WHERE IS TIP?
"Someone is at the door," said Mrs. Martin to Uncle Toby's housekeeper.
"Yes, I hear 'em," answered the queer little old lady. "I 'spect it's the
boy after the pigeons. I told him to call as soon as he saw the Curlytops
arrive, and he's probably been watching for you. I'll let him in as soon
as I finish putting on my hat so I can go."
But before this Mr. Martin, who was nearest the door, had opened it, and
in came a boy about as old as Teddy, though without the curly locks of
that little lad.
"Can I have the pigeons?" asked the new boy, taking off his cap and
making a little bow to Mrs. Martin, Mrs. Watson and Daddy Martin. "Uncle
Toby said I could have 'em if you folks didn't want 'em, and I've been
waiting for you to come. I just saw you get here."
"Yes! Yes! Take the pigeons! Take any of the animals you want!" begged
Mrs. Martin. "I don't see what in the world we are going to do with these
animals!"
"Oh, keep Tip and Top--the dogs!" begged Teddy.
"And Snuff, the cat!" added Janet.
"I 'ike monkey if he don't pull my cap off," said Trouble. "'Et's keep
him!"
"And the white mice and rats wouldn't be much bother," went on Teddy.
"We never had a parrot that I can remember," cried Janet. "I could feed
him, Mother."
"The alligator doesn't make much noise," Ted said.
"Dear me! We'll end up by keeping them all, I see!" laughed the father of
the Curlytops. "That is, all but the pigeons," he added quickly, as he
saw a look of disappointment on the face of the new boy. "You may have
them, since Uncle Toby promised them to you."
"The pigeons are all I want," said the boy, whose name was Bob Nelson.
"My mother won't let me have any of the other pets. And, anyhow, I have
a dog and a cat. Could I get the pigeons now? I've got a basket and they
are so tame I can pick 'em up. They know me. I used to help Uncle Toby
feed 'em."
"Yes, you may get them," Mrs. Martin said. "We'll get rid of a few of the
pets in that way. But what we are to do with the others, I'm sure I don't
know."
"You'd better keep 'em," advised Mrs. Watson, who was now almost ready to
go. "Uncle Toby wouldn't like it, I'm sure, if you didn't take care of
his pets."
"Oh, I wouldn't, for the world, have anything happen to them, as he was
so fond of them and kind to them," said the mother of the Curlytops. "But
we could sell them to some animal store, and, as my husband says, give
the money to a home for children. Uncle Toby would like that."
"Yes, he was very fond of children and animals," said the housekeeper, as
she seemed about to leave. "It's a pity he never had any of his own--any
children, I mean," she quickly added. "He did have enough animals. You'd
better keep 'em, your children seem fond of 'em," she added.
"Oh, the Curlytops love animals," agreed Mr. Martin. "In fact I like
them myself, especially Tip and Top, the dogs. I never saw any better
trick animals."
Tip and Top had quieted down now, as had the other animals after Bob had
come in to get the pigeons.
"You'd better keep all of Uncle Toby's pets," she concluded. "I'm going
now. Just pull the door shut after you and it will lock. The water is
turned off and the house is all cleaned out. There isn't any food to
spoil, except what the animals need, and you can take that with you.
Uncle Toby said I was to go as soon as you arrived to have charge of his
collection, and, as you are here, I'm going. Uncle Toby has hired a man
to look after the house so it will be all right. Go and get your pigeons,
Bob," she added. "Good-bye, everybody," and away she went.
For a moment Mr. and Mrs. Martin looked at each other. Then Mr. Nip, the
parrot, broke the silence by saying:
"I'm a crack-crack-cracker!"
"You're a fire-cracker--at least your feathers are red enough for that,"
laughed Mrs. Martin. "Well, we seem to have the pets whether we want them
or not," she told her husband. "We can't go away and leave them here. We
can't stay in this house, and try to sell them, if the water is turned
off and there is nothing to eat. I guess we'll have to take the pets home
with us, Dick."
Mr. Martin looked puzzled.
"Oh, yes! Please keep them!" begged Ted and Janet.
"An' det a han'-ordan fo' de monkey!" begged Trouble, speaking rather
more in baby fashion than he usually talked, because he was so excited, I
suppose.
"At least we'll have to take charge of Uncle Toby's pets until we decide
what to do," said Mr. Martin, after a while. "We might keep some of them
and sell the others."
"Oh, keep them _all_!" exclaimed Ted.
