, Skyrocket, is
making friends with them."

Indeed Skyrocket, the Curlytop's dog, was doing this very thing. Perhaps
he wanted to learn how to walk on his hind legs and turn somersaults, as
Tip and Top could do.

"Tip and Top are two valuable dogs," said Mrs. Watson. "They were once in
the circus, and it was there they learned to do their tricks, though
Uncle Toby taught them others."

"Why didn't the circus man keep them if they were so valuable?" asked
Mrs. Martin.

"The circus man had made friends with the sailor who gave Uncle Toby the
alligator," explained the housekeeper, "and the circus man decided to
become a sailor, too. He said he didn't want to keep the dogs on a ship,
so he gave them to Uncle Toby."

"And that's how the menagerie started?" asked Daddy Martin.

"That's how it started," said Mrs. Watson. "There were times when I
thought it would never end. That was when a lady, who was going to travel
for her health, asked Uncle Toby to keep Snuff, her Persian cat."

"Is Snuff the cat's name?" asked the mother of the Curlytops.

"Yes," answered Mrs. Watson. "It is just the color of snuff, you see, a
sort of yellowish brown. Many Persian cats have that color, I'm told.
Anyhow this lady--I've forgotten her name--said she saw that Uncle Toby
loved animals, as he had so many of them, so she asked him to keep her
cat."

"And Uncle Toby did," remarked Mrs. Martin.

"Uncle Toby surely did!" declared the housekeeper. "It seemed he couldn't
say 'no' where animals were concerned. By this time the house began to be
rather overrun with pets, so he built this room out of the dining room,
with special cages--cubby-holes I call 'em--for the pets. I did think
Snuff would be the last one, but after that came the white mice and
rats."

"It's usually the other way about," said Mrs. Martin, with a smile. "When
the cat comes the mice go. But this time the mice came after the cat
arrived."

"Yes," agreed the housekeeper. "Snuff, the cat, and the white mice--I
don't know their names--are great friends. The mice and rats belonged to
a boy down the street. His family moved to another state last summer, and
his folks made him get rid of the mice. He brought them to Uncle Toby,
and of course Uncle Toby couldn't say no, so he kept them. It was then I
first threatened to leave. The house was too full of animals."

"But you didn't go," said Mrs. Martin.

"No, I stayed on, because Uncle Toby begged me to, and he said he
w