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"I—I can't!" answered the Live Rabbit. "I seem to be stuck half way! If one of you would be so kind as to give me a push, or a pull, I might finish my somersault. Come on, help me!"
"I'll help you," kindly said the Monkey. He took hold of the Live Rabbit's hind legs and gave him a push. Over went Jack Hare, finishing his somersault, though not doing it very well.
The Live Rabbit thanked the Monkey on a Stick for what he had done and then said:
"Since you have come to our meadow would you not like to visit my house?"
"Where do you live?" asked the Monkey.
"In a burrow, or underground house, called a cave," answered the Rabbit. "Perhaps you may not like it, but we Bunnies think it rather nice. Will you come to my cave, and visit the other Rabbits?"
"I should love to," said the Monkey. "But you see I belong to a little boy named Herbert. He got me for a birthday present, and he and Dick tied me on the dog's back. I fell off and the two boys may come back here to look for me. If I should go to your cave they might come here, and, not finding me, might think I had left them forever. I like Herbert, and as his friends have some of the other toys with whom I used to live in the store, I want to stay with him."
"That is easily managed," said the Grasshopper. "You go and visit Jack Hare's cave, Mr. Monkey. Miss Cricket and I will stay here, and if we see the boys and the dog coming back, looking for you, we'll hop over and tell you."
So it was planned that the Monkey should visit the Rabbit's cave, and if by any chance, Herbert and Dick came back, the Grasshopper and Cricket would bring word to the Monkey, who could quickly hop back.
"Come along, Mr. Monkey," called the Rabbit, and soon the two new friends were jumping through the grass together. The Monkey was off his stick, and so he could get along quite well, though not quite so fast as Jack Hare. But the Rabbit took short jumps and did not get too far ahead, waiting for the Monkey to catch up to him.
"Here we are at my cave," said Jack Hare at length, stopping in front of a hole in the ground.
"Oh, so this is where you live, is it?" asked the Monkey. He had hopped across the green meadow through the grass after his new friend.
"Yes, we'll go down in now, and meet Mrs. Hare and the children," went on the Live Rabbit. "Mind your step, and don't fall. It's rather steep until you get inside."
"And it's dark, too," said the Monkey, following the Rabbit down the hole into the ground. "How in the world do you see?"
"Oh, I forgot you aren't like us animals, and can not see quite so well in the dark," said the Live Rabbit. "Just a moment, I'll turn on the lamps."
He stopped and gave three thumps with, his feet on the earthen sides of the cave. Instantly a soft glow shone all around, and the Monkey could see very well indeed.
"Do you have electric lights?" he asked in surprise.
"No. These are lightning bugs," was the Rabbit's answer. "I keep them to make the place bright when strangers come. We Rabbits don't need light ourselves, for we can see in the dark."
"Some of the toys can, also," said the Monkey. "But I am not very good at that sort of thing yet. I like light. We had gas and electricity at the toy store."
The Monkey followed the Live Rabbit on down through the winding burrow. It twisted and turned, this way and that, now to the right and now to the left. Here and there, clinging to the earthen sides, were lightning bugs, which made the place so bright that the Monkey did not stumble once.
"But why does it twist and turn so, like a corkscrew?" the Monkey asked the Rabbit.
"We always build our burrow caves like this, to keep out dogs and other enemies," was the reply. "My real home is still a little farther on. We'll be there in a moment."
The Monkey followed on, and soon came to a place where, seated about a table made from a piece of a flat stump, were several little Rabbit children and a lady Rabbit.
"This is my family," said the Live Rabbit. "Mrs. Hare, allow me to present Mr. Monkey on a Stick, who has come to pay us a visit."
"Pleased to meet you," said Mrs. Rabbit, bowing low.
"Hi, Daddy!" called one of the little Rabbits, "where's his stick?"
CHAPTER VII
OUT IN THE RAIN
"Please excuse little Johnnie Hare," said Mrs. Hare to the Monkey. "He didn't mean to be impolite, asking for your stick."
"Oh, I know," said the Monkey. "He's just like all children—they just ask what they want to know about. And I suppose it does seem funny to be a Monkey on a Stick and then not have your stick with you. But I can tell you where my stick is, Johnnie," said the Monkey to the little Rabbit chap, and then he related his adventure on Carlo's back.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" said all the other little Rabbits, opening wide their eyes when they heard this story. "Tell us another, please!"
