dle of it, and Splash was standing near her,
barking and jumping about now and then, as if he felt very happy.

"Why--why, Sue!" Bunny cried. "Were you there all the while?"

"How long is all the while?" asked Sue, rubbing her sleepy eyes. "I was
playing house here, Bunny, and I pulled a bed spread over me, and went
to sleep. Splash put his cold nose on me and woke me up. What are you
all lookin' at me for?" Sue asked, as she saw the circle of boys, her
brother among them, staring at her.

"We--we thought you were lost, Sue," said Bunny. "And we came to find
you."

"I--I wasn't losted at all!" Sue protested. "I was here all the while! I
just went to sleep!"

And that was what had happened. When Bunny was busy helping Ben and
Bunker pull on some of the tent ropes, Sue had slipped off by herself,
and had lain down on the pile of canvas.

Feeling sleepy, she had pulled a part of the tent over her. She made
believe it was a white spread, such as was on her bed in her Grandpa
Brown's house. This covered Sue from sight, so Bunny and none of the
others could see her. And there she had slept, while the others looked.
And had not Splash known where to find the little girl, she might have
slept a great deal longer, and Bunny and the boys might not have found
her until dark.

"But I've slept long enough, now," said Sue. "Is the tent ready for the
big circus?"

"Not yet," answered Bunker Blue. "We've got to use the piece of canvas
you were sleeping on, so it's a good thing you woke up. But we'll soon
have the tent ready, and then we'll go and get the bigger one."

"Oh, are you going to have two?" asked Sue.

"Yes," answered Ben. "Oh, we're going to give a fine show! And we want
you and your sister Sue in it, too, Bunny," went on the strange boy who
had come to Grandpa Brown's so hungry that night. "You'll be in the big
circus; won't you?"

"To give the Punch and Judy show?" asked Sue.

"Well, maybe that, and maybe some of the things you did in your own
little circus," Bunker said. "There's time enough to get up something
new if you want."

"All right. That's what we'll do," said Bunny. "Come on, Sue, and we'll
practise a new act for the big boys' circus."

The little circus, gotten up by Bunny and Sue, had made quite a jolly
time for the people in the country where Grandpa Brown lived. It was
talked of in many a farmhouse, and it was this talk of the little circus
that had made Bunker, Ben and the other big boys w