“what is it, a hen’s nest?”
“are there any eggs in it?”
“maybe it’s a groundhog!”
in turn george, harry and bunny shouted these words at charlie star when they heard him call from the old haymow that he had found something.
“if there’s eggs in the nest don’t break ’em!” called bunny. “but maybe it’s a groundhog,” he added.
“no, it isn’t eggs and it isn’t a groundhog,” said charlie. it might easily have been either one, since the hens often laid eggs in the hay, and groundhogs, or woodchucks, were plentiful in the fields about the brown home. though the boys did not see them very often, for woodchucks are shy.
the brown barn was not used now as much[77] for a stable as it had been in years past. mr. brown formerly kept a number of horses to help in the boat and fish business. but when automobiles became common he sold his horses and bought autos. he kept one horse, however, to haul the fishing boats up the beach out of the water and away from the rising tide, and this horse was kept in the barn, as was toby.
when you keep a horse you have to feed him on hay and that is why there was a mow, or place for storing hay, for the horse. there were also oat-bins and places for other fodder, though these were not as full as when a number of horses were kept.
“what’ve you found, charlie?” asked bunny, as the other boys climbed up to the haymow, which was reached by a short ladder from the main floor of the barn. “where is it?”
“i’ve found a dandy trapeze,” answered the boy. “look, it’s got ropes and a cross piece and everything! and it’s fastened up to the roof beam with iron rings, just like a regular circus.”
[78]“say, that’s a dandy!” cried george.
“one of the best i ever saw!” was harry’s opinion.
“did you put it up, bunny?” asked charlie.
“no, i didn’t even know it was there.”
“maybe bunker blue did,” suggested george.
bunny did not think this likely, for if bunker had done anything of the sort he would have told bunny and would have wanted bunny to see him perform on the swinging trapeze.
“i guess maybe it was put up before we came here,” said bunny.
but later, on asking his father about it, bunny learned that the trapeze had been put in place by a hired man who used to work for mr. brown. it was some years before and the trapeze had been forgotten.
it was in a space back of a pile of hay, and not easily seen unless one climbed in the far end of the mow, as charlie had done. the boys clustered around the swinging ropes to the ends of which a cross piece of wood was fastened, making the trapeze bar.
[79]“let me try a swing on it,” begged bunny. the other boys were moving away to give him “first whack,” for it was in bunny’s barn, when charlie cried:
“better let george swing on it first. he’s heaviest and if it holds him it will hold any of us.”
“i’m not afraid!” boasted george.
“better pull some hay under it so if the ropes break you won’t get hurt,” suggested bunny. “my father wouldn’t like it if any of you boys got hurt in our barn.”
“i guess we wouldn’t like it ourselves if we got hurt!” laughed george.
he could just reach the trapeze bar by jumping up with outstretched hands, and, once having hold of it, he boldly swung to and fro. the ropes did not break and george did not fall, somewhat to the disappointment of the other lads, who rather hoped something like this would happen.
but, as bunny said:
“if he had fallen it wouldn’t ’a’ hurt him.”
and, to speak the truth, it would not. the hay would have made a soft cushion. then,[80] to make sure it was safe, george and charlie hung on the trapeze together. the ropes held and then it was decided it would be safe for any of them to perform on it.
just as they were about to start, however, there was a whining, crying sound in the main part of the barn.
“what’s that?” cried george.
they all listened.
“i guess it’s patter,” said bunny. “we left him down below when we climbed up the ladder to come here. i’ll get him.”
leaving the other boys to play on the trapeze, bunny went back to the top of the ladder that led up to the haymow. below on the floor in the main part of the barn, was poor patter, whining and crying and whimpering because he was lonesome. he had waited some time, hoping the boys would come back to him, but when they did not he called to them in the only way dogs can talk.
“poor patter!” said bunny kindly. “do you want to come with us?”
“bow-wow!” barked patter, and he whined and whimpered again.
[81]at first bunny was going down the ladder to get his dog. but he happened to think that he could hardly climb up the ladder again and carry patter with him. then bunny had another idea.
“why can’t you climb the ladder, patter?” he asked his dog.
“bow-wow!” again barked the trick dog. this might mean that he could or couldn’t, whichever way you took it. but bunny seemed to think it meant that patter could climb up the ladder to the haymow, for bunny held his hands down invitingly and called:
“come on up, patter! come on up!”
again patter whined and cried, and then, as bunny called again, the wise dog put his two front paws on the first round of the ladder and then pulled himself up so that he could reach the second round from the floor with his front paws, and get his hind paws on the first round.
“oh, good, patter! that’s great!” shouted bunny. “you are learning another trick!”
the ladder was built straight up against[82] the side of the haymow, and did not slant out like the ladder the painter uses.
calling to his dog, and snapping his fingers, bunny urged patter to make his way slowly up the ladder. and then, with a joyful bark, the dog flung himself from the top of the ladder to the pile of hay where bunny was waiting and tried to lick his little master’s face.
from where the other boys were playing on the trapeze came a hail:
“where are you, bunny? come on, take a swing!”
