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_.