st in time.

"Don't be frightened, Bunny and Sue!" whispered Mr. Treadwell, as he
motioned for the orchestra to play a little louder, so no one in the
audience could hear what he said. Then he went on: "Just pretend it is
all part of the show! Make believe I was to rush out this way, and call
on you to surrender. I'll take Peter off the pony's back. The rooster
makes him afraid. Now, Bunny, you say: All right General Grant! I'll
surrender if it takes all summer!"

Bunny had been told so many times by Mr. Treadwell just what other
things to say that this time he did not waste a second. So, almost as
soon as the impersonator, dressed as General Grant, had rushed out,
grabbed the pony's bridle, and called on Bunny and Sue to surrender,
Bunny answered:

"All right, General Grant. I'll surrender if--if it takes all summer!"

Bunny didn't know why some of the old men in the audience laughed so
hard when he said this, but later on his father told him that some of
them, like Uncle Tad, had fought under General Grant in the Civil War
and that he had said words that were a "take-off" of one of General
Grant's real speeches.

So, in less time than I have taken to tell you about it, the danger was
over, Mr. Treadwell had turned the pony around so that it was headed
back toward the make-believe barn, Peter, the crowing rooster had been
taken from the back of the little horse, and the play was going on as
usual.

Lucile came out and sang another song, Mart did some acrobatic feats,
and the other boys and girls did their parts in the play, while "General
Grant" appeared again and amused the audience.

"Dear me, Mrs. Brown!" exclaimed Mrs. Newton, who sat next to the
mother of Bunny and Sue, "I thought at first that was an accident--the
way the pony started off the stage when the rooster got on his back--but
I guess it was all part of the play."

"It was clever of them to get up something to fool us like that--almost
too real and life-like, I think, though," said the mother of one of the
little boys in the play.

Mrs. Brown knew, from the looks on the faces of Bunny and Sue, that it
was an accident, and not intended, but she said nothing, for she did not
want to spoil any one's pleasure in the show.

And so the performance went on, the boys and girls doing simple little
things they had been taught by Mr. Treadwell. There were dances and
drills, for it was a sort of mixed-up play, without very much of what
grown folks call