Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue | Page 9

of delight, he suddenly let go of Miss Winkler's hair and scrambled down to the floor near Bunny.
"Look out that he doesn't bite you," Miss Winkler said. "Be careful, Sue!"
"I'm not afraid," said Bunny Brown.
"Nor I," added Sue.
Wango was very tame, however. The way he acted, after he saw the good things to eat, would have made anyone think he was always kind and gentle. For he carefully took the peanuts from Bunny in one paw, and a caramel from Sue in another, and then, making a bow, as the old sailor had taught him, the mischievous monkey scrambled into his cage in one corner of the room.
The next minute Miss Winkler had shut the cage door and fastened it.
"There!" she exclaimed, "the next time I let you out of your cage you'll know it, Wango!"
"What happened?" asked Bunny.
"I don't know, child," the elderly lady answered, as she began to coil up her hair. "He is usually good, though he minds my brother better than he does me. When Jed was here, a while ago, he was playing with Wango out in the room, and, I suppose, when he put the saucy creature back in the cage, the door did not fasten well.
"Anyhow, when I was making some cookies awhile ago I suddenly felt something behind me, and, as I tumid around, I saw the monkey. He made a grab for a cookie, and I had to slap his paws for I won't have him doing tricks like that.
"Then he got mad, snatched my comb out of my hair, and, when I ran after him, he got up on the window pole, grabbed my hair and stayed up there where I couldn't reach him. Oh, what a time I've had!"
"It's too bad," said Sue kindly.
"I don't know what I would have done if you children hadn't come along," went on Miss Winkler, "for I had called and called, and no one heard me. I'll make Jed put a good lock on the monkey-cage after this. Now come out to the kitchen and I'll give you each a cookie."
Wango seemed to want a cookie also, for he chattered and made queer faces as he shook the door of his cage.
"No, indeed! You sha'n't have a bit!" scolded Miss Winkler. "You were very bad."
Wango chattered louder than ever. Perhaps he was saying he was sorry for what he had done, but he got no cookie.
Bunny and Sue each had a nice brown one, though, with a raisin in the centre, and, after Miss Winkler had thanked them again, they kept on with their walk down the street.
"Wasn't Wango funny?" asked Sue, as she nibbled her cookie.
"That's what he was," Bunny said. "'Member the time when he pulled the cat's tail?"
"Yes," agreed Sue. "And when he sat down in the fly paper! That was funnier than this time."
"I guess Miss Winkler didn't think this was funny," commented Bunny. "I guess the monkey doesn't like her."
"But he minds Mr. Winkler," Sue said. "I've seen him make the monkey stand on his head."
The old sailor, who had brought Wango home, after one of his many ocean voyages, had taught the furry little creature many tricks. But though Wango minded Mr. Winkler very well, he did not always do what Miss Winkler told him to do.
As Sue walked on, still nibbling her cookie, she kept looking down at the ground, until at last Bunny asked her:
"What are you looking at Sue--trying not to step on ants?" For this was a game the children often played.
"Not this time," Sue answered. "I was looking to see if I could find Aunt Lu's ring."
"Why, she didn't lose it down here!" Bunny said, in surprise.
"Maybe she did," returned Sue. "She thought she lost it around our house, but she looked, and we all looked, and we didn't find it, so maybe it was lost down here. I'm going to look, and if we find it we'll get a present."
"I'll help you look," said Bunny kindly, "but I don't believe it's down here."
The two children walked along a little farther, with their eyes searching the ground, but they saw no golden ring.
"Oh, I tell you what let's do!" suddenly exclaimed Bunny.
"What?" asked Sue, eager to have some fun.
"Let's go back home, and I'll put the lobster claw on my nose, and we'll play Punch and Judy. We haven't done that yet."
"All right, we'll do it!" Sue agreed. "And I'll let you take my sawdust doll. You have to hit her with a stick you know, if you're Mr. Punch, and it won't hurt a sawdust doll."
"All right," Bunny cried. "And when I hit her I'll call out, the way Mr. Punch does: 'That's the way to do it! That's the way I do it!'"
He said this in the funny, squeaky voice