The Story of a Monkey on a Stick | Page 2

and, taking care not to bang himself
again, the Monkey began pushing on the box cover. It was not heavy,
and he slowly raised it until he could look out.
As I have told you in the other books of this series, the Monkey on a
Stick, and the other toys as well, could move about and talk, when they
kept to certain rules. You may find out what those rules were by
looking in the other books.
The Monkey on a Stick looked out from beneath the cover of the box,
and what he saw surprised him almost as much as he had been startled
when he found pasteboard on all sides of him. For the Monkey saw that
he was in the room of a strange house, and not in the big toy
department of the store where he had lived for so long a time.
"I say!" chattered the Monkey to himself, "there is something wrong
here. They must have given me paregoric to make me sleep, and then
have put me in a box and carted me down to some other part of the
store. I'm sure the Calico Clown must have had a hand in this. He and
his jokes and riddles about what makes more noise than a pig under a
gate! I'll fix him when I get out of here!"
The Monkey raised the box cover higher and began to call:
"Hi there, Calico Clown! what do you mean by shutting me up in a
pasteboard box? What's the joke? Come on, Mr. Elephant from Noah's
Ark! Come and help me out! Ho, Jack-Jump! Hi, Jack-Box! Where are
you all? I don't see any of you!"
For, as he looked around the room, from under the cover of the box, the
Monkey saw not a sign of his former friends.

"This is stranger and stranger," he murmured. "I say!" he cried aloud
again, "isn't any one here?"
"Yes, I'm here," answered a voice which, the Monkey knew at once,
came from a toy like himself. "What's the trouble?" this voice went on.
"Why are you making such a fuss? Who are you, anyhow?"
"I'm a Monkey on a Stick," answered the toy chap in the box. "And
who are you? I seem to know your voice. Where are you?"
"Here I am," came the answer.
The Monkey raised the box cover higher, and then he cried:
"Why, bless my tail! The Candy Rabbit! Well, of all things! Oh, I'm so
glad to see you! How are you?" and the Monkey jumped out of his box,
and, laying down his stick, ran across the table and shook paws with a
beautiful Candy Rabbit, who had a pink nose and pink glass eyes. The
Rabbit was on the table, and the Monkey saw that his pasteboard box
was there likewise.
"I am quite well, thank you," answered the Candy Rabbit, as he waved
his big ears to and fro. "And I am glad to see you--very glad! I knew
there was some kind of toy in that box, but I did not know it was you. I
haven't seen you since we lived in the toy store together, with the
Sawdust Doll, the Lamb on Wheels, the Bold Tin Soldier, the Calico
Clown and the White Rocking Horse."
"Yes, and don't forget the two Jacks," went on the Monkey on a Stick,
"the Jumping Jack and the Jack in the Box. Then there was the
Elephant who tried to race on roller skates with the White Rocking
Horse."
"I'm not forgetting them," answered the Rabbit.
"But listen!" exclaimed the Monkey. "Can you tell me this? I went to
sleep in the toy store, and I woke up here--in a house, I guess it is--in a
pasteboard box on a table set with dishes."

"Yes, this is a house," said the Candy Rabbit. "I live here with a little
girl named Madeline. There is also a boy named Herbert here. And
these really are dishes on the table. It is the breakfast table, and soon
the children will be down to eat."
"But what am I doing here?" asked the Monkey in great surprise. "I
can't understand it! Why am I here? I went to sleep in the store, and I
woke up on a breakfast table. Can this be a trick or a riddle of the
Calico Clown's? Is he going to ask what is more surprised than a
Monkey on a Stick at the breakfast table, as he asks what makes more
noise than a pig under a gate?"
"No, I think the Calico Clown had nothing to do with your being here,"
said the Candy Rabbit with a smile.
"Then who did?" asked the Monkey.
"Herbert. A boy who lives here with his sister Madeline,"