TURNOVER AND SKYROCKET
Perhaps it would have been better for the Curlytops to have run into the house and have told their mother about the missing monkey. But neither Janet nor Teddy thought of this, because they were so excited over the news that Mrs. Johnson gave them—the news that Jack had been taken away by a hand-organ man.
"We've got to get him back!" cried Teddy.
"Of course!" agreed Janet. "It won't be half a circus without a monkey in it."
"Come on!" called Ted, and out of the yard he ran, followed by Janet. The Curlytops took one look to make sure that Trouble was safe before going away and leaving him. The little fellow was playing with Turnover and Skyrocket. He would do that for a long time.
Out of the yard and down the street ran the little boy and girl, thinking only of getting their monkey back.
"Did he go this way?" Teddy called to Mrs. Johnson, who was watching him and his sister.
"Yes, right down that street," answered the mother of Baby Ruth. "But you had better not chase after him. He might not give Jack back to you, and he might be cross, and maybe it wasn't your monkey he had at all, Curlytops!"
But Teddy and Janet did not stay to hear all this. They hurried on, Teddy a little ahead of his sister, because, being a boy and a year older, he could go faster. But every now and then he stopped to wait for her. They turned the corner of a street, and Teddy, being in the lead, had the first glimpse down it.
"Do you see him?" gasped Janet, hurrying up to the side of her brother.
"No, he isn't here," was the answer.
Mr. Anderson, who left groceries at the home of the Curlytops, came along just then in the delivery wagon.
"Whoa!" he called to his horse. And then, seeing that Teddy and Janet were worried about something, he asked them: "Have you lost your little brother?" Mr. Anderson knew how often Trouble ran away.
"No, sir," answered Teddy. "We're looking for our monkey."
"And the hand-organ man," added Janet.
"Monkey? Hand-organ man?" exclaimed Mr. Anderson. "Are you going to give a party, and do you want the hand-organ man to play at it, and the monkey to do tricks?"
"Oh, no, this is our own pet monkey," exclaimed Janet.
"The hand-organ man took him away when he was eating a banana," added Teddy.
"Our monkey—his name is Jack—he was eating the banana—not the hand-organ man," said Jan, fearing Mr. Anderson might not understand what her brother meant.
"And he does tricks, and we're going to have him in our little circus—I mean our monkey does tricks," went on Teddy.
"Well, I guess I'll get the straight of it after a while," said Mr. Anderson, with a little laugh. "Anyhow it seems that some stray hand-organ man has taken your monkey, has he?"
"Yes. And we want our monkey back!" cried Janet.
"Then you'd better get up here in the wagon with me," went on the grocery man, "and I'll drive you down the street. It will be quicker than walking, and, as I've delivered all the orders, I'm in no hurry to get back to the store. Hop up, Curlytops!"
He helped Janet and Teddy to the seat beside him, and drove off. It was not the first time the children had ridden with Mr. Anderson, for he often took them with him when he had occasion to stop at their house.
"Do you know which street he went down?" asked the grocery man, as he called to his brown horse which started off again.
"We don't know," answered Teddy. "We didn't see him. We were in the barn, getting some boxes so Jack—that's the monkey—could do some tricks. We left him eating a banana, and when we came out he was gone. But Mrs. Johnson said she saw a hand-organ man come out of our yard and he had a monkey."
"And it must 'a' been Jack!" added Janet.
"Well, we'll try to get him back for you," promised Mr. Anderson, as he guided the horse down the street. "And we'll ask some of the people we meet if they have seen Jack."
"Oh, now I know we'll get him back!" exclaimed Janet, and there was a smile on her face where, before, there had been a sad look, which always came just before she cried. "I'm glad we met you, Mr. Anderson," she said.
"So am I," agreed Teddy.
The first person they met was Patrick, the man who worked for Mrs. Blake, the lady into whose house Jack made his way one night, making Mrs. Blake think he was a fuzzy burglar.
"Oh, Patrick!" cried Teddy, "a hand-organ man took our monkey away. Have you seen him?"
"Which? The hand-organ man or the monkey?" asked Mrs. Blake's gardener.
"Either one," said Janet. "He's the same monkey that was once in your house, you know."
"Yes," returned Patrick, with a smile, "I know. Well, I'm sorry, but I didn't see either the hand-organ man or the monkey."
"Giddap!" called Mr. Anderson to his horse. "We must try someone else."
They drove along a little farther, and next they met Sam White, a colored man, who cut grass and did other work for the neighbors of the Curlytops.
"Oh, Sam! have you seen our monkey, Jack?" called Teddy.
"Seen a monkey? No'm, I hasn't," answered the colored man, who had been wheeling a lawn-mower.
"Did you see a hand-organ man?" asked Janet.
"Yes'm, I done seen a hand-organ man," was the answer. "He's jest 'round de corner ob de next street. But I didn't see him hab no monkey."
