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!