"We are just going to have dinner," said Mrs. Hare. "Won't you sit down, Mr. Monkey on a Stick, and take something? We have some nice carrots and turnips."
"Thank you, I'll take a little," said the Monkey.
A little chair, made from a piece of wood gnawed out by Mr. Jack Hare, was brought up for the Monkey to sit on, and then the Rabbit family and the visitor gathered around the table and began eating. I can not say that the little Rabbit children ate much, for they turned around so often to look at Mr. Monkey, that, half the time, they missed putting things in their mouths and dropped them on the table.
But no one minded this, and every one laughed, so there was a most jolly good time. The lightning bugs kept on glowing, so it was not at all dark in the cave, though it would have been only for these fireflies. Mr. and Mrs. Hare had many questions to ask Mr. Monkey on a Stick about his adventures, and he told them of the Calico Clown, the Sawdust Doll and others from the toy store, including the Candy Rabbit.
"Just fancy!" exclaimed Mrs. Hare. "A Rabbit made of candy! I'm glad you're not that kind, Jack."
"So am I," said her husband. "I'd be afraid, every time I jumped, that I'd break a leg or an ear, if I were made of candy."
"Now I must show you our cave house," said Mrs. Hare, when the meal was finished. "We think it is very nice."
"I'm sure it is," returned the Monkey.
So he was taken about, and he looked at the different burrows, or rooms, in the cave house of Mr. Jack Hare. There were rooms for the children Rabbits and rooms for Mr. and Mrs. Hare. In each room were lightning bugs to give light, though as Mr. Hare said, they were needed only when company came that could not see well in the dark.
"We put out every light when Mr. Mole comes," said Mrs. Hare.
"Why is that?" asked the Monkey.
"Because he has no eyes, and doesn't need to see," was the answer. "He just feels and noses his way around. All darkness is the same to him."
"Dear me! Well, I like a little light," said the Monkey. "But I think now, since I have been here quite a while, that I had better go back. Herbert and Dick might be walking over the meadow, looking for me, for they know which way Carlo ran, with me on his back, and they often find things that are lost—those boys do."
"Oh, stay just a little longer," urged Mrs. Hare.
"And tell us another story!" begged Johnnie Hare.
"Well, I will," said the Monkey, and he did. He told about some of the funny things that had happened in the toy store—things I have told you children about in the other books. And the bunny boys and girls liked the story told by the Monkey on a Stick very much indeed.
The Monkey enjoyed himself so much in the cave house of Mr. Jack Hare that he stayed longer than he intended. It was along in the middle of the afternoon before he came out, and as the Monkey and Mr. Hare reached the outer opening of the burrow the rabbit gentleman knocked on the ground three times with his hind feet.
"What's that for?" asked the Monkey.
"To turn off the lightning bugs," was the answer. "No use burning lights when no one needs them. I'll turn them on if you call again."
"Thank you, I shall be glad to pay you another visit," said the Monkey. "But just now I feel that I must get back to where you first saw me. I want to ask the Grasshopper or Miss Cricket if they have seen the boys or the dog."
"Well, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll not go back with you," said the Rabbit. "I am not fond of dogs, and they are altogether too fond of me. Good-bye!"
Then he hopped away, waving his paw at the Monkey, and the Monkey jumped through the grass to the place where he had fallen from the dog's back.
There he found Mr. Grasshopper and Miss Cricket. They were eating some of the green things that grew all around them.
"Have you seen anything of my friends?" asked the Monkey, as he hopped up and sat on the hummock of grass where he had been resting after cutting up his Monkeyshines.
"No, neither the boys nor the dog have been here," said the Grasshopper.
"But I heard a dog barking," said Miss Cricket. "It may have been the Carlo you spoke about."
"And I heard some boys talking," went on the Grasshopper. "They may have been Dick and Herbert. But they did not come here. Why don't you jump along until you find them?"
"Yes, I suppose I could do that," agreed the Monkey. "But I'll wait a little while, and, if they don't come for me, I'll see if I can find them. As soon as I see them, though, I shall have to stop, and not move. We toys are not allowed to move or talk as long as human eyes see us."
"That's a funny rule," said Miss Cricket. "But then you are a funny fellow, Mr. Monkey on a Stick."
