randma Brown, as well as father and Mother Brown, said
she did not mind if a circus was held in the barn, but she wanted Bunny
to be careful about going on the trapeze.

"Oh, if I fall I'll fall in the hay," said the little fellow with a
laugh.

"And what are you going to use to put stripes on your half of Splash?"
asked his mother.

"Paint, I guess," said Bunny.

"Oh, no. Paint would spoil Splash's nice, fluffy hair. I'll mix you up
some starch and water, with a little bluing in, that will easily wash
off," promised Mother Brown.

"Blue stripes!" cried Bunny. "A tiger doesn't have blue stripes, and my
half of Splash is going to be a tiger."

"You can pretend he is a new sort of tiger," said Grandma Brown, and
Bunny was satisfied with that.

That afternoon Bunny and Sue went to the homes of the neighboring
children to tell them about the circus. Nearly all the children said
they would come, and take part in the show in the barn.

"Oh, we'll have a fine circus!" cried Bunny Brown that night when they
were all sitting on the porch to cool off, for it was quite hot.

"Yes, I guess we'll all have to come and see you act," said Daddy Brown.

"Hark! What's that?" suddenly asked Grandma Brown. They all listened,
and heard some one knocking at the back door.

"I'll go and look," said grandpa. "Maybe it's a tramp. There have been
some around lately."

Bunny and Sue thought of the tramps who had taken the big
cocoanut-custard cake, about which I told you in the book before this
one. Perhaps those tramps had gotten out of jail and had come to get
more cake. Bunny and Sue sat close to mother and father while grandpa
went around the corner of the house to see who was knocking at the back
door.

They all heard grandpa speaking to some one. And the answers came in a
boy's voice.

"What do you want?" asked grandpa.

"If--if you please," said the strange boy's voice, "I--I'm very hungry.
I haven't had any dinner or supper. I'm willing to do any work you want,
for something to eat. I--I----"

And then it sounded as though the strange boy were crying.

"That isn't a tramp!" exclaimed Grandma Brown, getting up. "It's just a
hungry boy. I'm going to feed him."

They all followed Grandma Brown around to the back stoop. There was a
light in the kitchen, and by it Bunny and Sue could see a boy, not quite
as big as Bunker Blue, standing beside grandpa. The boy had on clothes
that were dusty, and somewhat torn. But the bo