A COLD LITTLE SINGER
Bunny Brown was so excited in watching to see how the strange boy would
climb up and get the monkey that, at first, he paid little attention to
what Sue said. The boy by this time was beginning to scramble up the
trunk of the tree. Sitting on a branch, high above the lad's head, was
Wango the monkey, eating the piece of cake.
"It's the very same boy, I know it is!" declared Sue.
"What same boy?" asked Sadie West, while the other boys and girls
watched the climber.
"The same one who was with the little girl that sang songs in the Opera
House show. Don't you remember, Bunny?" asked Sue.
This time Bunny not only heard what his sister said, but he paid some
attention to her. And, noting that the climbing boy was half way up the
tree now, Bunny turned to Sue and asked her what she had said.
"This is the number three time I told you," she answered, shaking her
head. "That's the boy from the show in the Opera House!"
Bunny looked closely at the climbing lad.
"Why, so it is!" he cried. "Look, Charlie--Harry--that's the acrobat
from the show!"
The boy in the tree was in plain sight now, over the heads of the crowd,
as he made his way upward from limb to limb, and several of Bunny's
chums were sure he was the same lad they had seen in the show.
"But what's he doing here?" asked Bunny. "Mother read in the paper that
the same show we saw here was traveling around and was in Wayville last
night. I wonder why that boy is here?"
"And where's his sister that sang such funny little songs?" inquired
Sadie West.
"We'll ask him when he comes down," suggested George Watson, who used to
be a mean, tricky boy, making a lot of trouble for Bunny and Sue. But,
of late, George had been kinder.
Higher and higher, up into the tree went the "show boy," as the children
called him. Wango still was perched on the limb of the tree, eating his
cake. He did not climb higher or try to leap to another tree, as Jed
Winkler said he was afraid his pet might do.
Up and up went the boy, and a moment later he was calling in a kind and
gentle voice to the monkey and holding out his hands.
"Come on, old fellow! Come on down with me!" invited the climbing boy.
"They want you down below! Come on!"
Whether Wango was tired of his tricks, or whether he had eaten all his
cake and thought the only way he could get more was by coming down as he
was invited, no one stopped to figure out. At any rate the old sailor's
pet gave a friendly little chatter and then advanced until he could
perch on the boy's shoulder, which he did, clasping his paws around the
lad's neck.
"That's the way! Now we'll go down!" said the boy.
"He's got him! He's got your monkey, Mr. Winkler!" cried the children
standing beneath the tree.
"He's a good climber--that boy!" said the old sailor. "He's as good a
climber as I used to be when I was on a ship."
Down came the boy with the monkey on his shoulder. Of course Wango
himself could have climbed down alone had he wished to, but he didn't
seem to want to do this--that was the trouble.
"There you are!" exclaimed the boy, as he slid to the ground, and walked
over to Mr. Winkler, with Wango still perched on his shoulder. "Here's
your monkey!"
"Much obliged, my boy," said the old sailor. "It was very good of you.
Do you--er--do I owe you anything?" and he began to fumble in his pocket
as if for money, while Wango jumped from the lad's back to the shoulder
of his master.
"No, not anything. I did it for fun," was the laughing answer. "I'm used
to climbing and that sort of thing. I like it!"
"Didn't you used to be in the show that was in the Opera House here last
week?" asked Harry Bentley.
"Yes," answered the boy, as he put on his coat. "I was with the show."
"Why aren't you with it now?" asked Bunny.
"And where's your sister--the one that sang?" added Sue.
The boy's face turned red, and he seemed to be confused.
"Well, we--er--I--that is we left the show," he said. "Maybe I ought to
say that the show left us. It 'busted up,' as we say. There wasn't
enough money to pay the actors, and so we all had to quit."
"That's too bad," said Jed Winkler. "It was a pretty good show, too. But
say, my boy, I feel that I owe you something for having gotten my monkey
down out of the tree. If you haven't been paid by the show people,
perhaps--maybe----"
"Oh, no, thank you! I don't take pay for doing things like climbing
trees after pet monkeys," was the answer. The boy started to laugh, but
he did not get very far with it. "You don't owe me anything. And now I
must go and get my sister," he added.
"Where did you leave her?" asked Mrs. Newton, one of the ladies who had
been in the store when the monkey began "cutting up."
