. A rehearsal was going on, and nearly all
the mothers of the children were there, as Mr. Treadwell had asked them
to come so he might talk to them about the costumes that had to be made
for the little girls and boys.

Just after the second scene, which took place partly in the barnyard,
and partly in the barn itself, Will Laydon came walking out to the
middle of the stage where Mr. Treadwell stood.

"They--they're gone!" exclaimed Will, seemingly much excited.

"Just a moment," said the actor, who was talking to Mrs. Brown. "I'll
attend to you in a minute, Will."

"But they're gone!" exclaimed the boy, and Mrs. Brown and the other
ladies turned to look at him in some surprise. "My white mice got out of
their cage just now," said Will, "and they're running all over. My white
mice are loose!"

CHAPTER XIV

SPLASH HANGS ON

For a while there was a good deal of excitement and wild scampering
about. Mice ran here and mice ran there. Children scrambled after them
or scrambled to get out of their way. There were cries and shrieks and
laughter.

One little white mouse, frightened and not knowing where to go, ran up
the dress skirt and into the lap of the mother of Bunny Brown and his
sister Sue.

"Come here, Will, and come quick," called Mrs. Brown to the owner of the
white mice. "I do not like your sort of pet, come and take it away--and
come quick, I say!"

"All right, I'll come," answered Will.

"Don't be frightened," called out Mr. Treadwell. "I'm sure Will's white
mice are too well-trained to harm any one."

"Oh, we're not afraid!"

"They won't hurt anybody," said the boy who owned the white pets, and
who was going to have them do little tricks during the show. "Why,
they're so tame they'll crawl all over you and go to sleep in your
pocket!"

"Oh, take 'em away! Take 'em away!" cried one girl. "I wouldn't have
come if I had known there were to be any mice!"

"But they're white mice," said Will, "and I didn't know they were out of
the cage. Somebody must have opened the door."

"I'll help you hunt for the white mice," offered Bunny Brown. "I'm not
afraid of 'em!"

"I aren't, either," added Sue.

"I'm not zactly 'fraid of 'em," said Helen Newton, "but they make you
feel so _ticklish_ when they crawl on you!"

"They're nice," said Bunny Brown, as he crawled under a chair to coax a
white mouse that was trying to hide behind a paper bag. "And they'll do
some nice tricks in our show."

It to