again, far
from where the lion was hiding.

"And we can keep on looking for Fred Ward," said Bunny. In the
excitement over the circus the runaway boy had been almost forgotten.

It was three days after the lion had broken loose, and evening was
approaching, when Mrs. Jason, wife of the farmer who had been so kind to
the Browns, came hurrying down to the automobile beside the road. She
was out of breath and seemed much excited.

"Oh, Mr. Brown!" she exclaimed. "Do you know anything about doctoring?"

"About doctoring! Why? Is Mr. Jason ill?"

"No, but I've got a badly hurt boy up at my house. He's all scratched
up."

"Has he been picking berries?" asked Bunny.

"No. They're worse scratches than that. Big, deep ones on his face,
hands and shoulders. I've bandaged him as best I could, and sent Mr.
Jason for the doctor; but I was wondering if you could do anything until
Dr. Fandon came."

"A scratched boy?" repeated Mr. Brown slowly. "What scratched him?"

"A great big lion, he says!" exclaimed Mrs. Jason. "I declare I'm so
excited I don't know what to do!" and she sat down on a stool Mrs. Brown
placed for her near the back steps of the automobile.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE BARKING DOG

Mr. and Mrs. Brown, not to say Bunny, Sue and Uncle Tad, were very, very
much surprised when Mrs. Jason said the boy had been scratched by a
lion.

"Are you sure about it?" asked the children's father.

"That's what he says," replied the farmer's wife. "He is certainly badly
scratched, as I could see for myself. Whether it was by a lion or
something else I can't say, never having seen a lion's scratches. The
boy might be making up some story, but he certainly _is_ scratched."

"The circus lion!" cried Mrs. Brown. "Oh, that must be the one that did
it! The lion must be roaming around here! We must lock the automobile
and stay inside!"

"Now please don't get excited," begged Mr. Brown. "In the first place
this boy may not be telling the truth. He is scratched, for Mrs. Jason
has seen the marks and bandaged them up, she says. But it may be the boy
fell down in the bushes, or among the rocks and got scratched that way.
Or it may have been some other wild animal in the woods that attacked
him. There are some animals around here, aren't there?" he asked the
farmer's wife.

"Well, skunks, groundhogs and the like of that, with maybe a fox or two.
Of course foxes or groundhogs will bite if any one tries to catch them,
but I don't know that they'd scratch, though they might if they were put
to it. I never saw such scratches as these. And, as you say, Mrs. Brown,
it _may_ have been the circus lion which is hiding around here."

"You don't seem very frightened over it," said Mrs. Brown.

"Well, what's the use of being frightened until I see it?" asked Mrs.
Jason. "I'm more worried about that poor boy. I wish I could do
something for him to ease his pain until Dr. Fandon comes. He may be a
long while."

"I'll come up with you and see what I can do," promised Mr. Brown.
"Uncle Tad knows something about soldiers' wounds, and perhaps he
could----"

"Oh, don't take Uncle Tad with you!" pleaded Mrs. Brown. "We need _one_
man around here if there's a lion loose in the woods. Come back as soon
as you can," she begged her husband as he walked toward the farmhouse
with Mrs. Jason.

"How did you happen to see the boy?" asked Mr. Brown.

"I was out gathering the eggs near the henhouse," said Mrs. Jason, "and
I heard a sort of groaning noise. Then I saw somebody coming toward me.

"At first I thought it was a tramp, and I was just going to call my
husband or one of the men, when I heard crying, and then I saw it was
only a boy, and that he was bleeding."

"How long ago was it that you found the scratched boy?" asked Mr. Brown.

"Nearly an hour now. As soon as I saw what the matter was I hurried him
into the house and got him on a couch. Mr. Jason and I did what
bandaging we could, and then I made him go for the doctor."

"Did you know the boy, and did he say where the lion attacked him?"
asked Mr. Brown.

"I never saw him before, that I know of. But he just managed to say the
beast jumped out of the bushes at him when he was coming through our
rocky glen, then all of a sudden he fainted."

"Where is this rocky glen of yours where you say the lion jumped out at
the boy?"

"About two miles from here, back in the hills. Waste land, mostly. You
aren't thinking of going there, are you?"

"Not now, though I think I'd better send word to the circus people that
their lion is around here."

"Yes, it would be a good thing."

By this time Mr. Brown and Mrs. Jason were at the house.

"I'll take a look at him," said Mr. Brown.

He saw, lying on a couch, a tall lad, whose face and hands were covered
with bandages. The youth was tossing to and fro and murmuring, but what
he said could not well be understood, except that now and then he spoke
of a lion.

"I didn't dare take his coat off to get at the scratches on his
shoulders," said Mrs. Jason. "I thought I'd let the doctor do that."

