ut now, when Tom rushed in with the news that Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey
was loose, none of the children thought of anything but the long-tailed
animal with his funny, wrinkled face.
"How'd he get loose?" asked Bunny Brown, as he jumped down off a box on
which he had been standing.
"Did he hurt any one?" asked Sue.
"Is he smashing everything in Mr. Raymond's store?" Charlie Star wanted
to know.
"I should say so! You ought to see!" cried Tom. "I was coming past on my
way here when I heard a lot of yells and saw a big crowd in front of the
store. I looked in, and the monkey was banging a frying pan on a coffee
grinder and making a big racket. Mr. Raymond was trying to get him down
off a high shelf, but Wango wouldn't come. Then I ran on here to tell
you about it."
"I'm glad you did," said Bunny Brown.
"We'll have this meeting again after we see the monkey," he said. "The
meeting is--it's--er--well, I don't know what it is my mother says when
her meetings are stopped, but this meeting about the show we're going to
give, is stopped while we go to see Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey."
"Oh, won't it be fun to see him drum with a frying pan!" exclaimed Sue.
"Maybe he won't be doing that when we get there," said Tom Milton. "But
I guess he'll be doing something just as good."
"That monkey is always doing something," declared Charlie Star. "How'd
he get loose, Tom?"
"Don't know!"
"Maybe Miss Winkler let him loose," suggested Sadie West. "She doesn't
like Jed's monkey."
"And I guess she doesn't like his parrot very much, either. It makes a
lot more noise than her canary bird," said Mary Watson. "I was in there
the other day, and the parrot screeched like anything!"
"Well, come on, we'll go see the monkey!" called Sue.
There was a scramble among the children for hats and coats, for the
weather was cold, though there had been no more snow storms since the
first one. As Bunny, Sue, and the others passed along the side of the
house on their way out of the yard, Mrs. Brown called to them.
"Where are you going, children?" she asked.
"To see Mr. Jed Winkler's monkey," answered Bunny.
"Are you going to have him in your show?" Mrs. Brown wanted to know, for
she had not forgotten the circus the children once gave.
"We were talking about it," explained Sue, "when Tom Milton come and
told us the monkey was loose."
"And he is in the hardware store," added Bunny. "We're going to see
him!" he cried, his eyes sh
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