"Maybe he has our monkey hidden inside the hand-organ so no one will see Jack!" cried Teddy. "Please hurry, Mr. Anderson!"
"I will," promised the grocery man. "Giddap there, Molasses!" he called to his horse. "We're in a hurry!"
And as they turned the corner of the street, toward which Sam White had pointed, there came to the ears of the Curlytops the strains of hand-organ music.
"There he is! I see him!" cried Janet, pointing. "He's stopped, and he's playing!"
"Yes, and I see our monkey, too!" added Teddy. "Please hurry down there, Mr. Anderson, and we'll take Jack away from that bad hand-organ man."
"Maybe it isn't your monkey," said the grocer. "All monkeys look alike to me. I couldn't tell one from the other, but maybe you can. Giddap, Molasses!" he called again to his horse, and down the street clattered the Curlytops.
They came to a stop in front of the organ grinder just as the dark-colored Italian ground out the last strains of a tune. And there, surely enough, perched on the top of the organ, was a monkey.
"Jack! Jack! Come here!" cried Teddy, getting ready to jump down from his seat in the wagon.
"Come away from that bad man!" added Janet.
The organ grinder turned quickly, gave one look at the Curlytops and at Mr. Anderson, and then, slinging his organ up on his back, started hurriedly up the street, taking the monkey with him.
"Here! Hold on a minute!" called the grocer, getting down off the seat, and then helping Teddy and Janet down. "If you have a monkey belonging to these children you must give it back, or I'll call a policeman!"
"No! No!" jabbered the Italian. "Dis a-monk mine! Long time mine! No belong childerns! Goo'-bye!"
He would have been off down the street and around the corner in another few seconds, but Teddy, rushing after him, looked and made sure it really was Jack that the organ player had with him. There was a queer little tuft of white hair on the end of Jack's tail, and this monkey had the same mark.
"Jack! Jack!" cried Teddy. "Come on, to me! I'll give you all the bananas you want!"
"Dis-a my monk!" jabbered the Italian.
"He is not! He's ours!" declared Janet, as she hurried up to the side of her brother. "Make him give back our monkey that we got from Uncle Toby!" she appealed to Mr. Anderson.
"If he doesn't," said the grocer, "I'll call a policeman and——"
But just then Jack acted for himself. With a shrill chatter he broke loose from the string that was tied to the collar about his neck. There had been no cord on him when he was eating a banana in the yard of the Curlytops, and the hand-organ man must have tied it there after he took the children's pet. Once free, Jack made one leap and landed safe in Teddy's arms.
JACK MADE ONE LEAP AND LANDED SAFELY IN TEDDY'S ARMS.
Now, Jack was rather a large monkey, and, jumping from a distance, as Jack did, he knocked Teddy over. Flat down on the sidewalk sat Teddy, the monkey clinging with its hairy arms about the little boy's neck.
"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Janet, and then she stopped, for she did not know what else to say.
"Look out!" cried Mr. Anderson. "Maybe that's a savage monkey, and he'll bite you!"
"This is Jack all right," declared Teddy. "I know him and he knows me. He didn't hurt me. I—I just sat down, that's all," and the little Curlytop boy laughed.
Jack chattered, clung tighter to his master, and then the crowd that had gathered also laughed. For it looked so odd to see Teddy sitting on the sidewalk, with a monkey, quite a large one, clinging to his neck.
"What's the matter here? What's the trouble?" asked a gruff but not unkindly voice, and on the outside of the crowd appeared Policeman Cassidy.
"Oh, Cassidy," said Mr. Anderson, "this Italian took the Curlytops' monkey, and they just got him back—I mean they got the monkey back. The Italian——"
But with a half-smothered cry of anger, the Italian started to run down the street, his hand-organ swaying from side to side on his back. He had no wish to meet Policeman Cassidy and be arrested for having taken Jack.
And that is just what the Italian had done. He had sneaked into the yard and, seeing the monkey unfastened and eating a banana, had picked up the pet and hurried off with him. The Italian must have known how to talk to and handle monkeys, for Jack made no outcry, but went peaceably with his captor. Perhaps the monkey was afraid of being beaten. And, so that Jack could not get away, the Italian had tied a string to the collar.
But, thanks to Mr. Anderson and the grocery wagon, the Curlytops had gotten back their pet. The Italian had not played his organ very near the home of Teddy and Janet for fear of their hearing it, I suppose. But when he thought he was far enough away he started, and Sam White had heard him.
"Maybe the hand-organ man kept Jack hidden under his coat until he got down here," said Janet.
"Perhaps," agreed the grocer, as the crowd began to melt away, seeing there was to be no more excitement. "And now if you Curlytops, and your monkey, will get into the wagon, I'll drive you back home."
"Do you want me to chase after that Italian and arrest him?" asked the policeman.
