THE CLIMBING BOY
Tom Milton had been invited by Bunny Brown to come to the meeting in the
room over the garage and talk about the play which Bunny and his sister
wanted to give. But, for some reason or other, Tom had not come with the
other children. Many, including Bunny, had wondered what kept Tom away,
but now, when Tom rushed in with the news that Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey
was loose, none of the children thought of anything but the long-tailed
animal with his funny, wrinkled face.
"How'd he get loose?" asked Bunny Brown, as he jumped down off a box on
which he had been standing.
"Did he hurt any one?" asked Sue.
"Is he smashing everything in Mr. Raymond's store?" Charlie Star wanted
to know.
"I should say so! You ought to see!" cried Tom. "I was coming past on my
way here when I heard a lot of yells and saw a big crowd in front of the
store. I looked in, and the monkey was banging a frying pan on a coffee
grinder and making a big racket. Mr. Raymond was trying to get him down
off a high shelf, but Wango wouldn't come. Then I ran on here to tell
you about it."
"I'm glad you did," said Bunny Brown.
"We'll have this meeting again after we see the monkey," he said. "The
meeting is--it's--er--well, I don't know what it is my mother says when
her meetings are stopped, but this meeting about the show we're going to
give, is stopped while we go to see Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey."
"Oh, won't it be fun to see him drum with a frying pan!" exclaimed Sue.
"Maybe he won't be doing that when we get there," said Tom Milton. "But
I guess he'll be doing something just as good."
"That monkey is always doing something," declared Charlie Star. "How'd
he get loose, Tom?"
"Don't know!"
"Maybe Miss Winkler let him loose," suggested Sadie West. "She doesn't
like Jed's monkey."
"And I guess she doesn't like his parrot very much, either. It makes a
lot more noise than her canary bird," said Mary Watson. "I was in there
the other day, and the parrot screeched like anything!"
"Well, come on, we'll go see the monkey!" called Sue.
There was a scramble among the children for hats and coats, for the
weather was cold, though there had been no more snow storms since the
first one. As Bunny, Sue, and the others passed along the side of the
house on their way out of the yard, Mrs. Brown called to them.
"Where are you going, children?" she asked.
"To see Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey," answered Bunny.
"Are you going to have him in your show?" Mrs. Brown wanted to know, for
she had not forgotten the circus the children once gave.
"We were talking about it," explained Sue, "when Tom Milton come and
told us the monkey was loose."
"And he is in the hardware store," added Bunny. "We're going to see
him!" he cried, his eyes shining.
"Well, button up your coats, for it's cold," warned Mrs. Brown. "I
guess this will be the end of the show business," she added to Mrs.
Watson who had stopped in for a few minutes' talk. "The children will
forget all about their play after they see the monkey. And I shall be
just as well pleased. Their circus was fun, but it meant a lot of work,
and if they give a show, as Bunny and Sue talk of doing, it will mean
more work."
"I don't believe they'll do it," answered Mrs. Watson.
But she hardly knew Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.
On to the hardware store hurried the group of children. As soon as they
turned the corner of the street leading to Mr. Raymond's place they saw
a crowd in front of the store.
"Oh, come on! Hurry!" cried Bunny. "Maybe he'll be all through doing
things when we get there! Hurry!"
The boys and girls began to run, and when they reached the store they
heard, from inside, a clanging and crashing sound.
"I guess Wango is doing things yet!" cried Sue.
"I guess so," agreed Tom Milton. "Come on, let's go in the side door and
we can see better," he proposed.
Tom seemed to know the best way to this "free show," and he led the
others. Bunny, his sister, and their boy and girl friends went down a
little alley, and thus into the store by a side entrance.
As they stepped into the hardware place there was another crash of pots
and pans, and Sue cried:
"Oh, I see him! He's got an egg beater now in one paw!"
"And some pie pans in the other!" exclaimed Bunny.
"Where is he? I don't see him!" said Mary Watson.
"Right up on the shelf by the cans of paint," replied Bunny, pointing.
"Say, if he opens any cans of paint and splashes that around won't it be
fun!" he laughed.
"Hi there, Bunny Brown!" called Mr. Raymond, the hardware man, when he
heard the little boy say this. "Don't be suggesting such things! That
monkey might hear you and try it. I don't want my store all splashed up
with red and green paint. Come on down now, Wango!" he called, snapping
his fingers at the old sailor's queer pet. "Come on down, and I'll give
you a cookie."
"I guess he'd rather have a cocoanut," suggested Sue. "My mother has
some cocoanut for a cake, and there's a picture of a monkey on the
paper, and he's eating cocoanuts."
"But I haven't any cocoanut to offer him," said Mr. Raymond. "I wish Jed
Winkler would come and get his old monkey down! Wango would come to
him."
"How'd the monkey get in here?" asked Bunny.
"I don't know," confessed Mr. Raymond. "First I knew, I heard the lady I
was selling a coffee strainer to exclaim, and I looked up and there was
Wango skipping around on the shelves. I guess Jed must have left a
window open and the monkey got out, though he doesn't generally skip
around outdoors in cold weather. Then he must have come along the street
until he got to my place, and, when he saw the door open, in he popped.
Jed's house is only a few steps from here. But I wish Jed would come
and get his Wango."