"If you think I'm funny, you ought to see my friend, the Calico Clown," said the Monkey. "He's full of jokes and riddles. He has a queer one about a pig making a noise under a gate."
"My goodness! why did he do that?" asked the Grasshopper.
"Do what?" inquired the Monkey.
"Why did the pig make a noise under the gate?" the Grasshopper wanted to know. "Why couldn't he stay in his pen where he belonged, or in the barnyard?"
"That's what the riddle's about, I suppose," said the Monkey. "Anyhow, none of us can answer, and the Clown's always asking it. If you want to see some one really funny, meet the Calico Clown."
After a little more talk among the three friends, the Monkey said he thought he would hop along and see if he could find the two boys or the dog.
"Aren't you afraid, if you find the dog alone, he may bite you?" asked the Grasshopper.
"Oh, my, no!" exclaimed the Monkey. "Carlo is a friend of mine. If he found me he would take me home to Herbert's house. I had even rather find him than the boys, for I can talk to the dog, and I can't talk to Dick and Herbert."
"Well, we wish you luck," chirped the Cricket, and the Grasshopper did also.
Away hopped the Monkey, making his journey through the tall grass of the green meadow. The grass was rather high, and he could not see very well. But he looked the best he could on every side, and, every now and then, he stopped to listen.
He wanted to hear the barking of Carlo or the shouts of Dick and Herbert, who, as he guessed, were, even then, looking for him. But the boys looked in the wrong place, and, as it happened, the Monkey jumped in the wrong direction.
The only creatures the Monkey met were bugs and beetles, butterflies and birds, grasshoppers and crickets in the grass. They all spoke to him kindly, and though some of them said they had seen or heard the boys and the dog, none seemed able to tell the Monkey how to find his friends.
"And it is getting late, too," said the Monkey to himself, as he looked up at the sky. "Soon the sun will set, and it will be dark. And then it will be so much the harder for me to find Dick and Herbert and Carlo, or for them to find me. Well, I suppose I must make the best of it."
He was a plucky Monkey chap, almost as adventurous as the Bold Tin Soldier, and he kept jumping on through the tall grass of the meadow. All at once, as he skipped along, being able to move quite fast now that he was off his stick, the Monkey stumbled over a stone and fell flat down.
"Ouch!" he cried, as he picked himself up. "I hope I haven't broken anything."
Very luckily he had not. He was as good as ever, except that his plush fur was rumpled a bit. But he soon brushed himself smooth again, and he was about to hop on, when, all at once, he felt a splash of water on his head.
"Dear me! is some one squirting water at me from a toy rubber ball or a water pistol?" exclaimed the Monkey.
More drops splashed down, dozens and dozens of them. Then the Monkey looked up and cried:
"Oh, it's raining! It's pouring! I'll be soaking wet! I'll be drowned out in the rain without an umbrella or rubbers! Oh, my!"
And the rain came down harder and harder and harder.
CHAPTER VIII
HERBERT FINDS THE MONKEY
Poor Monkey on a Stick! Oh, I forgot! He wasn't on a stick now, was he? Herbert had the stick, and it was just as well he had, for the Monkey, being rid of it, could hop around better.
"And I need to hop around a lot, to keep out of the wet," said the Monkey to himself, after he had come from the Rabbit's cave and had been caught in the rain.
Harder and harder the big drops came pelting down. At first the Monkey tried to keep dry by crawling under the grass. But, thick and tall as it was, it was not like an umbrella, and the drops came through. Soon the Monkey was very wet.
"I know I'll catch cold!" he said sorrowfully. "I'll get the snuffles! I'm not used to being soaked like this."
And, truly, he was not. Since he had been made at the workshop of Santa Claus, the Monkey had never been out in a rain storm. He had always been either in the toy factory, the department store, or in some house, and when he was taken from one place to another he was always well wrapped up, so it did not matter whether there was snow or rain.
But now it was different. The Monkey was getting wetter and wetter each minute.
"It's the first time I've been in so much water since the janitor's little girl tried to wash the ink spot off the end of my tail," the Monkey said.
Just then he heard a voice calling:
"Come over here, Mr. Monkey! Over this way, and you can stand under this big leaf, which is like an umbrella!"
"Hello! Who are you?" asked the Monkey, looking around, but seeing no one. By this time he had crossed the green meadow and was near a little clump of trees.
