"Now don't be afraid, Ben," said the man. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Are you--are you going to make me go back to the circus?" Ben asked slowly.

"Not unless you want to go, though we want you back with us very much, for we have missed you," the man replied.

"I'll not go back to be beaten the way I was!" cried Ben. "I can't stand that. That's why I ran away."

"You can just stay with us; can't he Mother?" pleaded Sue. "He can work on grandpa's farm with Bunker Blue."

"What does all this mean?" asked Grandpa Brown of the strange man who had knocked at the door. "Are you after Ben?"

"Yes, sir, I am after Ben," was the answer, and the man smiled. "I have been looking for him for a long time, and I am glad I have found him. I will take him back with me if he will come, and I will make him a promise that he will no more be whipped. I never knew anything about that until after he had run away from my circus."

"Did you really do that, Ben?" asked Bunny. "Run away?"

"Yes. That was where I came from that night I begged a meal here--a circus. But I'll go back, for I like being in a circus, if I'm not beaten."

"Tell us all about it," said grandpa.

"I will," answered the man. "My name is James Hooper. I own a small circus, with some other men, and we travel about the country, giving performances in small towns and cities. This boy, Ben Hall, has been in our show ever since he was a baby. His father and mother were both circus people, but they died last year, and Ben, who had learned to do many tricks, and who knew something about animals, was such a bright chap that I kept him with us. I was going to make a circus performer of him."

"And I wanted very much to be one--a clown," said Ben. "But the head clown was so mean to me, and whipped me so much, that I made up my mind to run away, and I did."

"I don't know that I blame you," said Mr. Hooper. "I never knew that you had such a hard time. I supposed you ran away just for fun, and I tried to find you. I asked about you in all the places where we stopped, but no one had seen you."

"I have been here ever since I left your show," explained Ben. "I like it here, but I like the circus better. How did you find me?"

"Well, our circus is showing in a town about three miles from here,"

said Mr. Hooper. "Over there, in that town, I heard about a little circus some boys and girls were getting up here, and--"

"Bunny and I got up the circus first," said Sue, "and then the big boys made one, but we acted in it."

"I see!" laughed Mr. Hooper. "Well, I heard about your circus over here, so I came to ask if any of you had seen Ben. I walked into the tent, and there I saw him doing the jump and somersaults he used to do in our tent. I knew him right away, but before I could speak to him he ran away.

"I ran after him, hoping I could tell him how much we wanted him back, but I could not catch up to him. So I went back to my circus, and made up my mind I'd come back here again to-day. I'm glad I did, for now I've found you, Ben."

Ben told Mr. Hooper, just as he had told Bunny and Sue, about sleeping all night out in the field, under a pile of hay, and then of creeping back to sleep in the tent.

"Well, do you want to come back with me, or stay here on the farm?"

asked Mr. Hooper. "I'll promise that you'll be well treated, Ben, and the head clown, who was so mean to you, isn't with us any more. You won't be whipped again, and you'll have a chance to become a head clown yourself."

"Then I'll come back with you," said the circus boy. "I'm very much obliged to you, for all you've done for me," he said to Grandpa Brown and Grandma Brown, "and I hope you won't be mad at me if I go away."

"Not if you think it best to go," said grandpa. "You have been a good boy while here, and you have more than earned your board. I don't like to lose you, but if you want to be a clown, the circus is the best place for you."

"All his folks were circus people," said Mr. Hooper. "And when that's the case the young folks nearly always stay in the same business. Ben will make a good clown when he grows up, and he will be a good jumper, too."

"I'm going to be a circus man," said Bunny. "Can I be in your show, Mr.

Hooper?"

"Well, we'll see about that when you get a little older. But you and your sister can come and see our circus, any time you wish, for nothing.

I watched you two do your scarecrow and pumpkin dance, and you did it very well."

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were pleased to hear this.

"Yes, it was a pretty good circus for young folks to get up all by themselves," said Grandpa Brown. "But how soon do you have to take Ben away with you, Mr. Hooper?"

"As soon as I can, Mr. Brown. Our show is going to move on to-night, and I'd like to have Ben back in his old place if you can let him go."

"Oh, yes," said Grandpa Brown. "He can go. I hope you'll be happy, Ben."

"I'll look well after him, and he shall have no more trouble," said Mr.

Hooper. Then Ben told what a hard time he had after he ran away from the circus. He had to sleep in old barns, and under hay-stacks, and he had very little to eat. And when he came to grandpa's house he did not tell that he had run away from the show, for fear some one would make him go back to the bad clown who beat him.

But everything came out all right, you see, and Ben was happy once more.

Of course, Bunny and Sue felt sorry to have their friend leave them, but it could not be helped.

"But we'll be going back home ourselves pretty soon," said Daddy Brown.

Bunker Blue and Ben Hall shook hands and said they hoped they would see each other again.

"And to think," said Bunker, "that you were from a circus all the time, and never told us! But I sort of thought you were, for you knew so much about ropes, and putting up tents, making tricks and acts and pretend wild animals, and all that."

"Yes," answered Ben with a laugh, "sometimes it was pretty hard not to do some of the other tricks I had learned in the circus. I didn't want you to find out about me, but the secret came out, anyhow."

"Just like ours about the scarecrow and the pumpkin!" laughed Bunny Brown. "Wasn't ours a good secret?"

"It certainly was!" cried Mother Brown.

That night Ben Hall said good-bye to Bunny, Sue and all the others, and went back to the real circus with Mr. Hooper.

"I wonder if we'll ever see him again?" asked Bunny, a little sadly.

"Perhaps you will," said his father.

The vacation of Bunny and Sue, on grandpa's farm was at an end. In a few days they were to go back to their home, near the ocean.

"Oh, but we have had such fun here; haven't we, Bunny?" cried Sue.

"Indeed we have," he said. "Jolly good fun!"

"I wonder what we'll do next?" Sue asked.

"I don't know," answered her brother.

But, as I happen to know, I'll tell you. Bunny and Sue went on another journey, and you may read all about it in the next book in this series, which will be named: "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Aunt Lu's City Home."

In that book I'll tell you all the funny things the little boy and girl saw, and did, when they were in the big city of New York. It was quite different from being on grandpa's farm in the country.