"Yes, I guess it will be best. But if you have any sweet spirits of
nitre in the house I'll give him that to quiet him and keep down the
fever."

"Oh, we always keep nitre on hand," and Mrs. Jason helped Mr. Brown give
some to the lad. In a little while he grew quieter, and then Dr. Fandon
came in with Mr. Jason.

The two men helped the physician get the youth undressed and into a
spare bed, and then the doctor, with Mrs. Jason's help, dressed the
wounds on the boy's face and shoulders, while the men waited outside.

Then, having done what he could for the boy, and promising to call in
the morning, when he could tell more about the boy's condition, the
doctor went home, while Mr. Brown and Mr. Jason planned to get word of
the lion to the two circus men who were still at the hotel in the
village.

"I'll drive over with you," said the farmer. This they did, though it
was late to drive to town, being after nine o'clock, stopping at the
"Ark" on the way to tell what had taken place at the farmhouse.

"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "We must try to help him."

"I'll let him play with my Teddy bear when he gets well," said Sue, and
all the others laughed.

"The circus men will get after the lion in the morning," said the farmer
when he and Mr. Brown were back at the "Ark" on their return from town.

Though they were excited, and not a little afraid, Bunny and Sue were at
last in bed, but only after Uncle Tad had promised to sit up all night,
as he used to do when a sentry in the war, and, with his gun, watch for
any sign of the lion.

"And if you have to shoot him, which I hope you don't," said Bunny,
"call me first so I can look at him. But I don't want to see him shot.
Just make him go back to the circus."

"I will," promised Uncle Tad.

Bunny and Sue were up early the next morning, and even before breakfast
they wanted their father to go up to the farmhouse to find out about the
scratched boy, and also whether or not the lion had been caught.

"We'll see about the boy first," said Mr. Brown. "I guess it won't do
any harm for me to take the children up," he said to his wife.

"You will be careful, won't you?" she begged.

"Indeed I will," he promised.

So Bunny, with his sister and his father, walked up to Mr. Jason's home.
Dix and Splash went along, of course, and stood expectant at the door as
Mr. Brown rang.

"Oh, good morning!" cried Mrs. Jason as she answered the bell. "Our
scratched boy is much better this morning. He is not as badly hurt as we
feared. Come in."

Mr. Brown and the children entered, and of course the dogs followed.

"Go back, Dix and Splash," ordered Mr. Brown. Splash turned and went out
on the stoop, but Dix kept on. The dog was acting in a strange manner.
The door to a downstairs bedroom, where the wounded boy was lying, was
open. Dix ran in and the next moment he began to bark wildly, getting on
the bed with his forefeet.

"Down, Dix! Down!" cried Mr. Brown. "What do you mean, sir?"

But Dix kept on barking and whining. He tried to lick the hands of the
scratched boy.

"Oh, drive him away!" cried Mrs. Jason. "He'll hurt the boy."

But the boy, who seemed much better indeed, rose up in bed and cried:

"Don't send him away! That's Dix, my dog! Oh, Dix, you found me, didn't
you?"

CHAPTER XXV

FOUND AT LAST

What with the barking of Dix, in which Splash, out on the porch, joined,
the manner in which the scratched boy hugged the half-wild animal on his
bed, the astonishment of Bunny Brown, his sister, his father and Mrs.
Jason--well, there was enough excitement for a few minutes to satisfy
even the children.

Sue did not know what to make of the strange actions of Dix on the bed
where the injured boy had been sleeping, and she whispered to Bunny:

"Maybe Dix wants to bite him!"

But Bunny shook his head. He understood what had happened.

"Don't you see, Sue!" he said. "He's been found."

"O-o-oh!" gasped the little girl.

"Yes, sir, Fred Ward, the boy who ran away from next door to us, has
been found. That's his dog, Dix. And Dix knows him, just as we thought
he would, even though his face is pretty well bandaged up. That's Fred
Ward!"

"Is that your name?" asked Mr. Brown, who also understood what had
happened.

"Well, I guess it is," was the slow answer. "But it isn't the name I've
been going by lately. I called myself Professor Rombodno Prosondo, but
now----"

"Then, it _was_ you all blacked up like a minstrel!" cried Bunny.

"Yes, I was playing on the banjo for Dr. Perry's medicine show, but when
I saw you in the crowd I managed to get away. Then I joined the circus
and now----"

"Don't talk and excite yourself," said Mrs. Jason. "The doctor will be
here in a little while and perhaps he can take the bandages off your
face, so your friends will know you."

"Dix knows him all right," said Mr. Brown, and indeed the dog was half
wild with joy at having found his master.

Dr. Fandon came in a few minutes later and said Fred was much better.
When the face bandages were taken off, so new ones could be put on,
Bunny and Sue at once recognized Fred, though his face was badly
scratched.