"Here he is now!" cried a chorus of children's voices, and, looking
toward the front of his store, Mr. Raymond saw the old sailor coming in.
"What's all the trouble here?" asked Mr. Winkler.
"It's your monkey again, Jed," answered Mr. Raymond. "Lucky my place
isn't a china store, or you'd have a lot of damages to pay for broken
dishes. As it is, Wango can't break any of my pots and pans, though he
certainly is mussing them up a lot!"
Well might this be said, for, as the hardware man spoke, the monkey
leaped from one shelf to another and, in so doing, knocked down a lot of
tin pans which fell to the floor with a clatter and a bang.
"Can't you do something to stop him?" cried Mr. Raymond.
"Well, yes, I suppose I can," said Mr. Winkler slowly. "I didn't know he
was loose till a minute ago, when some one came and told me. I was down
on the fish dock, talking with Bunker Blue. But I'll get Wango down. I'm
real glad he isn't in a china store, for he surely would break things!
Here, Wango!" he called, holding out his hand to the monkey, now perched
on a high shelf. "Come on down, that's a good chap! Come on down!"
"He doesn't seem to want to come," suggested a man with a red moustache.
"Oh, I'll get him. He needs a little coaxing," returned the old sailor.
"Come on down, Wango!" he went on.
Wango looked at the egg beater he held in one paw, and then, seeing the
little handle which turned the wheel, he began to twist it. To do this
he dropped the pie pans he held in the other paw and they fell to the
floor with a crash.
"Land goodness, he certainly makes noise enough!" said one of the women
in the store, covering her ears with her hands.
Perched above the heads of the crowd, and paying no attention to the
calls of Jed Winkler, the monkey began turning the egg beater. He seemed
to like that most of all.
"Maybe he thinks it's a hand organ," suggested Bunny Brown, and the
people in the store laughed.
"Come on, Wango! Come down!" cried Mr. Winkler, but the monkey would not
leap down from the high shelf.
"Guess you'll have to climb up and get him yourself, Jed," suggested Mr.
Reinberg, who kept the drygoods store next door. He had run in, together
with other neighboring shopkeepers, to see what the excitement was
about.
"I could get him down if I had something to coax him with," returned the
old sailor.
"I promised him a cookie," said Mr. Raymond.
"He'd rather have a piece of cake--cocoanut cake would be best," went on
Mr. Winkler.
"I'll go home and get some," offered Bunny Brown. "My mother baked a
cocoanut cake yesterday, and I guess there's some left."
"You don't need to go all the way back to your house after the cake,"
said Mrs. Nesham, who kept a bakery across the street from the hardware
store. "I'll get one from my shelves."
She hurried across the way, and soon came back with a large piece of
cocoanut cake.
"If the monkey doesn't take it I wish she'd give it to me," said Tom
Milton.
"Oh, Wango will take this all right," said Jed Winkler. "Here you are,
you little rascal!" he called to his pet. "Come down and see what I have
for you." He held up the piece of cake. Wango saw it and this seemed to
be just what he wanted. He dropped the egg beater, which fell to the
floor with another clatter and clang, and then the monkey began climbing
down the shelves.
He had almost reached the old sailor, his master, when the front door of
the hardware store opened to allow a new customer to come in. Whether
this frightened Wango, or whether he thought he had not yet had enough
fun, no one knew. But instantly he snatched the piece of cake from Mr.
Winkler's hand, and, holding it in his paw, skipped out the door.
"There he goes!" cried Bunny Brown. "He's loose again!"
"And he's up in a tree out in front!" added Tom Milton, who had rushed
out ahead of the others in the store.
Surely enough, when the crowd got outside, there was Wango perched high
in a big, leafless tree, eating cake.
[Illustration: THERE WAS WANGO PERCHED HIGH ON A BIG TREE.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Giving a Show._ _Page 42_]
"Well, how are you going to get him down out of there?" asked Mr.
Snowden.
"Looks as if I'd have to climb after him," said Mr. Winkler. "When I was
a sailor on a ship, and had Wango for a pet, he used to climb up the
mast and rigging and I'd go after him. That was when I was younger. I
don't believe I could climb that tree and get him now."
"Do you want me to do it for you, mister?" asked a new voice.
Bunny, Sue, and the other children turned to see who had spoken. They
saw a boy about twelve years old, with bright, shining eyes standing
beside Mr. Winkler and pointing up at the monkey in the tree. The
strange boy seemed to have arrived on the scene very suddenly.
"Do you want me to climb the tree and get your monkey for you?" asked
the boy. "I'll do it, if he doesn't bite."
"Oh, he doesn't bite--Wango is very gentle," said Mr. Winkler. "But can
you climb that high tree?"
"I've climbed higher ones than that," was the answer. "And ropes and
poles and the sides of buildings. I can climb almost anything if I can
get a hold. I'll go up and get the monkey for you!"
As he spoke he took off his coat; and though the day was cold Bunny
noticed that the strange boy wore no overcoat. Hanging his jacket on a
low limb of the tree which held Wango, the boy began to climb. And, as
he did so, Sue pulled her brother's sleeve.
"Do you know who that is?" she whispered.
"Who?" asked Bunny Brown.
"That boy climbing the tree. Don't you 'member him?"
"No. Who is he?"
"Why, he's the boy who turned somersaults in the Opera House show!"