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[Illustration: Monkey Shook Paws With Candy Rabbit.
_Frontispiece_--(Page 6)]
_MAKE BELIEVE STORIES_
(Trademark Registered)
THE STORY OF A MONKEY ON A STICK
BY LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of "The Story of a Sawdust Doll," "The Story
of a White Rocking Horse," "The Bobbsey Twins
Series," "The Bunny Brown Series," "The
Six Little Bunkers Series," Etc.
ILLUSTRATED BY
HARRY L. SMITH
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
BOOKS BY LAURA LEE HOPE
Durably bound. Illustrated.
=MAKE BELIEVE STORIES=
THE STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL
THE STORY OF A WHITE ROCKING HORSE
THE STORY OF A LAMB ON WHEELS
THE STORY OF A BOLD TIN SOLDIER
THE STORY OF A CANDY RABBIT
THE STORY OF A MONKEY ON A STICK
THE STORY OF A CALICO CLOWN
=THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES=
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN WASHINGTON
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
=THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES=
=THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES=
=THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES=
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY GROSSET & DUNLAP
THE STORY OF A MONKEY ON A STICK
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A STRANGE AWAKENING 1
II. THE MONKEY AT SCHOOL 13
III. THE JANITOR'S HOUSE 25
IV. A QUEER RIDE 38
V. MONKEYSHINES 50
VI. IN A CAVE 60
VII. OUT IN THE RAIN 73
VIII. HERBERT FINDS THE MONKEY 85
IX. MONKEY IN A TENT 95
X. MONKEY IN A SHOW 107
THE STORY OF A MONKEY ON A STICK
CHAPTER I
A STRANGE AWAKENING
The Monkey on a Stick opened his eyes and looked around. That is he
tried to look around; but all he could see, on all sides of him, was
pasteboard box. He was lying on his back, with his hands and feet
clasped around the stick, up which he had climbed so often.
"Well, this is very strange," said the Monkey on a Stick, as he rubbed
his nose with one hand, "very strange indeed! Why should I wake up here,
when last night I went to sleep in the toy store? I can't understand
this at all!"
Once more he looked about him. He surely was inside a pasteboard box. He
could see the cover of it over his head as he lay on his back, and he
could see one side of the box toward his left hand, while another side
of the box was at his right hand.
"And," said the Monkey on a Stick, speaking to himself, as he often did,
"I suppose the bottom of the pasteboard box is under me. I must be lying
on that."
He unclasped the toes of his left foot from the stick and banged his
foot down two or three times.
"Yes, there's pasteboard all around me," said the Monkey. "This surely
is very strange! I wonder if the Calico Clown has been up to any of his
tricks? Maybe he thinks I'm a riddle, and he's going to tell it to the
Elephant from the Noah's Ark, or else make a joke of me to the Jumping
Jack. I haven't been shut up in a box before--not since the time Santa
Claus brought me from his workshop at the North Pole. I wonder what this
means?"
The Monkey raised his head and banged it on the box cover.
"Oh, my cocoanut!" cried the Monkey, for that is what he sometimes
called his head. "My poor cocoanut!" he went on, as he put up his hand.
"I wonder if I raised a big lump on my cocoanut!"
But his head seemed to be all right, and, taking care not to bang
himself again, the Monkey began pushing on the box cover. It was not
heavy, and he slowly raised it until he could look out.
As I have told you in the other books of this series, the Monkey on a
Stick, and the other toys as well, could move about and talk, when they
kept to certain rules. You may find out what those rules were by looking
in the other books.
The Monkey on a Stick looked out from beneath the cover of the box, and
what he saw surprised him almost as much as he had been startled when he
found pasteboard on all sides of him. For the Monkey saw that he was in
the room of a strange house, and not in the big toy department of the
store where he had lived for so long a time.
"I say!" chattered the Monkey to himself, "there is something wrong
here. They must have given me paregoric to make me sleep, and then have
put me in a box and carted me down to some other part of the store. I'm
sure the Calico Clown must have had a hand in this. He and his jokes and
riddles about what makes more noise than a pig under a gate! I'll fix
him when I get out of here!"
The Monkey raised the box cover higher and began to call:
"Hi there, Calico Clown! what do you mean by shutting me up in a
pasteboard box? What's the joke? Come on, Mr. Elephant from Noah's Ark!
Come and help me out! Ho, Jack-Jump! Hi, Jack-Box! Where are you all? I
don't see any of you!"
For, as he looked around the room, from under the cover of the box, the
Monkey saw not a sign of his former friends.
"This is stranger and stranger," he murmured. "I say!" he cried aloud
again, "isn't any one here?"