"We'll see," his father answered, and from the tone of his voice Ted and
his sister were almost sure they would be allowed to have all the animals
for their very own. Of course Trouble could hardly expect a hand-organ to
go with Jack, the monkey, but that was not much of a loss.
"We can't get back home to-night," said Mrs. Martin, "that's sure. It's
too far. We'll have to stay either here, at Uncle Toby's house, or at a
hotel."
"I suppose we could stay here, if we had to," her husband remarked. "I
can turn the water on, and it is easy enough to get something to eat,
even if we have to buy it at the delicatessen shop."
"I just love delicatessen stuff, don't you?" whispered Jan to her
brother. "I hope they get a lot! I'll give some to Snuff, the Persian
cat."
"If we stay it will be just like camping," agreed Ted.
While Mr. and Mrs. Martin were considering what to do, Bob, the boy who
had come for the pigeons, put his head in through the doorway and called
out:
"I got 'em all, thank you! I'm going now. I hope you have good luck with
Uncle Toby's pets!"
"Goodness knows we'll need it," said Mrs. Martin, and then she had to
laugh. The whole affair seemed to her to be so very funny. Neither she
nor her husband had imagined that Uncle Toby's "collection" could be
anything like this--dogs, a parrot, a monkey, a Persian cat and a little
alligator, not forgetting the white rats and mice.
"Well, we'd better stay here for the night," finally decided Daddy
Martin. "It is warm, and Uncle Toby had quite a number of beds. The
house is in good order. I'll turn on the water, and you and the children
might go to the store and get things for supper," he added. "It will soon
be night."
"Oh, what fun! We're going to stay here!" cried Janet, dancing around the
Persian cat, who was trying to rub against her legs.
"And I'll teach Tip and Top some new tricks, so we can have a circus when
we get home," remarked Ted.
"There's circus enough here," his father said, with a smile. "But trot
along, Curlytops, if you are going to get something for us to eat. The
animals have been fed and now it is time for us. I'm getting hungry."
"Me hundry, too!" declared Trouble.
"We mustn't let that happen!" laughed his mother. "We'll go to the store.
Come along, Curlytops!"
As the children walked down the street with their mother to look for the
nearest delicatessen store, they saw the boy Bob carefully wheeling his
basket of pigeons toward his own home. He had gotten the birds out of
Uncle Toby's barn.
When Mrs. Martin and the Curlytops, with Trouble, of course, came back to
Uncle Toby's house, they found Daddy Martin sitting in front of the
kitchen stove in which he had kindled a fire. In his lap was the Persian
cat, purring contentedly, and Mr. Martin was rubbing the long, soft silky
fur of Snuff.
In front of the father of the Curlytops were Skyrocket, Tip, and Top, the
three dogs. They were lying asleep near the fire. In the other room were
the mice, the rats, the alligator, the monkey, and the parrot, all the
animals quiet, for a wonder, as Mrs. Martin said.
"Oh, Daddy! you love 'em, don't you?" exclaimed Jan, as she saw her
father surrounded by some of the pets. "We may keep them, mayn't we?"
"I'll see about it," was the answer, and Janet whispered to Teddy that
she was almost sure this meant "yes."
It did not take long to get up a little supper. Daddy Martin ran the
automobile into the side yard of Uncle Toby's house, and the Curlytop
family, as I sometimes call them, prepared to stay all night. There were
plenty of beds, and in the morning they could turn off the water again,
take the pets away, close the house, and everything would be as Uncle
Toby wished it.
You can easily guess that neither of the Curlytops, nor Trouble, for that
matter, wanted to go to bed early that night. The children were thinking
too much of the pets. And, indeed, the pets seemed to like the children.
Mr. Nip, the parrot, let Jan scratch his head, a form of caress of which
he seemed very fond. Jack, the monkey, no longer snatched off Trouble's
cap. But perhaps that was because baby William did not wear it near the
lively chap. Snuff, the Persian cat, seemed to have taken a great liking
to Mr. Martin, and as for the dogs, Tip and Top, they were hardly out of
the sight of Jan and Ted. Nor was Skyrocket neglected or jealous. He
entered into the fun of playing around on the lawn and porch with the
white poodles after supper.
Even Slider, the little alligator, seemed very friendly. He took bits of
meat from the fingers of Ted, though Janet said she was afraid of the
scaly creature.
"I'm going to teach him some tricks, so he can be in the animal circus,"
declared Ted.
"Are you going to have a circus?" asked his sister.
