The Story of a Monkey on a Stick | Page 4

room. "You must finish your breakfast and go to school. Put your Monkey back in the box, Herbert. Don't be late for school."
"No'm, we won't!" promised the brother and sister.
A little later they were on their way, walking side by side on the path that led to the red school house down by the white bridge. Madeline looked at her brother curiously as they came near the building where they studied their lessons.
"Have you got your books under your coat, Herbert?" asked Madeline.
"No, I haven't my books," he said.
"Well, what have you?" asked Madeline. "You have something, for I can see a lump. What is it?"
Before Herbert could answer, if he had wanted to, the bell rang and the two children, and some others who were straggling along, had to run so they would not be late. Then, for a time, Madeline forgot what it was her brother was bringing to school under his coat.
Just before recess, his teacher, looking down toward Herbert, sitting near Dick and Arnold, called out:
"What have you there, Herbert? What are you showing to the other boys under your desk?"
"It--it's a Monkey!" answered Madeline's brother.
"A monkey!" exclaimed the teacher.
"Yes. It's my birthday Monkey," went on the little boy.
"Oh! A birthday monkey!" the teacher said again. "I think I had better call the janitor and have him take care of your monkey for you," and she started toward the door.
"Oh, no'm! He isn't a live monkey," said Herbert. "He's just a toy one, on a stick."
"Herbert, you may bring me that Monkey," the teacher said, and Herbert, very red in the face, walked up to the platform on which stood his teacher's desk. In his hand Herbert carried his Monkey on a Stick.
"Where did you get this?" his teacher asked, as she took the toy from Herbert and laid it on top of her desk.
"I got it for my birthday," he answered. "This morning."
"But why did you bring it to school?" went on the teacher. "You are nearly always a good boy. Why did you bring your Monkey to school, Herbert?"
"Oh, I--I just wanted to show him to Arnold and Dick," was the answer. "We're going to have a show, and my Monkey is going to be in it. I brought him to school under my coat!"
"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Madeline, before she thought what she was saying. "I saw something under his coat, and I thought it was his books. Oh! Oh! And it was his Monkey!"
All the children laughed when Madeline said this, and even the teacher could not help smiling. But she said:
"Silence, please, children. We must keep on with our lessons. And, Herbert, it was wrong of you to bring your Monkey to school and take him out to show to other boys. As a little punishment I shall keep your toy in my desk until after school to-night. Then you may have him back."
"Yes'm," returned Herbert, still rather red in the face. He went back to his desk, and the other children went on with their lessons.
The teacher put the Monkey on a Stick inside a big drawer.
"Well, this is the first of my adventures since I went to sleep in the store and awakened in Herbert's house," thought the Monkey to himself, as he found that he was shut up inside the teacher's desk. "I wondered what Herbert was going to do with me when he slipped me under his coat at the breakfast table. Now I must see what we have here."
It was not very dark inside the drawer of the teacher's desk. Enough light came through the keyhole for the Monkey to see, and, among other things, he noticed a bottle of ink and a small Doll. He was pleased to see the Doll.
"Oh, here is a toy like myself!" said the Monkey, speaking in a whisper. "How do you do?" he went on, sitting up and bowing to his new acquaintance. "Are you any relation to the Sawdust Doll?" he asked politely.
"I'm a second or third cousin," was the answer. "She is stuffed with sawdust, but I am stuffed with cotton."
"Then I will call you Miss Cotton Doll," went on the Monkey. "What brought you here? Were you so bad in school that you had to be shut up in a desk?"
"No, not exactly. But a little girl named Mary brought me in her school bag yesterday, and she took me out in the study hour, and the teacher said it was wrong. So she took me away from the little girl named Mary."
"I thought Mary brought a lamb to school," said the Monkey on a Stick, who, having lived in a toy store, of course knew all about toy books and Mother Goose verses.
"That was another Mary," went on the Cotton Doll. "Besides Mary didn't bring the