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“What can I make a tent of?” asked Herbert.

“Oh, I think I can let you take some old sheets,” said his mother, “and you can hang them over the clothesline in the yard. That will make a nice little tent for your show.”

“Yes, that will be fine,” said Herbert. “Thank you, Mother.”

He carried his Monkey into the house and put him on a table, where Madeline was sitting, playing with her Candy Rabbit.

“Watch my Monkey so he doesn’t jump away, will you, please?” asked Herbert of his sister, laughing and pretending his toy was alive.

“What are you going to do?” asked Madeline.

“Make a tent to have a show,” answered her brother.

“Oh, let me help!” she cried, and she set her Candy Rabbit down on the table near the Monkey and ran out with Herbert. Mother gave the children the sheet, and in a little while the sheet tent was being put up in the yard over the clothesline.

As soon as the Candy Rabbit and Monkey found themselves alone they looked at one another and began to talk, as they were allowed to do.

“Where in the world have you been?” asked the Candy Rabbit.

“You may well ask that,” replied the Monkey. “I have had so many adventures, and I met some friends of yours.”

“Friends of mine?” repeated the Candy Rabbit. “Do you mean the Lamb on Wheels or the Bold Tin Soldier?”

“Neither one. I mean Live Rabbits,” answered the Monkey. Then he told of going to the cave of Jack Hare and of being caught in the rain storm.

“Oh, what wonderful adventures!” exclaimed the Candy Rabbit.

“What happened to you while I was away?” asked the Monkey.

“Oh, many things,” answered the Candy Rabbit. “Once Madeline left me alone, and the cat came in and began to lick the sugar off my pink nose. Another time a little mouse came out of a hole in the closet where I am kept at night, and nibbled a few crumbs of sweetness off the end of my stubby tail.”

“Gracious!” cried the Monkey. “Weren’t you scared?”

“A little,” answered the Rabbit. “But I jumped to one side, and when Madeline opened the closet door the mouse ran away.”

All the while the Monkey and Candy Rabbit were talking, Herbert, Dick and Arnold, with Madeline, Dorothy and Mirabell to help, were putting up the sheet tent in Herbert’s yard. The clothesline was pulled tight between two posts and the sheets put over the line. The edges were fastened to the ground with wooden rings, and then some pieces of cloth were pinned to the back of the sheet to close that end. It took two or three days to make the tent, but at last it was finished.

“We’ll leave one end open for the front door,” said Herbert.

“But if we do that everybody can look in and see our show for nothing,” objected Dick. “That isn’t right. They ought to give one pin, or two pins, to come to see our show.”

“We can pin some pieces of cloth at the front end of the tent,” suggested Mirabell. “I have an old shawl over at my house that Mother lets me spread on the grass when I play with my Lamb on Wheels. I’ll get that to close the front of the tent.”

The old shawl was just what was needed to make a front “door” for the show tent, and soon it was pinned in place. Some old boxes were found by Patrick, the kind gardener, and these were to be used for seats.

“Now we’d better all go and get our things that are going to be in the show,” said Herbert. “I’ll bring out my Monkey.”

“And I’ll get my Candy Rabbit,” offered Madeline.

“I’ll have to have somebody help me carry over my Tin Soldier Captain and all the men,” said Arnold. “I don’t want to drop any of ’em.”

“I’ll help you, as soon as I bring out my Monkey,” offered Herbert.