only a little one," said Mr. Martin. "And I'm sorry Jack got loose
and frightened you. I'll see, after this, that the pets don't get out at
night."

"Oh, I'm sure I don't want to spoil the children's pleasure in the
least," went on Mrs. Blake. "But I didn't know you had such a menagerie
next door to me, Mr. Martin."

"We didn't have until to-day--or rather, yesterday, for it is now past
midnight," Mr. Martin explained. "My Uncle Toby left me his collection of
animals when he went away suddenly, and Ted and Janet say they are going
to have a circus."

"Save me a ticket!" cried Mr. Hanson, who lived two or three houses down
the street.

"And I want one," added Mr. Fenton. "If the Curlytops give a circus I
want to come to it!"

"So do it!" cried several other neighbors, who had turned out to see what
all the excitement was about.

"I'll tell Teddy and Janet," promised Mr. Martin, as he carried Jack out
of Mrs. Blake's house, much to the relief of that lady, though she was
rather fond of animals in general.

So the excitement quieted down, and after it was all over a policeman
came along, one of the neighbors having telephoned in the first alarm.
But there was nothing for the officer to do.

"Now, Curlytops," said Mr. Martin, at breakfast the next morning when the
excitement of the night was being talked over, "if you are to keep Uncle
Toby's pets here, we must be careful that they do not bother the
neighbors. Your own dog and cat are very good, and make no trouble. But
with a monkey, a parrot, another dog and cat, to say nothing of the
alligator and the white mice, we may cause a lot of trouble to our good
neighbors. And we wouldn't want to do that."

"What do you want us to do, Daddy?" asked Ted. He had just fed the two
dogs--Skyrocket and Top, while Janet had poured out some milk for
Turnover and Snuff, the two cats.

"We must make cages that can be locked at night, or else we must make
sure that the barn is tightly closed," said his father. "I don't
suppose, during the day, that there will be much trouble. It is at night
we must be careful. No one likes to be awakened by seeing a monkey on the
window sill."

"I wouldn't care," said Teddy.

"Well, ladies like Mrs. Blake don't care for such thrills," returned Mr.
Martin, with a laugh. "So we must be sure that all the members of our
menagerie are safely caged each night. I shall depend on you Curlytops
for that."

"We'll be careful!" promised Teddy.

"