em?" asked Mrs. Brown, when the
stories had been told.

"Well, I might," slowly answered Mr. Brown. "I need some help down at
the dock and office to get things ready for winter."

"Don't make 'em work so hard they can't help in our show," begged Bunny.

"Oh, you're going to have another circus, are you?" asked his father,
with a smile.

"No, it isn't going to be a circus, it's going to be a regular Opera
House show!" cried Sue.

"What about?" her father wanted to know, as he caught her up in his
arms.

"We don't know yet," Bunny said. "But maybe the play will be about
pirates or Indians or soldiers."

"Why don't you have some nice quiet play that would be good for
Christmas?" asked Mr. Brown. "Why not have a play with a farm scene in
it? You have been down to Grandpa's farm, and you know a lot about the
country. Why not have a farm play and call it 'Down on the Farm'?"

"That's the very thing!" suddenly cried Mr. Treadwell. "Excuse me for
getting so excited," he said, "but when you spoke about a farm play I
remembered that we have some farm scenery in our show that failed. I
believe you could buy that scenery cheap for the children," he said to
Mr. Brown. "There are three scenes, one meadow, a barnyard with a barn
and an orchard; and the last had a house with it."

"Oh, Daddy! get us the farm theater things for our new play!" cried
Bunny Brown.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SCENERY

Daddy Brown looked at his two children, and then, as he glanced across
the table at the actor who made believe he was George Washington and
other great men, Daddy Brown laughed.

"These youngsters of mine will be giving a real show before I know it,
with scenery and everything," he said.

"Well, a show isn't much fun unless you have some scenery in it," said
Mr. Treadwell, "and the scenery I spoke of, which was part of our show,
can be bought cheap, I think."

"Say, Daddy, is the sheenery in a show like the sheenery in a automobile
or one of your motor boats?" asked Sue.

"Oh, she's thinking of wheels and things that go around!" laughed Bunny.
"That's _ma_-chinery, Sue, and _scenery_ is what we saw in the Opera
House--make-believe trees, and the brook, you know."

"Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "Well, can we have that--that _sheenery_ for our
play?" she asked her father.

"I'll see about it," he answered, and Bunny and Sue looked happy, for,
like their mother, whenever their father said "I'll see," it almost
always meant that he