“i skinned the cat on it!” boasted george.
this did not mean just what it seems to. george did not really skin a cat. but he turned himself through his arms as he hung by his hands on the trapeze bar. this is called “skinning the cat,” and i have no doubt you boys have often done it.
“come on, bunny!” cried charlie.
“i’ll be there in a minute!” bunny said, “but you ought to see what patter did just now!”
“did he find a hen’s nest and roll in the[83] eggs?” asked harry. once bunny’s other dog, splash, had done this, and when he came out he looked “just like an omelet,” bunker blue had said.
“no, patter didn’t roll in any eggs,” laughed bunny. “but he climbed up the haymow ladder to me.”
“no! did he really?” cried the boys.
“come and see!” invited bunny.
leaving the trapeze, the other boys hurried over the hay to bunny, where the little boy sat on the pile of dried fodder with patter.
“let’s see him do it!” called george.
“i’ll have to put him down on the floor again,” said bunny.
he climbed down the ladder and then called to patter. it was too much to expect the dog to go down the ladder as he had climbed up, so bunny made a pile of hay on the floor near where he stood.
“come on, patter! come on down!” called bunny.
the dog whined a little, looked about as if to find another way to join his beloved young[84] master, and then leaped down to the pile of hay. of course he wasn’t hurt.
“you stay there and i’ll call him to climb up here again,” suggested charlie.
but patter would not climb the ladder on the invitation of any of the other boys. he remained at bunny’s side.
“you’ll have to come up and call him,” said harry.
“i guess i will,” agreed bunny.
he started up the ladder, and patter whined to see him go. but bunny called back:
“you’ll soon be up with me, patter!”
when bunny reached the top of the ladder and stepped off on to the hay he leaned down and called to patter to climb up as he had done at first.
patter whined a little, but bravely started up, putting first one paw then another on the cross-pieces of the ladder. in a few minutes he was once more beside bunny on the hay.
“oh, you’re a fine dog!” cried bunny, and he hugged his pet, while the other boys patted[85] him. patter wagged his tail and seemed very glad.
“that’s a good trick—that ladder one,” said charlie.
“yes, we’ll have patter do that in the show,” said harry.
“i wonder if he just learned it, or whether that frenchman taught him?” said george.
as none of the boys could tell, they guessed at it, some of them saying bunny had really taught patter the trick, and the others thinking the frenchman must have taught the trick to the dog.
“he does it terribly naturally,” said bunny.
“it’s a good trick, all right,” declared george. “and it will work in with another i’ve just thought of. i know a dandy one we can have patter do in the show.”
“what is it?” asked bunny.
“it’s to have your dog swing on the trapeze!” cried george. “we could make a little trapeze for him, and have him get up on it by a little ladder, same as he did to-day. then he can swing and the people will clap like anything.”
[86]“dogs can’t swing on trapezes!” declared charlie.
“yes, they can, too! i’ve seen ’em in a theater!” boasted george. “all you have to do is to hang their front legs over like this,” and he pointed to the place where patter’s front legs joined his body.
“i wonder if we could do it without hurting him?” asked bunny.
“sure you can!” declared george.
“and if you can’t do it that way i know another,” said charlie.
“how?” chorused the other boys.
“we can tie a piece of leather to the bar of the trapeze and have patter hold it in his teeth,” said charlie. “dogs have got an awful strong grip in their teeth. patter can hold on by his teeth to the trapeze.”
“both ways are good. we’ll try both ways,” decided bunny.
while the boys were getting ready to put the trick dog on the trapeze, a voice was heard calling in the main part of the barn:
“bunny! bunny! where are you?”
“it’s sue,” said her brother.
[87]“where are you, bunny?” went on sue. “don’t you hide away from me now!” she went on. “mother said you were out here and she said i could play with you. where are you?”
“up in the haymow,” answered bunny. “you can climb up, sue.”
when sue saw her brother and the other boys with the dog and the trapeze, she wanted to know what it was all about, so they told her.
“oh, it’ll be fun if patter swings on a trapeze in the show!” cried sue, clapping her hands.
then the boys tried different ways of having patter hang to and swing from the trapeze. they were so busy at this that they forgot about bunny’s little sister. they did not think of her again until a little later that afternoon when mrs. brown came out to the barn and called:
“bunny, are you there?”
“yes’m, i’m here,” was the answer.
“is sue with you?”
bunny and his chums looked around the haymow. sue was not in sight.
[88]“no’m, mother, sue isn’t here,” said bunny.
“that’s strange,” said mrs. brown. “i sent her out to play with you.”
“i know it, mother. and she came. but she isn’t here now,” said bunny.
“sue! sue! where are you?” called mrs. brown.
but there was no answer.
where could sue be?
