"Do something! Quick!" begged Nan desperately.

As Bert and Harry started to run toward the house to summon their
fathers and mothers, Flossie and Freddie, tired of playing with the
little boat in the brook, came up to the apple tree. Freddie saw Nan
hanging there, some distance above the ground.

"Oh, Nan's doing circus tricks! Nan's doing circus tricks!" cried
Freddie. "Look at her, Flossie. Nan's doing circus tricks an' I want to
do 'em, too!"

"No, no, Freddie!" screamed Nan, as her little brother ran under the
limb to which she was desperately clinging. "Go away! Don't stand under
me this way! I might fall on you!"

"Oh, I'm going to get mother!" exclaimed Flossie. "She won't want you to
fall, Nan!"

"Well, I--I can't hold on much longer!" sobbed Nan.

Though if she had let go her grasp on the tree limb she would probably
not have fallen, for one foot was tangled in the swing rope. However,
hanging by one leg high in the air would not have been very pleasant.
Nan was not enough of a circus performer for that, though she and Bert
had often done "stunts" on a trapeze in the back yard at home when they
gave "shows."

However, help was on its way to Nan. The excited story told by Harry and
Bert to the two Mr. Bobbseys started both men into action. They got a