"I am Jack in the Pulpit," was the answer. "I live on the edge of the woods. There are big fern leaves here under which you can be safe from the rain. Hop over!"
So the Monkey hopped through the wet grass until he came close to the trees in the woods. Then the voice called again:
"Straight ahead now, and you'll see me!"
The Monkey looked, and saw a queer little thin green chap, standing up in the middle of a sort of brown, striped leaf that curled over his head, just as in some churches the pulpit curls down over the preacher's head.
"Who did you say you were?" asked the Monkey.
"I am Jack in the Pulpit," was the answer. "Some folks call me a plant, and others a flower. They don't know I am really alive, and can come to life as you toys do. I saw you getting wet, so I called to you. Get under one of these big, broad fern leaves, and it will keep the rain off as well as an umbrella."
Jack in the Pulpit nodded toward a big fern leaf near where he himself was growing, and in an instant the Monkey had crawled under this shelter. Truly enough it kept off the rain, the drops pattering down on the leaf over the Monkey's head as they used to patter on the roof of the toy store. No longer was he out in the rain.
"Thank you for telling me how to keep out of the wet," said the Monkey to Jack in the Pulpit.
"Oh, you are very welcome," was the answer. "And now please tell me about yourself and whether you have had any adventures. I love to hear about adventures."
So the Monkey told all about himself, even down to the time when he fell off Carlo's back and visited the cave of Jack Hare.
"And I suppose Herbert is looking for me now," said the Monkey.
"Oh, I hardly think he would be looking for you in all this rain," said Jack in the Pulpit. "Besides it will soon be night. You had better make up your mind to stay here until morning. Then the sun will be shining and you can hop back to the place where you fell off the dog's back. Then Herbert and Dick may come along and find you."
"That's what I'll do," said the Monkey.
Just as the Jack had said it would, it soon became dark, and it kept on raining. But the Monkey curled up under the big fern leaf, where it was nice and dry. Soon the Monkey began to feel warm and sleepy, and, before he knew it, he was fast asleep.
In the morning the rain had stopped. The sun came out bright and warm and dried up the damp grass. Jack in the Pulpit awoke, and, looking over toward the Monkey, fast asleep under the broad leaf, called:
"Hi, there, Mr. Monkey! It's morning! Now maybe you can find Herbert, or he can find you!"
"Dear me! Morning so soon?" exclaimed the Monkey, stretching out his legs. "I must have slept very soundly."
"Did you dream any?" asked the Jack.
"Not that I remember," was the answer. "But I am glad the rain has stopped. Now I'll hop over the meadow, back to the place where I fell off Carlo's back, and I'll wait there until Herbert comes for me, as I am sure he will."
"I shall be sorry to see you go," said Jack, "but I suppose it has to be. If you ever get back this way again, stop and see me."
The Monkey said he would and then, smoothing down his plush, he sat out in the sun awhile to get a little dryer and warmer. He looked at the end of his tail.
"The ink is almost washed off," he said. "I am glad of that."
Then he began to hop across the field, making his way through the tall grass. He thought he would know it when he came to the place where the string had come loose, and where he had fallen from Carlo's back, but the grass looked so much alike all over that the Monkey was beginning to think he might be lost in it.
All at once, however, he heard a voice saying:
"Well, you've come back, have you?"
The Monkey looked around, and there sat his friend Mr. Grasshopper, and near him was Miss Cricket.
"Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" cried the Monkey. "I was looking for the place I first met you—the place where I fell off the dog's back."
"It is right here," said the Grasshopper. "This is where I first noticed you. And there is the hummock of grass you sat on."
Then the Monkey knew he was back at the place he wished to reach. He sat down and talked with the Grasshopper and the Cricket, telling them of his visit to Jack Hare's cave, and also how he had slept all night under a leaf near Jack in the Pulpit.
"Hark!" suddenly called the Grasshopper.
"What's the matter?" asked the Monkey.
"I think you are going to get your wish," was the Grasshopper's answer. "I hear boys talking and a dog barking. We had better be going, Miss Cricket. Good-bye, Mr. Monkey on a Stick!"
"Good-bye," called the Cricket.
With that they hopped away. The Monkey listened, and, surely enough, he heard the barking of a dog and the talking of two boys.
"It was right about here he must have fallen off," said one boy.
