MONKEYSHINES

Over the green meadow, with the Monkey on his back, ran Carlo the dog. In front of the dog raced Herbert and Dick, now and then looking back and laughing. It was great fun for the boys to see the Monkey having a ride on the dog's back. And, to tell the truth, Carlo and the Monkey were enjoying it themselves.

"Do I hurt you, holding on this way?" asked the Monkey of Carlo, grasping tightly the dog's woolly back. "Do I pull your hair any?"

"Oh, not much," Carlo barked in answer. "I don't mind a little pull like that."

"You see I'm so afraid of falling off and breaking my tail, or something like that," went on the Monkey.

"Well, you're tied on, so I don't believe you'll fall," replied the dog. "Those boys are used to tying things. Once they tied Madeline's Candy Rabbit on the end of a kite tail, and he nearly went to the moon, I guess."

"Oh, yes, I heard about that," said the Monkey. "Only I heard it was a star, not the moon."

And then he noticed that he was tied on rather tightly, and he felt there was not much chance of his falling. So he did not hold so hard to the dog's back, and Carlo was glad of this.

Herbert and Dick, looking back to see if Carlo was running after them (which indeed he was) saw the Monkey bobbing to and fro on the dog's back.

"It looks just as if the Monkey was holding on, doesn't it?" asked Dick of his chum.

"Yes, it does," admitted Herbert. "Wouldn't it be funny if my Monkey was _really_ alive, as your dog is, and could ride him whenever he wanted to?"

"It would be funny," said Dick. "Very funny!"

Pretty soon the boys came to a little brook that ran through the meadow. They stopped on the edge, and looked down into the water in which tiny fishes were swimming.

"Shall we jump across the brook and run in the field on the other side?" asked Dick of Herbert.

"If we do, won't Carlo jump over, too?" asked Herbert. "And if he tries to jump over, he may fall in and get all wet, and so will my Monkey."

"Carlo won't mind getting wet!" laughed Dick. "But it might not be good for your Monkey. Perhaps we'd better stay on this side of the brook, and then everything will be all right."

"I think so, too!" agreed Herbert.

So the two boys did not try to jump over the stream, but waited on the edge of it for Carlo to catch up to them. Along came the fussy little dog, barking and yelping, for he did not like to be left very far behind. And on his back, still bobbing about, was the Monkey on a Stick. No, I am wrong. The Monkey was not on his Stick just then. Herbert had taken him off to give him a ride. It was easy to take the Monkey off his Stick and put him back on.

Up ran Carlo; and as soon as he saw the brook full of water what did that little dog do but start to run right into it!

"Oh, look out! Stop him!" cried Herbert. "He'll get my Monkey all wet and spoil him!"

"Come back, Carlo! Come back!" ordered Dick, making a jump toward his pet.

But Carlo had no idea of going too deep into the brook. He just wanted to get a drink. So he waded in only a little way, stopping just before the dangling feet of the Monkey would have got wet.

"Oh, I guess he isn't going to roll in the water," said Dick. "Sometimes he does that--just rolls right over in it like a fish."

"If he did that now, with my Monkey on his back, he'd spoil him," said Herbert. "I'm glad he didn't."

Carlo lapped the cool water up with his red tongue, and then he waded out of the brook and toward the boys. He seemed to be asking them:

"What shall we do next? That was fun--giving the Monkey a ride. But what shall we do next?"

"I know what we can do," said Dick to Herbert, after they had sailed some little make-believe ships in the brook, while Carlo lay in the grass on the bank. "We can take your Monkey and my dog down the street. People will see him and laugh. Shall we do that?"

"Oh, yes. Let's do it!" exclaimed Herbert.

Once more the boys started to run across the meadow, and Carlo, seeing them go, and not wanting to be left behind, started after them with a "bow-wow." The Monkey was still on his back.

The two boys were almost across the meadow, and were thinking what fun it would be to see the dog going down the street, giving the Monkey a ride, when, all of a sudden, Carlo saw a cat.

Now you know what dogs do when they see cats. They chase them, just for fun, you understand. And this is what Carlo did--he raced after this cat as fast as he could go.

"Carlo!" chattered the Monkey.

Now, somehow or other, the strings by which the boys had fastened the Monkey on the back of the dog had become loosened. One knot after another came undone, and the Monkey felt himself slipping.

"Oh, wait a minute! Wait a minute, Carlo!" cried the Monkey, for he could talk now, being out of hearing of the boys. "Wait! Wait!" cried the Monkey. "I am falling off!"

"I can't wait!" barked Carlo. "I must get that cat!"

On he ran, faster than before. Dick and Herbert saw him, and Dick cried:

"Oh, look at my dog chasing a cat. Let's see if he gets her."

So they ran after the dog.

Faster and faster went Carlo, and the strings that held the Monkey on became looser and looser until, at last, they slipped off altogether, and down fell the Monkey into the grass.

The grass was tall and thick, and at the moment when the Monkey fell Dick and Herbert were down in a sort of little valley, and they did not see what had happened. So the Monkey fell off the dog's back before they noticed it.

As for Carlo, all he was thinking of was getting the cat. And the boys went after him.

On all sides of the Monkey was green grass, nice and soft. A little farther off were some trees. The Monkey could see them as he looked over the top of the grass.

"I wish I could climb one of those trees," said the toy Monkey half aloud. "I've been climbing up and down a stick so long that I am rather tired of it. I think I ought to climb trees."

The Monkey was beginning to feel strange. It was the first time he had ever been by himself, alone in a green field, with the warm sun shining on him.

"I feel just like doing something!" said the Monkey, speaking out loud this time, though he could see no one to whom he might talk. "I'm going to cut up! Hi yi!" he shouted. "I'm going to jump and turn somersaults and everything."

And with that he began leaping about on the soft, green grass. He jumped this way and that. He jumped forward and backward and he turned front somersaults and backward somersaults.

Then, all of a sudden, a voice called, saying:

"What in the world are you doing, my friend?"

The Monkey stopped short, and flipped his tail from side to side.

"Well, I don't see you, and I don't know who you are," he said, "but if you want to know what I'm doing, I'm cutting up Monkeyshines! That's what I'm doing! Cutting up Monkeyshines!"