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.
THE END
 |
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
First 
