And he did. It was very simple. Mart simply pulled Bunny"s coat off, over the little fellow"s head, and then Bunny was small enough to slip out of the trough himself. He had so wiggled and squirmed after getting into the tin thing like a bath tub that his coat was all hunched up in bunches. This kept his shoulders from slipping out, but when the coat was off everything was all right.
"What did you get in there for?" asked Mart, when Bunny was on his feet once more.
"I was practising my act," was the answer. "I"m going to be a farmer boy in the play, and then I hide in the trough so I can scare an old tramp that comes to get a drink of water. Only there isn"t going to be any water in the trough when I do my act," said Bunny. "I wanted there to be some, but mother won"t let me."
"I guess we can do that act just as well without water as with it," said Mart with a smile. "An audience likes to see real water on the stage, but we can use some in the pump, I guess. Now then, boys and girls, are you all going to be in the new play, "Down on the Farm?""
"Yes, I am! I am! So"m I!" came the answers, and Mart laughed and put his hands over his ears.
"I guess we"ll have plenty of actors and actresses," he said. "Mr.
Treadwell will be out here this afternoon and tell you something of the little play he is going to write for you--for all of us, in fact, for my sister and I are going to be in it with you. But now suppose I tell you a little about a stage, and how to come on and go off."
"Is Bunny going to get stuck again?" asked Sue. "If he is I"m going to tell mother so she can help get him out."
"No, I won"t get in the trough again," said Bunny. "I only did it now to see if I"d fit. And I don"t--very well," he added.
Then Mart told Bunny, Sue, and the others something about how a stage in a theater is set, and something about the proper way to come on and go off. A little later Lucile also came out to the garage and she drilled the girls in a little dance they were to give.
Then the two young performers showed the others how the stage scenery was set up to look as real as possible from the front.
"Where are you going to give your play?" asked Mart, as they all sat down to rest.
"Oh, we don"t know, yet," said Bunny. "I guess we won"t have it until around Christmas, and by then my father will think up some place for us."
"Couldn"t we have it up here?" asked Sadie West. "All the scenery is here."
"Oh, there isn"t room," said Lucile. "We have to have a stage, and then there is no place up here for the audience to sit. And there isn"t any use in giving a play unless you have an audience. That"s half the fun.
What are you going to do with all the money you make, Bunny Brown?" she asked the little chap.
"Oh, I--I guess we"ll give it to mother"s Red Cross," he answered. "But first we"ve got to find out what sort of acts we can give. Our dog Splash is a good actor--he was in our circus."
"I guess Mr. Treadwell can work Splash into the play in some way," said Mart. "We"ll ask him."
That afternoon the actor gathered the children around him, out in the loft over the garage, and, by questioning them, he found out what each one could do best. Some could recite little verses, others could sing and some could dance.
"Can"t I have my trained white mice in the play?" asked Will Laydon.
"They twirl around on a wire wheel and one of "em stands up on his hind legs."
"Well, perhaps we can use them," said the actor. "Now I"ll tell you a little about the play I am going to write for you. It will be in three acts. One act will be in the meadow, as we have the scenery for that and must use what we have. Another act will be in the barnyard, and we can use as many animals there as we can get. Then we"ll have the last act in the orchard, and you children can be in swings, in the trees, or playing around."
"We"ve got only one tree and not many of us can get in that," objected Charlie Star.
"Well, perhaps I can rig up another tree--or something that will do,"
said Mr. Treadwell. "We"ll decide about that later. Now as to the play.
I thought I"d have it very simple. It"s about an old man and two children who have lived in the city all their lives. They are in the show business and they get tired of it. One day while traveling about they miss their train, and they are left in a lonely country town.
"At first they don"t like it, but when they see how quiet and peaceful it is, after the hot, noisy city, they decide to stay. They reach a farmhouse and find some children who are tired of the country and want to go to the city. The old man and the city children tell the country children about how hot it is in town, and advise them to stay in the fields and meadows.
"Then the old man and the children with him do some of the things they used to do in a city theater, and the country children do some of the things they do Friday afternoons at school. And they all have a good time. Then they hear about some poor people who live in a hospital, or some place like that, and they decide to get up a show to make money to give to the poor folks who haven"t had much joy in life. So they give a little show, make some money and all ends happily. How do you like that?"
No one spoke for a moment, and then Bunny cried:
"Why--why that"s just like you and--and us, Mr. Treadwell! It"s almost real--like it is here."
"Yes," agreed the actor, "I thought I"d make it as real as possible, and as natural. It will go better that way. Do you like it?"
"Oh, it"s lovely!" said Sue. "I hope Sadie West will speak the piece about a Dolly"s Prayer."
"Yes, she speaks that very nicely," said Mary Watson.
"Then we"ll have her do it in our little play," decided Mr. Treadwell.
"And now I"ll start to work writing the play and we can soon begin to practice."
"And we really can give the money to the Blind Home here, instead of to the Red Cross, maybe," said Bunny. "Once mother and some ladies got up an entertainment and they made "most fifty dollars for the Blind Home."
"I hope we can make as much," said Lucile. "It"s dreadful to be blind. I feel so sorry for our Uncle Bill. I wish we could find him."
"And I wish we could find Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie," added Mart. "But still we like it here," he hastened to add, lest Bunny and Sue might think he and his sister did not care for all that Mr. and Mrs. Brown had done for them.
In the week that followed Mr. Treadwell, when he was not working in Mr.
Brown"s office, keeping books, wrote away at the little play. Mart, too, when he was not busy at the dock, helping Bunker Blue, did what he could to get ready for the show. The children did not tell any one except their fathers and mothers what it was to be about.
"It must be a secret," said Bunny Brown. "Then everybody will buy a ticket to come and see it."
"But where are we going to have the show?" asked Sue of Bunny one night.
"I don"t know," Bunny answered.
"I must begin to look around for a place for you," said Mr. Brown. "I did think we could use the old moving picture theater, but that has been sold and is being torn down. But we"ll find some place. How are you coming on with the children"s play?" he asked the impersonator.
"Very well, I think," was the answer. "We"ll soon be ready for a trial, or rehearsal, as it is called. Have you heard anything about the uncle and aunt of Mart and Lucile?" he asked.
"No," replied Mr. Brown, "I haven"t. I have written several letters hoping to get some word, but I haven"t as yet. I can"t even find out where Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are. They might have found the address of the children"s Aunt Sallie and Uncle Simon. But Jackson seems to have vanished after his show failed."
"Yes, that often happens," said Mr. Treadwell.
"If we could only find our Uncle Bill he could tell us just what we want to know," said Mart. "But I don"t know where he is."
"Could he, by any chance, be in this Blind Home just outside of your town?" asked the actor.
"No, I thought of that, and inquired," said Mr. Brown. "There is no person named Clayton in the place. Well, we"ll just keep on hoping."
The weather was now getting colder. Thanksgiving came, and there were jolly good times in the Brown home. Mart and Lucile said they had never had such a happy holiday since their own folks were with them, and Mr.
Treadwell, who was invited to dinner, told such funny jokes and stories, making believe he was a colored man, or an Irishman, at times, that he had every one laughing. Bunker Blue came to dinner also, and he said he had had as much fun as if he had been to the theater.
"You"ll come to our show, won"t you, Bunker?" asked Bunny, when he could eat no more.
"Oh, sure, I"ll come!" said the fish boy. "And I"ll clap as loud as I can when you get in the water trough."