"No, thank you, I guess not," answered Teddy, as he rubbed Jack's fuzzy head. "We got our monkey back, and now we can start to teach him some tricks for the circus. We'll send you a free ticket to the show, Mr. Anderson, 'cause you helped us get Jack back."
Janet whispered something to her brother.
"Oh, yes," added the little fellow, "we'd like to have you come, too, Mr. Policeman Cassidy."
"I'll come and stand guard at the ticket wagon," laughed the big, good-natured officer. "And if I see that Italian sneaking up I'll chase him."
"I guess he won't come," said Teddy. Then he and his sister climbed up on the seat beside Mr. Anderson and were driven back to their home. It was time, too, for their mother was out at the gate, holding Trouble by the hand, and looking up and down the street.
"Where have you been, Curlytops?" she asked them. "And what are you doing in Mr. Anderson's wagon—and with the monkey? Did Jack run away?" she asked.
"He was taken away," explained Teddy.
"By an old organ grinder," added Janet.
And then the story was told.
"Dear me," said Mrs. Martin, when it was finished. "I'm sure if your father and I had known all the things that were going to happen because of Uncle Toby's pets, we would not have brought them home."
"Oh, it's fun!" laughed Teddy, slipping down with Jack.
"And Policeman Cassidy is coming to our circus," said Janet.
"Don't forget me!" called Mr. Anderson, as he drove away with the wagon.
"We won't!" promised the Curlytops.
"You been take Jack to barber's?" asked Trouble, letting go his mother's hand to pat the monkey.
"The barber's?" repeated Teddy, as he put Jack down on a box and gave the pet a banana, as had been promised. "What made him think that?" Teddy asked his mother.
"He's been singing that Mother Goose verse, 'Barber, barber! shave a pig. How many hairs will make a wig? Four and twenty, that's enough, give the barber a pinch of snuff.' I suppose Trouble thought maybe Snuff, the cat, had something to do with a barber, and he got Jack mixed up in it somehow. But I am glad you Curlytops are home again. I was getting worried about you. What are you going to do now?"
"Teach Jack to jump off a high tower of boxes," explained Ted. "We were getting ready to do that when the Italian took Jack. Come on, Janet, we'll make the box tower."
"Me help!" cried Trouble.
"Oh, you'll be more bother than you will help," replied Janet. "You'll be knocking the tower over all the while, or trying to climb up on it. You go and play with Skyrocket and Turnover," she advised, as the dog and cat came around the path.
"All wite! Me make Turn an' Sky do circus twicks!" said Trouble, talking half to himself.
Having made sure that Jack was comfortable and had not been harmed by the Italian who took him away, the Curlytops set about building, of old packing boxes, the tower off which they hoped their monkey would leap, thus doing a new trick for the pet circus. Teddy and Janet were so busy they paid no attention to Trouble, except to notice, now and then, that he was playing at the end of the yard with Skyrocket and Turnover, or "Sky" and "Turn", as he shortened the pets' names.
"There, I guess the tower is high enough for the first few jumps," Teddy remarked, as he nailed in place the last of the boxes. "We don't want Jack to jump down from too high a place at first."
"No," agreed Janet, "we don't. He might hurt himself, or he might get scared, and then he wouldn't want to be in the circus. But we ought to have some sort of net for him to jump into, didn't we ought, Teddy?"
"I guess we did," said the Curlytop boy. "Then we can make the tower higher. Oh, I know what we can have for a net!" he suddenly cried.
"What?" asked Janet.
Her brother pointed to a clothesline in the yard, across which were drying some lace curtains that had just been washed.
"They'll be just dandy for a circus net!" Teddy went on. "You can hold one end, and I'll hold the other. But we won't make the tower any higher for a while. I'll get a curtain for a net."
"S'pose mother will mind?" asked Janet.
"Oh, no, I don't s'pose so," answered Teddy. "It won't hurt the curtain. Jack isn't so big that he'll tear it, and if it gets dirty, an' maybe it will a little, we can wash it again. You get Jack now, and I'll get the curtain. Then we'll make Jack climb up to the top of the box tower and jump off."
"How you going to get him to go up?" asked Janet, when Ted came back with his mother's lace curtain which he had taken off the line.
"I'll put a piece of banana up there on the top box," Teddy answered. The pile of boxes, nailed together, was higher than his head, but he had brought out the stepladder so he could reach up with that.
"How you going to get Jack to jump down into the lace curtain net?" Janet went on.
"I'll hold out another piece of banana," Teddy replied. "Come on here, Jack, and learn a new trick!" he called to the monkey.
But just then both Teddy and Janet saw a sight that made them cry out in surprise. And the sight was that of Trouble, coming around the corner of the barn, driving before him Turnover and Skyrocket, the first cat and dog pets the Curlytops had ever owned. But Turnover and Skyrocket had never looked so funny as they did now, with Trouble urging them on and crying:
"I dot a new twick! I dot a new twick! Look what me make Turn an' Sky do!"