"I left her sitting on a bench in the little park down near the river
front," answered the boy.
"That's a cold place!" exclaimed Mrs. Newton. "Why don't you take her
where it's warm?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know where to take her," said the
boy. "We just had money enough left to pay our trolley fare from a place
called Wayville, where we played last night, to this town. We thought
we'd come back here."
"To give another show?" asked the hardware man.
"No, I guess our show is gone for good," was the boy's answer. "But I
sort of liked this place, and so did my sister. I thought I might get
work here, at least until I could make money enough to go back to New
York."
"Got any folks in New York?" asked Mr. Winkler, as he stroked the head
of his pet monkey.
"Well, no, not exactly folks," replied the show boy, as he brushed some
bits of bark from his trousers. "But it's easier to get a place with a
show if you're in New York. They all start out from there."
"That boy looks to me as though the best place for him, right now, would
be at a table with a good meal on it," said Mrs. Newton. "He looks
hungry and cold."
"He does that," agreed Mrs. Brown, who had followed Bunny and Sue to see
that they did not get into mischief. "I'm going to invite him to our
house." She stepped up closer to the lad who had got the monkey down out
of the tree, and asked: "Wouldn't you like to come home with me and have
something to eat?"
The boy's face flushed and his eyes brightened.
"Thank you," he said. "I really am hungry. I'll be glad to work for a
meal. There wasn't money enough for breakfast and car fare too, but I
thought there was a better chance for work here than in Wayville, and so
my sister and I came on."
"And where did you say she was?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"I left her sitting in the little park down by the water front, while I
came up into the town to look for work. Then I saw the crowd around the
tree and----"
"Poor little girl!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "Now, you two are coming home
with me!" she went on. "We'll talk about work later. Come along, my
boy. I've got children of my own, and I know what's good for 'em. Take
me to where you left your sister. And don't all of you come, or you
might bother the poor child," she added, as she saw the crowd about to
follow. "I'll tell you all about it later."
"Can't we come, Mother?" asked Bunny Brown.
"Yes, you and Sue come with me. Mrs. Newton," she went on, turning to a
fat lady, "I wish you'd go to my house and start to get something ready
for these starved ones to eat. I'll be right along with them."
"And I'll take my monkey back home," said Jed Winkler. "My sister might
be worried about him," and he smiled as the crowd laughed, for it was
well known that Miss Winkler did not like Wango, though she was not
unkind to him.
"Now show me where your sister is," said Mrs. Brown to the boy, as she
walked along with him and her own two children. "By the way, what's your
name?"
"Mart Clayton," he answered. "That's my real name, but my sister and I
sometimes have stage names. Her real one is Lucile."
"That's a nice name," said Sue. "I like it better'n mine. Your sister
sings, doesn't she?"
"Yes," answered the boy. "There she is, now!" he added, pointing to a
bench in a little park that was not far from Mr. Brown's boat and fish
dock.
"The poor, cold little singer!" murmured Mrs. Brown. "I must take care
of them both!"
When they approached the bench the girl, who was about a year younger
than her brother, looked up in surprise.
"Did you find any work?" she asked Mart eagerly.
"Well, no, not exactly," he answered.
The girl seemed much disappointed.
"But we're going to eat!" he added. "This lady has invited us to her
house. After that I'll have a chance to look around and get a job to
earn money to pay her and take us back to New York."
"Oh, you are the guests of Bunny and Sue for the meal. Guests don't
pay," Mrs. Brown said, smiling at the strangers.
"Oh!" exclaimed Lucile. "That is--it's very kind of you," she said.
"You poor thing! You're cold!" exclaimed Bunny's mother. "No wonder,
sitting here without a jacket! Where's your cloak?"
"I--I guess it's with our other baggage," was the girl's answer. "The
boarding house kept it because we couldn't pay the bill when the show
failed!" and tears came into her eyes.
"Never mind! We'll look after you," said motherly Mrs. Brown. "Come
along, Bunny and Sue. Mrs. Newton will be at our house by this time."
As the five of them started down the street Bunny stopped suddenly.
"What's the matter?" asked his mother.
"I--I forgot something," he said. "I've got to see Mr. Winkler!" and he
started off on a run.