PLANNING THE CIRCUS
"Well, look what that little tyke has done!" cried Teddy, with a laugh.
"All by himself, too!" added Janet. "How did he ever think of it?"
"And how he got Turnover and Skyrocket to stand still long enough to be harnessed up is a wonder!" said Teddy.
For that is what baby William had done. With bits of string, straps and strips torn from some pieces of cloth he had found in the barn, he had made a crazy jumble of a harness for the dog and the cat. They were tied and fastened together.
But this was not all. Besides harnessing the dog and cat together, like a team made up of a big horse and a little pony, Trouble had made the two pets fast to a small express wagon that he claimed as his very own, though it had once belonged to Teddy.
"And look what he has in the wagon!" cried Janet, now laughing as heartily as was Teddy. "My old rag doll—Miss Muffin!"
In her earlier days Janet had a large rag doll, which had been named Miss Muffin, just why no one knew. But as she grew older and had other dolls, and finally had come to play more with her brother and the pets than with such toys, Janet had forgotten all about Miss Muffin. So the rag doll had been tossed here and there, sometimes in one corner and sometimes in another, getting more ragged, torn and dirty as the weeks went by.
But Baby William had found this old doll and had tied it to the little seat in his express wagon. And there sat Miss Muffin, one eye partly scratched off her painted cloth face, and the other eye, by some accident, skewed around until it was standing up and down, and did not lie sideways as most eyes do.
"I give Miss Muffin a wide," announced Trouble. "She 'ike it, an' maybe it's a twick for de circus!"
Teddy and Janet looked at one another and then they both laughed.
"Say, it would be a good trick!" said Teddy at length. "We could dress Trouble up funny like, and have him come in driving Turnover and Skyrocket. The people would clap like anything."
"I believe they would," agreed Janet.
"Did Turnover scratch you when you tied all those strings on, Trouble?" she asked her little brother.
"Nope! Turn, he 'ike it," declared Baby William. "An' Sky, he puts hims tongue on my hands and 'ick me."
"I guess he wouldn't have much trouble with Skyrocket," said Teddy. "I've harnessed the dog to little carts before. But I never hitched the dog and cat together. You made a fine trick there, Trouble."
"I be in circus?" asked the little fellow.
"Sure you may be in the circus," said Janet. "It will be one of the best acts. And we can tie ribbons on the necks of Sky and Turn, as Trouble calls them, to make it look prettier. Go on, Trouble," she said to her little brother, "let's see you drive 'em around the yard. Maybe they'll break away, or get all tangled up, and then it wouldn't be a good act for our show," she said to Teddy.
But Trouble seemed to have charmed Skyrocket and Turnover to do just what he wanted them to do, and they walked slowly around the paths in the yard, giving Miss Muffin a fine ride.
"Don't keep 'em hitched up too long, Trouble," advised Janet. "If you do they'll get tired, and won't like it next time."
"I undwess 'em now," said the little boy. By "undressing" he meant taking the string and strap harness off the dog and cat.
Turnover and Skyrocket seemed very glad to be set free, and they ran off together, while Trouble stayed with his brother and sister, as they had told him they were going to make Jack do a trick now.
It was time to see if they could get the monkey to do what was wanted of him. The tower of boxes had been built, and Teddy had two bananas, one to get Jack to climb up on top of the pile, and another yellow fruit to induce the monkey to leap down. The lace curtain net had also been provided.
"Now, Jack, we'll see what good you are," said Teddy, as he climbed up on the stepladder and placed the banana on the top-most box, letting part of the fruit stick out over the edge.
"Here, Jack!" called Teddy, standing half way up the ladder. "Come on and do your trick!"
The monkey chattered a little, but came to Teddy, who picked the fuzzy creature up in his arms. Holding Jack up, Teddy showed him the banana on top of the pile of boxes.
With another chatter, Jack scrambled out of Teddy's arms, and with the usual quickness of monkeys, was soon on top of the pile of boxes—the "tower" as Ted and Jan called it. When they gave their circus they planned to cover the pile of boxes with green boughs and pretend it was a big tree in the jungle.
"Oh, see!" cried Janet in delight, as she saw Jack on top of the pile, eating the banana he found there. "He's done the first part of the trick all right, Teddy!"
"Yes, and if he does the last part as well it will be fine!" declared the little Curlytop boy. "But the last is the hardest part. Jack may want to climb down instead of jumping. But first we'll let him eat the banana, and get hungry for the second one."
So the three children stood on the ground, and watched Jack, up on the tower, eating his banana. The monkey looked down, making funny faces, which he seemed to be doing most of the time, and Trouble laughed.
"He is funny!" laughed Janet. "I'm sure the people who come to our circus will like Jack."
"They'll like him a lot more if he does tricks," said Teddy. "Come on, Jan," he called, after a while. "We'll get the net ready now. I guess it's time he jumped for the other banana."