"Yes, I'm here," answered a voice which, the Monkey knew at once, came
from a toy like himself. "What's the trouble?" this voice went on. "Why
are you making such a fuss? Who are you, anyhow?"
"I'm a Monkey on a Stick," answered the toy chap in the box. "And who
are you? I seem to know your voice. Where are you?"
"Here I am," came the answer.
The Monkey raised the box cover higher, and then he cried:
"Why, bless my tail! The Candy Rabbit! Well, of all things! Oh, I'm so
glad to see you! How are you?" and the Monkey jumped out of his box,
and, laying down his stick, ran across the table and shook paws with a
beautiful Candy Rabbit, who had a pink nose and pink glass eyes. The
Rabbit was on the table, and the Monkey saw that his pasteboard box was
there likewise.
"I am quite well, thank you," answered the Candy Rabbit, as he waved his
big ears to and fro. "And I am glad to see you--very glad! I knew there
was some kind of toy in that box, but I did not know it was you. I
haven't seen you since we lived in the toy store together, with the
Sawdust Doll, the Lamb on Wheels, the Bold Tin Soldier, the Calico Clown
and the White Rocking Horse."
"Yes, and don't forget the two Jacks," went on the Monkey on a Stick,
"the Jumping Jack and the Jack in the Box. Then there was the Elephant
who tried to race on roller skates with the White Rocking Horse."
"I'm not forgetting them," answered the Rabbit.
"But listen!" exclaimed the Monkey. "Can you tell me this? I went to
sleep in the toy store, and I woke up here--in a house, I guess it
is--in a pasteboard box on a table set with dishes."
"Yes, this is a house," said the Candy Rabbit. "I live here with a
little girl named Madeline. There is also a boy named Herbert here. And
these really are dishes on the table. It is the breakfast table, and
soon the children will be down to eat."
"But what am I doing here?" asked the Monkey in great surprise. "I can't
understand it! Why am I here? I went to sleep in the store, and I woke
up on a breakfast table. Can this be a trick or a riddle of the Calico
Clown's? Is he going to ask what is more surprised than a Monkey on a
Stick at the breakfast table, as he asks what makes more noise than a
pig under a gate?"
"No, I think the Calico Clown had nothing to do with your being here,"
said the Candy Rabbit with a smile.
"Then who did?" asked the Monkey.
"Herbert. A boy who lives here with his sister Madeline," went on the
Rabbit.
"Dear me! this is getting more and more riddly-like and jokey," said the
Monkey. "I don't understand it at all! Why am I not in the store where I
belong?"
"Because you don't belong there any more," cried the Candy Rabbit. "You
were bought for the boy Herbert, and you are here at his breakfast plate
as a surprise."
"Well, he isn't going to be any more surprised than I am," chattered the
Monkey. "I don't seem to understand this at all. How did I get here?"
"I imagine that, after you went to sleep in the store last night, one of
the clerks at the toy counter put you in the pasteboard box, wrapped you
up and sent you here."
"I see how it happened," said the Monkey. "I went to sleep in the store
yesterday afternoon. I had been up late the night before, as we toys
were having some fun. I was trying to guess a riddle the Calico Clown
asked. It was how do the seeds get inside the apple when there aren't
any holes in the skin. I was thinking of that riddle, and it kept me up
quite late the night before."
"Did you think of the answer?"
"No, I didn't," said the Monkey; "any more than I can think of the
answer to the Clown's riddle of what makes more noise than a----"
"Hush! Here come Madeline and Herbert to breakfast!" suddenly whispered
the Rabbit. "Back to your box as quick as you can. We toys are not
allowed to move about by ourselves when any one sees us, you know."
"Yes, I know!" chattered the Monkey.
Nimbly he sprang back to his box, and clasped the stick, up and down
which he climbed when a string was pulled. As he pulled the box cover
down over his head he heard the joyous shouts and laughter of two
children as they ran into the room.
"Happy birthday, Herbert!" called Madeline. "Look and see what Daddy
bought for you yesterday!"
When Herbert had the cover off the box and had looked at the Monkey on a
Stick lying there with a funny grin on his face, the boy smiled and
cried:
"Oh, it's a Climbing Monkey! Oh, this is just what I wanted! Oh, now I
can have a show and a circus and I'll ask Dick to come and bring his
Rocking Horse, and Arnold can come and bring his Bold Tin Soldier, and
we'll have lots of fun. Oh, look at my Monkey climb his stick!"
Herbert took his new birthday toy from the box, and, by pulling the
string, made the Monkey go up and down as fast as anything. Madeline
picked up her Candy Rabbit, and though that Bunny said nothing, he could
see all that went on.
"Oh, this is a dandy Monkey!" cried Herbert. "I can give a show with
him!"
While the little boy was making the funny chap go up and down the stick,
the door of the breakfast room opened and some one came in.