The people crowded into the small tent. All around the sides were wooden boxes, with wooden slats. These were the "cages."

"Now watch the trained white mice!" cried Ben. "The big circus is about to begin!"

"Over this way! Over this way!" cried Sam, as he stood on a box with his trained white mice in their cage in front of him. "Right this way to see the wonderful trained white mice, which escaped from their cage and were caught by brave Mr. Brown and his wife!"

Everyone clapped and laughed at that.

Then Sam made his pink-eyed pets do many tricks. They ran up his arms to his shoulders, and sat on his head. Some of them jumped over sticks, and others through paper-covered hoops, like the horse-back riders in a real circus. One big white mouse climbed a ladder, and two others drew a little wagon, in which a third mouse sat, pretending to hold the reins.

One big white mouse fired a toy cannon, that shot a paper cap.

Then Sam made his mice all stand up in a line, and make a bow to the people.

"That ends the white mice act!" cried Sam. "We will now show you a wild lion. But please don't anybody be scared, for the lion can only eat bread and jam, and he won't hurt you."

"What a funny lion--to eat bread and jam," laughed Sue.

"Hush!" exclaimed Bunny. "He's going to take the blanket off the cage."

Everyone looked to see what sort of wild lion there was in the circus.

CHAPTER XXII

BUNNY'S BRAVE ACT

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, as well as boys and girls," began Ben Hall, who was a sort of ring-master, in the play-circus, "I am about to show you that this lion does really eat bread and jam, and that he is a very kind and gentle lion indeed, though he can roar. Roar for the people!"

cried Ben, shaking the horse blanket that was hung in front of the "lion's cage."

The next second there came such a real "roar," that some of the smallest children screamed.

"Don't be afraid!" cried Ben. "He won't hurt you. I will now raise the curtain, and you can see the lion."

Slowly he pulled aside the blanket. And then everyone laughed--that is they did after a few seconds. For at first it did look like a real lion in the box.

He had a real tail, and a big, s.h.a.ggy mane, and his mouth was wide open, showing his red tongue and his white, sharp teeth. But when you looked a second time you saw that it was only the skin of a lion, which had been made into a rug for the parlor. And it was Tom White, one of the boys with whom Bunny played, who was pretending to be a lion, with the skin rug pulled over him, and the stuffed head over his head.

Underneath the open mouth of the lion peered out Tom's smiling face, and as he looked through the wooden slats of the cage Ben put in a piece of bread and jam, which Tom ate as he knelt there on his hands and knees.

"See! I told you this was a kind and gentle lion, and would eat bread and jam," announced Ben. "I will now have him roar for you again, ladies and gentlemen. Roar, lion, roar!"

But instead of roaring, Tom, for a joke, went:

"Meaou! Meaou! Meaou!" just like a p.u.s.s.y cat.

Of course everyone laughed at that. The idea of a big, savage lion meaouing like a kitten! Tom had to laugh and then he couldn't pucker up his lips to meaou any more.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as well as boys and girls," went on Ben. "We will now pa.s.s to the next cage. This is a real wild animal. He has sharp teeth, so do not go too close to his cage. He is the wild chicken-eater of the woods!"

"Oh, I wonder what that can be?" whispered Sue.

"We'll see in a minute," Bunny answered. The two children, as well as the other boys who were to take part in the show in the big tent later on, were now following the crowd around to see the animals.

"Behold the wild chicken-eater of the woods!" cried Ben, as he pulled aside a blanket from another wooden box-cage.

This time there was a sort of snarl and bark. It was so real that everyone knew this was a real animal, and not a boy dressed up in a skin or fur rug. Some of the little children tried to run out of the tent.

"Don't be afraid!" called Ben. "He can't get loose. There he is!"

He pulled the blanket aside and there everyone saw a small reddish animal, as big as a dog, with a large, bushy tail, a sharp pointed nose, and very bright eyes.

"What is it?" asked Sue. "Oh! what is it?"

"It's a fox," answered her brother. "I once saw one in the real circus where grandpa found his horses the Gypsies took."

"Yes, it is a fox," said Ben. "And a fox just loves to eat chickens and live in the woods."

"Where did you get him," Bunny asked.

"Oh, one of the boys caught him in a trap, and saved him for the circus.

He is going to tame him, but the fox is quite wild yet."

And indeed the fox was. For he jumped about, and tried to bite and scratch his way out of the cage. But the wooden bars were too strong for him.

The people who had come to the circus gotten up by the big boys, stood for some time looking at the fox, which was a real wild animal. Some of the farmers, though they had lived in the country all their lives, had never seen a fox before.

"Now, if you will come down this way!" said Ben, as he started toward a place in the tent that had been curtained off, "I will show you our trained bear."

"Oh, is it real?" asked Sue.

"You'll see," said Ben, who seemed to know how to talk and act, just like a real ring-master in the circus.

Ben stood in front of the little corner of the tent, that was curtained off, so no one could see what was behind it.

"Are you all ready in there?" Ben called, loudly.

"Yes, yes, all ready!" was the quick answer. And the voice did not sound like that of any of the boys from the nearby farms.

"Oh, I didn't know a bear could talk," cried Sue, and everyone laughed, for the tent was very still and quiet just then, and Sue's voice was heard all over.

"That wasn't the bear talking," said Ben. "It was his trainer. The man who makes the bear do tricks you know."

"Oh, is it a trick bear?" Sue asked.

"Yes," answered Ben.

"A real truly one?" Bunny wanted to know.