"It might have been farther on," said another boy.
And just then the grass began to wave from side to side, and through it came bursting Carlo, the little dog! At once he saw the Monkey.
"Bow wow! Oh, here you are!" barked Carlo. "I thought I should find you."
"I'm glad you did," said the Monkey. Then the two friends had no further chance to talk, for Dick and his chum came running along when they heard the dog bark.
"Oh, here he is!" cried Herbert. "I've found my lost Monkey. Now I'm going to put him back on his stick!"
CHAPTER IX
MONKEY IN A TENT
Herbert and Dick, with Carlo the dog, had searched through the meadow all the afternoon, to find the Monkey, but they did not find him. At night the two boys had gone to their homes, and Herbert felt sad at losing his toy.
"Never mind," said Madeline, as she let Herbert hold her Candy Rabbit, "to-morrow I'll help you look for your Monkey. Maybe he's hiding down in the tall grass, as Dorothy's Sawdust Doll once did."
"Maybe," said Herbert hopefully. But still he felt sad.
The next day he and Dick and Carlo again went to the meadow. They looked all around, and at last they found the Monkey, as I have told you.
Of course neither of the boys knew what an adventure the Monkey had had, nor how he had gone to visit Jack Hare in the cave, and had seen the little Rabbits. Nor did they know how he had become dried out by sleeping under the fern leaf.
"Well, now we'll have some fun, as long as I have my Monkey back," said Herbert, and he and Dick, followed by the dog, went back across the meadow.
"What are you going to do?" asked Dick.
"Put up a tent and have a show," Herbert answered. "You can bring your White Rocking Horse, and Arnold can bring his Bold Tin Soldier. If Dorothy wants to, she can bring her Sawdust Doll, Mirabell can bring her Lamb of Wheels, and my sister Madeline can bring her Candy Rabbit."
"That'll be a fine show!" cried Dick.
The two little boys hurried back to Herbert's house, and told his mother what they were going to do. Herbert showed his mother the Monkey he had found in the meadow, and Dick hurried over to his house to get his Rocking Horse, and to tell his sister about the show.
"What can I make a tent of?" asked Herbert.
"Oh, I think I can let you take some old sheets," said his mother, "and you can hang them over the clothesline in the yard. That will make a nice little tent for your show."
"Yes, that will be fine," said Herbert. "Thank you, Mother."
He carried his Monkey into the house and put him on a table, where Madeline was sitting, playing with her Candy Rabbit.
"Watch my Monkey so he doesn't jump away, will you, please?" asked Herbert of his sister, laughing and pretending his toy was alive.
"What are you going to do?" asked Madeline.
"Make a tent to have a show," answered her brother.
"Oh, let me help!" she cried, and she set her Candy Rabbit down on the table near the Monkey and ran out with Herbert. Mother gave the children the sheet, and in a little while the sheet tent was being put up in the yard over the clothesline.
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As soon as the Candy Rabbit and Monkey found themselves alone they looked at one another and began to talk, as they were allowed to do.
"Where in the world have you been?" asked the Candy Rabbit.
"You may well ask that," replied the Monkey. "I have had so many adventures, and I met some friends of yours."
"Friends of mine?" repeated the Candy Rabbit. "Do you mean the Lamb on Wheels or the Bold Tin Soldier?"
"Neither one. I mean Live Rabbits," answered the Monkey. Then he told of going to the cave of Jack Hare and of being caught in the rain storm.
"Oh, what wonderful adventures!" exclaimed the Candy Rabbit.
"What happened to you while I was away?" asked the Monkey.
"Oh, many things," answered the Candy Rabbit. "Once Madeline left me alone, and the cat came in and began to lick the sugar off my pink nose. Another time a little mouse came out of a hole in the closet where I am kept at night, and nibbled a few crumbs of sweetness off the end of my stubby tail."
"Gracious!" cried the Monkey. "Weren't you scared?"
"A little," answered the Rabbit. "But I jumped to one side, and when Madeline opened the closet door the mouse ran away."
All the while the Monkey and Candy Rabbit were talking, Herbert, Dick and Arnold, with Madeline, Dorothy and Mirabell to help, were putting up the sheet tent in Herbert's yard. The clothesline was pulled tight between two posts and the sheets put over the line. The edges were fastened to the ground with wooden rings, and then some pieces of cloth were pinned to the back of the sheet to close that end. It took two or three days to make the tent, but at last it was finished.
