The Story of a Monkey on a Stick Part 10

"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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Monkey Thanks Jack in the Pulpit.

_Page 89_]

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, d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k. "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 gra.s.s 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 d.i.c.k. "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.