ys and girls, and big boys and girls, and they all wanted to get inside
to see what the monkey was doing. But, do you know, I believe all that he
was doing was playing monkey-doodle tricks--but, of course, I might be
mistaken.

Well, as it always happens, some boys didn't have any money with which to
pay their way inside the tent. And, of course, as it will sometimes
happen, one boy said to another:

"Hey! I know a way we can crawl in under the tent, and see the show, and
not have anything to pay."

"But that wouldn't be fair," spoke the other boy. "It would be cheating,
and there's nothing meaner in this world than to cheat, whether it's
playing a baseball game or going to a circus."

"I guess you're right," said the first boy. "What shall we do, though? I
want to see the show."

"Well, we must be fair, anyhow," spoke the second boy. "We can't crawl in
under the tent, but perhaps if we ask the monkey to let us in for nothing
he'll do it."

"Very well, we will," said the first boy. So they went up to the monkey
and asked if they could go in for nothing, but, of course, he wouldn't let
them.

"May we crawl in under the tent, then?" asked the second boy.

"If Uncle Wiggily will let you," answered the monkey, blinking his two
eyes and wrapping his tail around his neck.

So those boys tried to crawl in under the tent, and as soon as Uncle
Wiggily saw them he rushed up and cried out:

"Hey! Hold on there! Nobody must go under the tent. You must buy a
ticket," and he shook a feather at the boys and, instead of hitting them,
he only tickled them, and didn't hurt them a bit, for they sneezed.

Well, those boys were very troublesome. They kept on trying to crawl under
the tent, and Uncle Wiggily rushed here, there and around the corner
trying to stop them, and he cracked the lash on his whip, just like the
man in the circus ring. But those boys kept on trying to crawl under the
tent, for the monkey had given them permission, you see.

So finally Uncle Wiggily said:

"I'll give those boys a little show myself, outside the tent, for nothing.
Then maybe they'll stop bothering me."

So he stood on his left ear, and then on his right ear, and then he jumped
through a hoop, and rolled over, and barked liked a dog, and all the boys
that had tried to crawl under the tent to see the monkey-show for nothing,
ran out to see Uncle Wiggily's show.

And he did lots of tricks and kept them all from crawling in under the
tent