The Story of a Monkey on a Stick | Page 3

went on the
Rabbit.
"Dear me! this is getting more and more riddly-like and jokey," said the
Monkey. "I don't understand it at all! Why am I not in the store where I
belong?"
"Because you don't belong there any more," cried the Candy Rabbit.
"You were bought for the boy Herbert, and you are here at his breakfast
plate as a surprise."
"Well, he isn't going to be any more surprised than I am," chattered the
Monkey. "I don't seem to understand this at all. How did I get here?"
"I imagine that, after you went to sleep in the store last night, one of the
clerks at the toy counter put you in the pasteboard box, wrapped you up
and sent you here."
"I see how it happened," said the Monkey. "I went to sleep in the store
yesterday afternoon. I had been up late the night before, as we toys
were having some fun. I was trying to guess a riddle the Calico Clown

asked. It was how do the seeds get inside the apple when there aren't
any holes in the skin. I was thinking of that riddle, and it kept me up
quite late the night before."
"Did you think of the answer?"
"No, I didn't," said the Monkey; "any more than I can think of the
answer to the Clown's riddle of what makes more noise than a----"
"Hush! Here come Madeline and Herbert to breakfast!" suddenly
whispered the Rabbit. "Back to your box as quick as you can. We toys
are not allowed to move about by ourselves when any one sees us, you
know."
"Yes, I know!" chattered the Monkey.
Nimbly he sprang back to his box, and clasped the stick, up and down
which he climbed when a string was pulled. As he pulled the box cover
down over his head he heard the joyous shouts and laughter of two
children as they ran into the room.
"Happy birthday, Herbert!" called Madeline. "Look and see what
Daddy bought for you yesterday!"
When Herbert had the cover off the box and had looked at the Monkey
on a Stick lying there with a funny grin on his face, the boy smiled and
cried:
"Oh, it's a Climbing Monkey! Oh, this is just what I wanted! Oh, now I
can have a show and a circus and I'll ask Dick to come and bring his
Rocking Horse, and Arnold can come and bring his Bold Tin Soldier,
and we'll have lots of fun. Oh, look at my Monkey climb his stick!"
Herbert took his new birthday toy from the box, and, by pulling the
string, made the Monkey go up and down as fast as anything. Madeline
picked up her Candy Rabbit, and though that Bunny said nothing, he
could see all that went on.

"Oh, this is a dandy Monkey!" cried Herbert. "I can give a show with
him!"
While the little boy was making the funny chap go up and down the
stick, the door of the breakfast room opened and some one came in.
CHAPTER II
THE MONKEY AT SCHOOL
"Well, children, why aren't you eating breakfast?" a voice asked, and
Herbert, turning around, saw his mother. The Monkey on a Stick, who,
if he could not talk or do any tricks just then, could use his eyes, saw a
pleasant-faced lady entering the room. She was smiling at Madeline,
who had her Candy Rabbit in her hands, and at Herbert.
"Oh, look, Mother, what I found at my plate!" exclaimed Herbert, and
he pulled the string, and made the Monkey run up and down the stick.
"It's my birthday present!"
"Yes, Daddy said he was going to get you something," said Mother. "It
came from the store late yesterday afternoon, and I put it away, and had
it laid at your breakfast place this morning. Do you like it?"
"Oh, it's dandy!" exclaimed Herbert. "I love it!"
The children sat down and had an orange and some oatmeal and a glass
of milk and a roll with golden yellow butter on it. But of course the
Monkey and the Candy Rabbit had nothing to eat. They did not want
anything. Being toys, you see, they did not have to eat. Though, at
times, they could eat certain things if they wished.
Madeline kept her Candy Rabbit near her plate. All of a sudden, as the
little girl was eating, she dropped her spoon in her oatmeal dish, and a
drop of milk spattered into the glass eye of the Candy Rabbit.
"Oh, look what you did!" exclaimed Herbert, who saw what had
happened. "You'll blind your Rabbit."

"Oh, my poor Rabbit!" said Madeline, and, with her napkin, she
carefully wiped the drop of milk out of the Rabbit's eye. And the Bunny