Bunny and Sue stopped and waited for the balloon man to catch up with them. The man, seeing the children waiting for him, hurried forward, and stopped to see what was wanted.

"Well?" he asked, looking at his balloons to make sure none of them would break away, and float up to the clouds.

"Can you sell pink lemonade?" asked Bunny.

"Penk leemonade," repeated the Italian, saying the words in a funny way.

"Whata you calla dat? Penk leemonade?"

"You know--what they always have at a circus," said Bunny. "This color,"

and he pointed to a pink balloon. "You drink it you know, out of a gla.s.s--five cents."

"No can drinka de balloon!" the man exclaimed. "You put your teeth on heem and he go--pop! so--no good!"

"No, I don't mean that!" cried Bunny, laughing at the Italian, who made funny faces, and waved his hands in the air. "I mean can you sell pink lemonade--to drink--at our circus?"

"And peanuts?" added Sue.

"Yes, we'd want you to sell peanuts, too," went on the little boy.

"Ha! Peanuts? No! I used to pusha de peanut cart--make de whistle blow--hot peanuts. No more! I sella de balloon!" exclaimed the Italian.

"No more makea de hot peanuts!"

"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue. "He won't do it! We'll have to get some one else, Bunny."

"Well, we can easy do that," said Bunny. "Maybe the hired man will sell peanuts and lemonade for us. I asked him if he would like to be in the big circus, and he said he would. I asked him if he could do any acts."

"What'd he say?" Sue wanted to know, while the Italian balloon peddler stood looking at the two children, as if wondering what they would do next.

"Well, the hired man said all he could do was milk a cow, and plow up the ground. He wanted to know if they were circus acts, and I said I guessed not," replied Bunny. "So maybe he'd be glad to sell lemonade and peanuts."

"I think he would," said Sue. "You needn't do anything except blow up your balloons and sell 'em," she went on to the Italian. "Never mind about the peanuts and the pink lemonade."

"Alla right," said the man, with a smile that showed what nice white teeth he had. "Me sella de balloon!"

He and the children walked on a little longer. Then the man turned to Bunny and asked:

"How much farder now--to de circus?"

"Not far now," said Bunny. "The circus isn't quite ready yet, but you can stay at our grandpa's house until it is. You see we don't get many balloon peddlers out this way. You're the first one we've seen, so you'd better stay. It won't be more than a week, or maybe two weeks."

"Circus last all dat time?" asked the Italian. "Sella lot de balloons.

Buy more in New York--sella dem! Mucha de money!"

"We've an aunt in New York," said Sue. "Her name is Aunt Lu. If you sell all these balloons she'll buy some more for you in New York, so you won't have to go away."

"Yes," said Bunny, "that would be best. We'll get Aunt Lu to send you more balloons. And when you haven't any to sell, while you're waiting, you could help the hired man sell pink lemonade and peanuts. 'Cause, anyhow, maybe the hired man sometimes would have to go to milk the cows, and you could take his place."

The Italian shook his head. He did not quite know what Bunny and Sue were talking about. All he thought of was that he was being taken to a circus, where he might sell all his balloons, and make money enough to buy more to sell.

"There's grandpa's house now," said Sue, as they went around a turn in the road.

"Where de circus--where de tents?" the Italian wanted to know.

"Oh, they're not all up yet," said Bunny. "The big boys are doing that.

You just come with us."

And so Bunny Brown and his sister Sue walked up the front path, followed by the Italian with the many-colored balloons floating over his head.

"Mercy me! What's all this?" cried Mother Brown, when she saw the little procession. "What does this mean, Bunny--Sue?"

"It's balloons, for the circus," explained Bunny. "We saw this man down the road, and we invited him to come with us. He's going to stay here until it's time for the circus, next week, and then he's going to sell balloons outside the tent."

"We wanted him to sell pink lemonade and peanuts," said Sue, "but he wouldn't. So the hired man can do that. Now, Grandma," went on the little girl, "maybe this balloon man is hungry. We're not, 'cause we had some cookies and milk; didn't we, Bunny?"

"Yep."

"But he didn't have any," Sue went on. "And he'll have to have a place to sleep, 'cause he's going to stay to the circus, and sell balloons.

And if he sells them all Aunt Lu will send him more from New York and he can sell them. Won't it be nice, Mother?"

Mrs. Brown did not know what to say. Neither did Grandma Brown. They just looked at one another, and then at the Italian, and next at Bunny and Sue.

"Me sella de balloon!" explained the Italian, as best he could in his queer English. "Little boy--little gal--say circus. Me likea de circus.

But me no see any tents. Where circus tents?"

"Oh these children!" cried Mrs. Brown. "What in the world are we to do with this Italian and his balloons?"

"Me sella de balloons!" said the dark-skinned man.

"Yes, I know," sighed Mrs. Brown. "But the circus is only a make-believe one, and it isn't ready yet, and--Oh, I don't know what to do!" she cried. "Bunny--Sue--you shouldn't have invited the balloon man to come here!"

"But you can't have a circus without balloons," said Bunny.

"Yes, my dear, I know, but----"

"What's all the trouble?" asked Papa Brown, coming out on the porch just then.

Bunny and Sue, their mother and the Italian, told the story after a while.

"Well," said Mr. Brown, to the Italian, after he had listened carefully, "I'm sorry you had your trip for nothing. But of course the children did not know any better. It is only a little circus, and you would not sell many balloons. But, as long as you came away back here, I guess we can give you something to eat, and we'll buy some balloons of you for the children."

"Thanka you. Mucha de 'bliged," said the Italian with a smile.

He seemed happy now, and after Grandma Brown had given him some bread and meat, and a big piece of pie, out on the side porch, he started off down the road again, smiling and happy. Bunny and Sue were each given a balloon by their father, who bought them from the Italian.

"And don't invite any more peddlers to your circus, children," said Mr.

Brown.

"We won't," promised Bunny. "But we thought the balloons would be nice."