many things in this world that we don't want to. Now go and play with your dolls, or something. I think daddy will be home early to-night, on account of the storm. Then he'll tell you what's in the bundle."

"Does Sam know?" asked Bunny, as he watched the express wagon drive away.

"Perhaps he does," answered Mrs. Brown.

"Then we can ask him!" exclaimed Sue. "Come on, Bunny!"

"No, dears, you mustn't go out to the barn in this rain. You'd get all wet."

"I could put on my rubber coat," suggested Bunny.

"And so could I—and my rubber boots," said Sue.

Both children seemed to want very much to know what was in the express package. But when Mrs. Brown said they could not go out she meant it, and the more Bunny Brown and his sister Sue teased, the oftener Mrs. Brown shook her head.

"No, you can't go out and open that bundle," she said. "And if you tease much more daddy won't even tell you what's in it when he comes home. Be good children now."

Bunny and Sue did not often tease this way, for they were good children. But this day was an unpleasant, rainy one. They could not go out to have fun, because of the rain, and they had played with all their toys, getting tired of them, one after another.

"Mother, if we can't go out to the barn, could we have our dog, Splash, in here to play with us?" asked Bunny, after a while. "We could hitch him to a chair, and make believe it was an express wagon."

"Oh, yes!" cried Sue. "And you could be the driver, Bunny, and you could leave a package at my house—make believe, you know—and then I wouldn't know what was in it, and I could guess, and you could guess. We could play a guessing game; will you, Bunny?"

"Yes, I'll play that. May we have Splash in, Mother?"

"No, dear."

"Oh, why not?"

"Because I just saw Splash splashing through a puddle of muddy water. If he came in now he'd get you all dirty and he would spoil my carpet."

"But what can we do, Mother?" Sue asked, and her voice sounded almost as if she were going to cry.

"We want to do something," added Bunny.

"Oh, dear!" sighed Mrs. Brown, yet she could not help smiling. Rainy days were hard when two children had to stay in the house all the while.

"We can play 'spress wagon without Splash!" exclaimed Sue, for she was a good little girl, and did not want to make her mother worry.

"All right," agreed Bunny. "We'll just make believe we have Splash with us to pull the pretend wagon."

He and Sue often played pretend, and make-believe, games, and they had much fun this way. Now they turned one chair on the side, and put another in front. The turned-over chair was to be the wagon, and the other chair, standing on its four legs, was the horse. Bunny got some string for reins, and the stick the washerwoman used to punch the clothes down in the boiler made a good whip, when another piece of string was tied on the end of that.

"Giddap!" cried Bunny, sitting on a stool behind the chair-horse. "Giddap! This is an express wagon, and we've got to hurry."

"You must leave a package for me!" cried Sue. "This is my house, over on the couch," and she curled up in a lump. "And this is my little girl," she went on, pointing to one of her dolls, which she had taken into her "house" with her. "If I'm asleep—make-believe, you know," said Sue to Bunny, "you tell my little girl to wake me up."

"Pooh! I can't talk to a doll!" cried Bunny.

"Yes, you can, too," said his sister. "Just pretend, you know."

"Well, even if I do, how can your doll talk to you, and wake you up?"

"Oh, Bunny! I'm only going to be make-believe asleep, and of course a doll, who can pretend to talk, can make-believe wake me up as easy as anything, when I'm only make-believe asleep."

"Oh, all right, if it's only make-believe," agreed Bunny. "Giddap, Splash! I've named the make-believe chair-horse the same as our dog," he explained to Sue.

Then the game began, and the children played nicely for some time, giving Mrs. Brown a chance to finish her sewing. Bunny and Sue took turns driving the "express wagon," and they had left many pretend bundles at each other's houses, when a step was heard in the front hall, and Bunny and Sue cried:

"Daddy! Daddy! Oh, daddy's come home!"

They made a rush for their father, and both together cried out:

"Oh, Daddy, a express package came! What's in it?"

"Did a package come?" asked Mr. Brown, as he took off his wet coat, for it was still raining.

"Yep! It's out in the barn," said Bunny Brown.

"Oh, please tell us the secret!" begged Sue. "I know it must be a secret, or mother would have told us."

Mrs. Brown smiled.

"The children have teased all afternoon to know what was in the bundle," she said.

"Well, I'll tell them," said Daddy Brown. "The package, that came by express, has in it grandpa's tent."

"Grandpa's tent!" cried Bunny.

"The one we played circus in, out in the country?" Sue demanded.

"The same one," answered Daddy Brown, with a laugh.

"Oh, are we going to have another circus?" cried Bunny, joyously.

"Now sit down and I'll tell you all about it," said Daddy Brown, and he took Bunny up on one knee, and Sue on the other.

CHAPTER II

A GRAND SURPRISE

"Don't you want to have supper first?" asked Mrs. Brown, as she saw her husband sit down in the easy chair, with Bunny and Sue.

"Oh, I'm in no hurry," he said. "I came home early to-night, because there were only a few boats out, on account of the storm. I might just as well tell the children about the surprise before we eat."

"Oh, then it's a surprise!" cried Sue, clapping her hands.

"Why, yes, I rather think you'll be surprised when you hear about it," answered Daddy Brown.

"And is it a secret, too?" Bunny wanted to know.

"Well, you don't know what it is yet; do you?" inquired his father.

Bunny shook his head.

"Well, then," went on Daddy Brown with a smile, "if there is something nice you don't know, and someone is going to tell you, I guess that's a surprise; isn't it?"

"Oh, yes!" cried Sue. "And now, Daddy, don't tease us any more. Just tell us what it is? Will we like it?"

"Can we play with it?" Bunny wanted to know.

Mr. Brown laughed so hard that Sue nearly fell off one knee, and Bunny off the other.

"What is it, Daddy?" asked the little boy. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, just you—and Sue," said Mr. Brown, still shaking up and down and sideways with laughter. "You are in a great hurry to have me tell you the surprise, and yet you keep on asking questions, so I have to answer them before I tell you."

"You asted the most questions, Bunny," said Sue, shaking her finger at him.

"No, I didn't. You did!"

"Well, we'll each just ask one question," went on Sue, "and then you can tell us, Daddy. I want to try and guess what it is—I mean what the tent is for. Shall we each take one guess, Bunny?"

"Yep. You guess first, Sue. What do you say the tent is for?"

Sue thought for half a minute, shutting her brown eyes and wrinkling up her little nose. She was thinking very hard.

"I—I guess the tent is for a house for our dog Splash," she said, after a bit. "Is it, Daddy?"

"No," and Mr. Brown shook his head. "It's your turn, Bunny."

Bunny looked up at the ceiling. Then he said:

"I guess grandpa's tent is going to be for us to play in