"We'll leave one end open for the front door," said Herbert.
"But if we do that everybody can look in and see our show for nothing," objected Dick. "That isn't right. They ought to give one pin, or two pins, to come to see our show."
"We can pin some pieces of cloth at the front end of the tent," suggested Mirabell. "I have an old shawl over at my house that Mother lets me spread on the grass when I play with my Lamb on Wheels. I'll get that to close the front of the tent."
The old shawl was just what was needed to make a front "door" for the show tent, and soon it was pinned in place. Some old boxes were found by Patrick, the kind gardener, and these were to be used for seats.
"Now we'd better all go and get our things that are going to be in the show," said Herbert. "I'll bring out my Monkey."
"And I'll get my Candy Rabbit," offered Madeline.
"I'll have to have somebody help me carry over my Tin Soldier Captain and all the men," said Arnold. "I don't want to drop any of 'em."
"I'll help you, as soon as I bring out my Monkey," offered Herbert.
"And I'd like somebody to help me carry over my Lamb," said Mirabell.
"I'll help you," said Dick. "I'll bring over my White Rocking Horse and your Lamb, Mirabell."
So, as it happened, Herbert's Monkey and Madeline's Candy Rabbit were the first of the toy friends to be brought into the tent. The Monkey was on his stick, as Herbert was going to make him do tricks by climbing up to the top of it, and turning somersaults, as it was intended for the Monkey to do.
"Do you think my Rabbit and your Monkey will be all right if we leave them here alone in the tent?" asked Madeline, as the toys were put down on one of the boxes, and she and her brother started to help the other children carry in their things.
"Oh yes, they'll be all right," said Herbert.
But he and Madeline had not been very long away, and the Monkey and Candy Rabbit had not been very long alone in the tent, before something happened.
All at once, just as the Monkey was thinking of asking the Candy Rabbit what tricks that sweet chap was going to do in the show, a loud noise was heard in the tent.
"Baa-a-a-a-!" was what the Rabbit and the Monkey heard.
"Was that you?" asked the Monkey of the Rabbit.
"I was just going to ask if you had called," said the Rabbit.
"Baa-a-a-a-a!" came again.
"It sounds like the Lamb on Wheels," said the Candy Rabbit.
"Oh, it can't be," said the Monkey. "She'd come in to see us. Who do you suppose it is?"
"Baa-a-a-a-a!" sounded again, and then a funny black nose, followed by a head with curving horns on it, was thrust into the tent.
"This isn't the Lamb!" cried the Monkey.
"Indeed I'm not a Lamb!" was the answer. "I'm a Billy Goat! Baa-a! Baa-a-a-a! What's going on here?" he bleated.
"We're going to have a show," said the Monkey. "I am going to be in it, and so is the Candy Rabbit."
"Oh, no, the Candy Rabbit isn't!" said the Goat. "He isn't going to be in the show. He's going to be in me, for I am going to eat him! I am very fond of candy, and I've been looking for some for a long time. I wondered what was in this tent, and now I know. I saw it from over in the vacant lots where I live. Then I came over to peep in, when I saw that the boys and girls had gone. Yes, indeed! I like sugar, and I'm going to eat the Candy Rabbit!"
The bad Goat, with his sharp horns, walked into the tent and over toward the box on which the Candy Rabbit sat near the Monkey on a Stick.
"Oh, yum-yum! How I love candy!" bleated the goat, wiggling his whiskers and smacking his lips. "How I love sugar! I'm going to nibble some sweetness off the ears of the Candy Rabbit."
"Oh, no you're not!" suddenly cried the Monkey.
"Why not? Who will stop me?" asked the bad Goat, stamping his foot.
"I will!" cried the brave Monkey on a Stick. "Here! You get out of this tent!" and the Monkey stood straight up on his stick and looked with both eyes at the goat.
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CHAPTER X
MONKEY IN A SHOW
The bad Goat walked closer and closer to the Candy Rabbit. And that poor Bunny toy was so frightened that he did not think of jumping out of the way.
"I'm going to get sweetness off your ears," said the Goat, teasing.
"Oh, if you bite my ears I can't be in the show!" said the poor Rabbit.
