Bunny and Sue went out of the barn, and walked around to the shady side.  It was only a little while after breakfast, hardly time to go in and ask for something more to eat, which the children did every day about ten o’clock.  At that hour Grandma Brown generally had some bread and jam, or jelly tarts, ready for them.

“What can we do until jam-time?” asked Sue, of her brother.

“I don’t know,” he answered.  “It’s pretty hot.”

There was nothing more they could do about the circus just then.  Bunker and Ben were to make some more trapezes, put other things in the barn, and make the seats.  Several other boys and girls had been asked to take part in the “show,” but they were not yet sure that their mothers and fathers would let them.

So, for a few days, Bunny and Sue could do no more about the circus.

“But we ought to do something,” said Bunny.  “It’s so hot—­”

That gave Sue an idea.

“We could go paddling in the brook, and get our feet cooled off,” said Bunny’s sister.

“Yes, but we wouldn’t be back here in time to get our bread and jam.”

“That’s so,” Sue agreed.

It would never do to miss “jam-time.”

“My doll must be hot, too,” Sue went on.  “I wonder if we could give her a bath?”

“How?” Bunny wanted to know.

“Why, down in the well,” suddenly cried Sue.  “We could tie a string around her, and let her down in the well water.  That would give her a bath.  She’s a rubber doll, and a bath won’t hurt her.  It will do her good.”

“We’ll do it!” cried Bunny.

The well was not far from the house.  A little later, with a string he had taken from his kite, Bunny was helping Sue lower her rubber doll down the big hole, at the bottom of which was the cool water that was pulled up in a bucket.

“Splash!” went the doll down in the well.  By leaning over the edge of the wooden box that was built around the water-place, Bunny and Sue could see the rubber doll splashing up and down in the water far below them.

“Oh, she likes it!  She likes it!” cried Sue, jumping up and down in delight.  “Doesn’t she just love it, Bunny?”

“I guess so,” her brother answered.  “But she can’t talk and tell us so, of course.”

“Course not!” Sue exclaimed.  “My dolls can’t talk, ‘ceptin’ my phonograph one, and she says ‘Mamma’ and ‘Papa,’ only now she’s broken, inside, and she can’t do nothin’ but make a buzzin’ sound, but I like her just the same.”

“But if a doll can’t talk, how do you know when she likes anything?” asked Bunny.

“Why, I—­I just know—­that’s all,” Sue answered.

“All right,” agreed Bunny.  “Now it’s my turn to pull her up and down, Sue.”

There was a long string tied around the doll, and the two children were taking turns raising and lowering Sue’s play-baby, so the rubber doll would splash up and down in the water.