"Sure!" he answered, though, to tell the truth, he had not begun to think
of it until he saw all the pets Uncle Toby had left. "We'll have a fine
circus!"
The evening passed pleasantly. Finally Trouble became sleepy, even though
he was much interested in watching Jack, the monkey, crack peanuts.
"Come, laddie, you must go to bed!" called Mrs. Martin. "Mr. Nip, the
parrot, has gone to sleep long ago, with his head under his wing, poor
thing!" and she sang part of the "Robin Song."
"Me want see head's under swing," murmured Trouble. "Me see!"
"Oh, no! I don't want to wake up Mr. Nip. He has a cloth over his cage to
keep him quiet," and Mrs. Martin carried Trouble over to where the
parrot's cage had been covered with a table-cover for the night.
"Goo'-bye," murmured the little fellow sleepily, and then he was carried
up to his bed in Uncle Toby's house.
A little later Ted and Janet also went to their rooms, having given
farewell pats and rubs to the dogs and cat. Mr. Martin went about,
seeing that the house was locked up, and then he and his wife sat
downstairs, talking while the children were asleep.
"Do you really intend to take all those pets home with us?" asked Mrs.
Martin.
"I don't see what else we can do," her husband replied. "The children
will be disappointed if we don't. And I don't really want to sell them.
Uncle Toby might not like it. I think I'll take them home with us, and
write to him, if I can get his address. He must have left it, even if he
is going to live in South America."
"But how can we take home a monkey, a parrot, three dogs, a cat, an
alligator and some rats and some white mice?" asked the mother of the
Curlytops.
"Oh, there is plenty of room in the auto," her husband answered. "We'll
load it up in the morning."
The night passed quietly enough, except that about twelve o'clock the
parrot suddenly began shrieking:
"Police! Police! Burglars! Police! I'm a crack-crack-cracker!"
"Dick! Dick! Wake up!" called Mrs. Martin. "Someone is at the front
door!"
"Police! Police!" chattered the parrot again.
And, surely enough, it was the police, though how the red and green bird
knew it is more than I can say. A passing policeman, seeing the light in
Uncle Toby's house, and having been told by Mrs. Watson, the housekeeper,
on her way to her sister's, that the place was to be closed, had stopped
to inquire.
"I thought it was burglars," said the policeman, after Daddy Martin had
gone down to the front door and explained.
"That's what Mr. Nip did, too, I guess," said Mr. Martin.
"Who's Mr. Nip?" asked the officer.
"The parrot," said the father of the Curlytops. "He awakened us by his
shrieking."
After the policeman had gone, the house became quiet again, and nothing
more happened until morning. After breakfast the water was turned off,
and the home of Uncle Toby was made ready for closing up until the old
gentleman should return.
The parrot's cage, the box for the monkey, the little tank of water and
pebbles in which Slider lived, and the wire cage of the white mice and
rats--all these were taken out to the automobile. It was a large one,
and there was plenty of room for the Curlytops and their new pets.
"Take Snuff, the cat, in between you and Trouble, Janet," her father
advised. "Tip and Top can snuggle down with Skyrocket on the floor near
Ted. Are we all ready now?"
"As ready as we ever shall be," his wife answered. "My, what a queer
load!" she said, with a laugh, as she looked back at the collection and
the children. "People will think we're a traveling menagerie!"
This, however, did not worry the Curlytops. They liked it, and, a little
later, they were on their way back toward Cresco. The Curlytops liked
their new pets, and they also loved those they had had for a longer
time--Skyrocket and Turnover.
"We'll try to get home early," said Mr. Martin to his wife, as he steered
the automobile through the streets of Pocono. "We'll have to fix up a
place for these pets."
"Yes," agreed his wife. "They are going to be quite a care. But the
children will love them."
They stopped for lunch at a little restaurant, and the children were
afraid lest some of their pets might escape while the meal was being
served. But Mr. Martin saw a young man, sitting in front of a barber shop
next to the restaurant, and said to him:
"Will you watch may automobile and the animals while we are in the dining
room? I'll give you fifty cents."
"I'll be glad to do it," said the young man.
So long as he was on guard the Curlytops were satisfied. But when they
came out they made a sad discovery. Ted jumped up on the running-board
and looked down into the automobile to make sure all the pets were safe.
The alligator, the parrot, the white mice and rats, the cat, the monkey,
and two dogs were there. But there was no sign of Tip, the white poodle
with a black spot on the end of his tail.
"Where is Tip? Oh, where is Tip?" cried Ted. "He's gone!"