The Monkey climbed higher and higher on his stick, after he had said he would stop the Goat from eating the Candy Rabbit. And now, just as the Goat was going to take the Bunny up from the box, the Monkey suddenly gave a jump! Oh, such a jump!
Off his stick he jumped, and he landed right on the Goat's back. With his hands the Monkey began to pull the Goat's hair.
He even reached around and pulled the Goat's whiskers, the Monkey did.
"Baa-a-a-a-a!" bleated the Goat. "Stop, Monkey! You're hurting me! You're pulling my hair!"
"Then get out of this tent and leave the Candy Rabbit alone!" shouted the Monkey.
"No! I want sweet stuff!" bleated the bad Goat.
Then the Monkey jumped off the Goat's back, and, catching up the stick, on which he climbed to the top when the string was pulled, the Monkey began hitting the Goat over the nose with it.
"Oh, my nose! My soft and tender nose!" bleated the Goat, as he ran out of the tent.
"Thank you, so much, for saving me," said the Rabbit to the Monkey, as the likely chap climbed back on his stick.
"I am very glad I could help you," said the Monkey. "I guess that Goat won't come back in a hurry!"
And as the Groat ran out of the tent, the children, bringing up their other toys to have the show, saw him.
"Oh, look at the big sheep!" cried Madeline.
"That isn't a sheep, it's a goat," said her brother.
"Oh, maybe he ate my Candy Rabbit!" cried the little girl. "I must go and look."
She and the other children hurried into the tent. There were the Monkey and the Rabbit safe together. But the children did not know what a narrow escape the Rabbit had had.
By this time Arnold, with the help of the other boys, had brought over his Bold Tin Soldier and the other men in the army company; Dick had brought his White Rocking Horse; and Dorothy's Sawdust Doll and Mirabell's Lamb on Wheels were also in the tent. Of course Herbert's Monkey and Madeline's Candy Rabbit were the first to be in the show.
"Now the performance is going to start!" cried Herbert, when the brothers and sisters were seated on the benches, which were made from the boxes Patrick, the gardener, had given Dick. "The show is going to start! All ready!"
Besides the six children mentioned there were others who lived on the same street with these six friends. These children had all come to the show. The boys and girls brought two pins to get in. Those who brought toy animals to act in the show did not have to bring any pins to come in.
"The first act in the show!" called Herbert, who was the ringmaster, "will be Mr. Dick riding on his White Rocking Horse! Ladies and Gentlemen, see Mr. Dick!"
"Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!" cried the children, clapping their hands.
Dick drew his horse out into the middle of the tent. Of course if the Rocking Horse had been there alone he could have trotted out by himself. But, as it was, Dick had to drag him.
Then Dick climbed on the back of his white steed, took hold of the reins, and cried: "Gid-dap!"
Back and forth rocked Dick on his Horse, and, as I have told you in the book about this toy, the Horse could move along whenever any one was on his back. He moved just as a rocking chair moves.
Across the middle of the tent rode Dick on his Rocking Horse. The little chap pretended he was a cowboy, and swung his cap around his head, and he even made believe lasso wild bulls with a piece of clothesline.
"Bang! Bang!" cried Dick, shooting make-believe pistols the way real cowboys do.
"Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!" cried all the children, for they liked to see Dick ride the White Rocking Horse.
"What's next, Herbert?" asked Madeline.
"Hush, you mustn't talk in the show," cautioned her brother. "The ringmaster is the only one who can talk, and I'm him. The next part of the show is the dance of the Sawdust Doll."
This was Dorothy's chance, and she came out with her toy. And then and there the Sawdust Doll did a funny little dance while Mirabell played on a mouth organ. Of course Dorothy had to hold the Doll and dance around with her, but it was as good as if the Doll had done it herself, and the boys and girls clapped their hands.
"Isn't this a wonderful show?" whispered the Sawdust Doll to the Monkey, when she had a chance, as the children crowded down to one end of the tent to get some cookies Herbert's mother brought out to them.
"Yes, you did your part very well," whispered back the Monkey. "Do you think I shall get a chance to do any of my tricks?"
"Oh, yes," answered the Doll. "I'm sure you're going to be the best part of the show."
When the cookies were eaten, Herbert again took the part of ringmaster.
"The next thing in the show will be a fight with the Tin Soldiers," said Herbert. "Mr. Dick will take half of them and Mr. Arnold will take the other half, and there will be a battle right here in the tent."