Dix tried to lick his master's face, but had to be stopped for fear he
might do Fred harm. So the dog had to show his joy by thumping his tail
and whining softly.

Then Fred told his story. As has been said, he ran away from home
because he felt his father should not have punished him.

"But I've had a good deal worse punishment since," the lad said, "and
I'm sorry I ever ran away. I'd have gone home long ago only I was
ashamed."

"Well, you needn't be," said Mr. Brown. "Your father and your mother
both want you back. We have been looking for you as well as we could on
our auto tour. But it was Dix who knew you first."

"I wish he had seen me before the lion did," said Fred, smiling a
little. "I wonder where he went to after clawing me?"

At that moment there was a noise out in the yard back of the farmhouse.
The crowing of roosters and the squawking of hens could be heard,
mingled with a woman's voice.

"That's my wife!" cried Mr. Jason, jumping up, but at that moment his
wife came into the room.

"I've caught it," she said coolly, though her face was flushed.

"Caught what?" they all cried.

"The circus lion," she answered. "I went out to the henhouse, and there
he was crouching down in a corner, and looking as if he intended to have
his choice of my fat pullets."

"What did you do?" asked Mr. Brown and Mr. Jason together.

"Well, I happened to have a broom stick in my hand so I hit him a smart
blow over the nose to teach him to let my hens alone, and then I drove
the chickens outside and locked the lion in the henhouse. He's there
now. You'd better send for the circus folks to take him away. I don't
want him around the place scaring the fowls."

"Didn't he scare you?" asked Mr. Brown.

"I never stopped to think whether he did or not," was the cool answer.
"I just whacked him over the nose and he whined and cuddled up in a
corner like a whipped dog."

"Oh, let's go out and look at the lion in the chicken coop!" cried
Bunny.

"No, indeed," said his father. "Wait until the circus men come and put
him in the cage."

A neighboring farmer had a telephone, and word was sent to one of the
circus men who had stayed at the village hotel, while his companion had
gone to the rocky glen with a crowd of men and boys to try to find the
lion there, after the alarm given by Mr. Jason.

The circus man, who had remained in the hotel, came with a light cage,
drawn by horses, and the lion was easily driven from the henhouse into
the cage and was soon safe behind locks and bars.

"Mrs. Jason caught the lion!" cried the crowd that gathered to watch
what happened.

"Did he bite you?" she was asked.

"Never a bite," she answered smiling.

"What! Poor old Tobyhanna bite?" cried one of the circus men. "Why, he
hasn't but two teeth in his head and we have to feed him on boiled meat.
He's no more dangerous than a tame dog, and when you hit him over the
nose with your broom, lady, you must have hurt his feelin's dreadful."

"Well, I didn't mean to be _rough_," said Mrs. Jason with a smile, "but
it's the first time I ever caught a lion."

"Yes, and you get the reward, too," added the circus man, as he paid the
farmer's wife.

Then he started away with the lion in the cage to ship him back to the
circus. And poor, old, almost toothless Tobyhanna, curled up in the
corner of his cage and ate some bread and milk the farmer's wife gave
him. He was happy he had been caught.

Fred Ward's story was soon told. After running away from home he joined
the medicine show, because it gave him a chance to play the banjo he
liked so well. He left Dr. Perry because he saw the Browns and feared
they might have him sent home.

Then he joined the circus, the very one from which the lion had escaped.
In that show Fred had been one of a group who blacked up and played on
mandolins and guitars and banjos, and though he had played in front of
Bunny, Sue and Uncle Tad, none of them knew him, nor did Fred see them.

The night the show left the town, and just before the lion escaped, Fred
had a quarrel with one of the managers and left. He was not paid his
money and, quite miserable, he wandered away, not knowing what to do. He
became lost in the woods, and finally he reached the rocky gulch where
the lion attacked him.

"It was just an accident. Tobyhanna didn't mean to hurt me," said Fred.
"I'd often fed him and scratched his nose for him in the circus. But I
walked right over him as he was asleep in between some rocks, and when
he jumped out, as much scared as I was he happened to scratch me. Then I
managed to get to this house and I guess I must have gone out of my head
or fainted or something."

"You did," said Dr. Fandon, "but you are all right now."

"We must send word to your father that you are safe," said Mr. Brown,
and this was done.

Fred was not quite well enough to be moved, but his father came for him
the next day, and he made a great fuss over his boy. They understood
each other better after that.

Mr. Ward thanked everybody who had done anything to help his son, and a
few days later took Fred and Dix home, for the dog would not leave his
master, much as he liked Splash, Bunny and Sue.

In due time Tobyhanna, the lion, was taken back to the circus, and he
never got out of his cage again, as far as I ever heard.

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