Mrs. Martin had not seen the Curlytops take her lace curtain off the line to use for a circus net. If she had, she would, of course, have stopped them. But Teddy and Janet did not think they were doing anything very wrong. As for Trouble, he never bothered his head about it. Whatever Ted or Janet did was all right to him.
"If we each have to hold one end of the curtain net, how are we going to hold out the banana so Jack will see it?" asked Janet of her older brother.
"We'll lay the banana in the middle of the net," decided Ted.
This was done, and when the curtain was held stretched as tightly as Janet and Teddy could pull it, as they had once seen the Cresco firemen stretch out a life-net in a practice drill, the banana was placed in the center.
"Come on now, Jack! Jump down!" called Teddy. "Jump down and get your other banana!"
Jack chattered, but did not jump. He clung to the edge of the tower of boxes, made two or three motions as if he were coming down, but he did not descend.
"I guess he doesn't see the banana," remarked Janet. "One of us ought to hold it up."
"We can't, and hold the net too," Teddy declared. "And if we don't hold the net, and Jack jumps, he may hurt himself, and then he can't be in the show."
"Oh, I know what we can do!" Janet declared.
"What?" asked Teddy.
"We can have Trouble hold the banana! Let him stand right near the outside edge of the net, near the middle, and hold up the banana. Then Jack will see it and jump."
"That is a good idea," remarked Teddy. He was always willing to give his sister credit for thinking of things to do. "Come on, Trouble," called Teddy to his brother. "Hold the banana up for Jack!"
"Eess, me do dat!" replied Baby William, so excited he could hardly talk at all, much less talk properly.
Eager to do his share in getting ready for the circus, Trouble held the banana up as high as he could reach, so that Jack could see it. And this time the monkey caught sight of the fruit.
With a chatter of delight at the good things he was getting to eat, Jack came down, but not exactly in the way Janet and Teddy wanted him to. For the pet climbed down the boxes, which were of different sizes, making many places where he could hold on by his hands and tail. He didn't jump at all!
With a chatter and a scramble, Jack reached the ground, ran around the net to where Trouble stood, and then just reached up, plucked the fruit from the little chap's hand and began to eat it. And it was all done so quickly that Ted and Janet hardly had time to say a word.
Finally, however, after laughing at the funny look on Trouble's face when he saw the monkey snatch away the banana, Teddy said:
"Oh, Jack! I didn't mean for you to come down that way! I wanted you to jump into the net! Here, you can't have the rest of that banana until you jump for it."
Teddy took the fruit away from his fuzzy pet, and Jack jabbered and chattered at the top of his voice, for he did not like this at all. To have a banana taken away when he was just half finished with it! That didn't seem fair!
"Come on! We'll try again, Jan," said Teddy, holding the half-eaten yellow fruit out of Jack's reach. For the monkey was jumping up trying to get back the banana.
"You'll have to get him up on top of the boxes again," Janet said.
"Yes, and I guess I'll have to break off a piece of this banana to get him to go up after it," her brother said. "Come on, Jack!" he cried.
Breaking what was left of the banana in half, Teddy once more climbed the step ladder and put the pulpy mass on top of the pile of boxes. Jack saw what was done, and in an instant he had climbed up.
"He's learning to go up fine!" declared Teddy, as he got down and moved the ladder away, so Jack would not use that in his descent. "If we can only make him jump now. Get ready, Trouble, to hold up the banana again."
"There isn't much left of it," Janet remarked.
"It's all there is until we go to the store for more," answered Teddy. "I guess it will do. We'll wait until he swallows what he's eating now, and then Trouble can hold up what is left."
Anxiously the Curlytops and their little brother watched Jack perched rather high on the tower of boxes. The monkey made short work of the small piece of banana that had been put on his high perch. Then he looked down for more.
"Hold it up, Trouble! Hold it up!" cried Teddy, at one end of the curtain net, while Janet held the other end.
"I hold it, but my hoots is gettin' tired," said the little fellow.
"Never mind, dear," consoled Janet. "If Jack doesn't jump this time we'll let you go. We can put a stick in the ground near the edge of the net, and tie the banana to that if Trouble is tired," she said to Teddy.
"Yes, but it won't be so good as Trouble, 'cause Jack likes him," Teddy answered. "Look out! I think he's going to jump!"
And that is just what Jack did!
With a chatter of delight as he saw Trouble holding up the piece of fruit, Jack stood for a moment on the edge of the pile of boxes, and then he leaped.
Straight down he jumped toward the lace curtain and toward Trouble, who held up the banana. But before the monkey landed there was a scream from the house, and Mrs. Martin came running out.
"Don't let Jack jump into my lace curtain! Don't do it, Curlytops!" exclaimed their mother. "He'll tear it to pieces. Stop him!"
But it was too late. Jack had jumped!