Dick and Arnold divided the Tin Soldiers between them, and set them in two armies on one of the big box tops. Then the tin fighters were moved backward and forward, just as in real battle.
"Bang! Bang!" Arnold would shout. "Bang! Bang!" Dick would answer, and so the make-believe guns were fired. The Bold Tin Soldier Captain was moved to and fro, and so were the privates, the Corporal and the Sergeant.
"Now the fight is over," said Herbert, after a while. "We'll make believe both sides won, 'cause it will be nicer that way. And you can take the soldiers away, Arnold, 'cause next is going to be a race between the Candy Rabbit and the Lamb on Wheels."
"Oh, my Rabbit can't race with the Lamb!" objected Madeline. "The Lamb is too big."
"Yes, I guess that's so," admitted her brother. "Well, then the next part of the show," he cried in a loud voice, "will be when the Candy Rabbit rides around the ring on the back of the Lamb on Wheels."
"Oh, that will be nice," said Mirabell, blowing a kiss to her woolly Lamb.
The two girls left their seats and took their places in the middle of the tent. Mirabell tied a string to her Lamb and then Madeline took her Candy Rabbit and held him on the fleecy back of the Lamb.
Around and around the little grass ring in the tent rode the Candy Rabbit on the back of the Lamb, and the boys and girls thought it was a very nice part of the show. One of the Lamb's wheels squeaked a little where she had caught rheumatism after her ride down the brook.
"And now we come to the last act!" said Herbert. "This will be some tricks by my Monkey on a Stick."
"I'm glad my chance has come at last," thought the Monkey to himself. "I must do my best!"
The Monkey had got back on his stick himself after he had driven the Goat out of the tent, and now the funny chap was all ready to do whatever Herbert wanted.
"The first trick," said the little boy ringmaster, "will be turning a front somersault!"
He pulled the string, up the stick went the Monkey, and then and there, before the crowd of boys and girls in the tent, the lively fellow turned a somersault head over tail.
"Hurray! Hurray!" cried Dick and the others, clapping their hands.
"The next trick," went on Herbert, "will be when my Monkey turns a back somersault."
Once more the string was pulled. Up the stick shinned the Monkey, and, when he reached the top, he turned a back somersault. Of course this was harder than a front one, and the boys and girls clapped all the more.
"And now, Ladies and Gentlemen!" cried Herbert, just like a real ringmaster in a real circus, "the next trick will be when my Monkey does a flip-flap-flop!"
And, indeed, that was a very hard trick to do. But the Monkey did it when Herbert pulled the string, and all the boys and girls said it was fine, and that the show was one grand affair.
The Monkey did several other tricks, and then Herbert's mother, outside the tent, called, just like a circus vendor:
"Here's your pink lemonade! Here's your pink lemonade!"
And, as true as I'm telling you, she had made a big pitcher of sweet lemonade for the children, and had colored it pink with strawberry juice.
"Oh! Ah! Um!" said the boys and girls, and, really, I think the lemonade was almost as good a part of the show as the tricks of the Monkey, the fight of the Tin Soldiers, or the dance of the Sawdust Doll.
"Well, the show is over. I wonder what will happen next," said the Lamb on Wheels to the Bold Tin Captain.
"Maybe the children will have another," said the Monkey. "But, while we have the chance, I would like to talk to my friends the Sawdust Doll, the Bold Tin Soldier, the White Rocking Horse, and all the others."
And so the toys talked among themselves, and told of their different adventures, just as I have told you in the different books. And they all said the Monkey was very brave to have driven away the bad Goat as he had done.
"I'd like to know what the Calico Clown is doing all this time, since we came away from the toy store," said the Monkey, after a while.
"So would I," put in the Sawdust Doll. "I wonder if anything has happened to him."
And as perhaps you children are wondering the same thing, I have decided to make the next book about that funny chap.
The volume will be called "The Story of a Calico Clown." He had many wonderful adventures to tell about.
As for the Sawdust Doll, the Lamb on Wheels, the White Rocking Horse, the Candy Rabbit, the Bold Tin Soldier and the Monkey on a Stick, why, they had some strange adventures, too, and they took part in another show. But this is all I have to tell you just now about the Monkey on a Stick, except to say that he lived for many years with Herbert and Madeline, and had many happy times.