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“Isn’t this a wonderful show?” whispered the Sawdust Doll to the Monkey, when she had a chance, as the children crowded down to one end of the tent to get some cookies Herbert’s mother brought out to them.

“Yes, you did your part very well,” whispered back the Monkey. “Do you think I shall get a chance to do any of my tricks?”

“Oh, yes,” answered the Doll. “I’m sure you’re going to be the best part of the show.”

When the cookies were eaten, Herbert again took the part of ringmaster.

“The next thing in the show will be a fight with the Tin Soldiers,” said Herbert. “Mr. Dick will take half of them and Mr. Arnold will take the other half, and there will be a battle right here in the tent.”

Dick and Arnold divided the Tin Soldiers between them, and set them in two armies on one of the big box tops. Then the tin fighters were moved backward and forward, just as in real battle.

“Bang! Bang!” Arnold would shout. “Bang! Bang!” Dick would answer, and so the make-believe guns were fired. The Bold Tin Soldier Captain was moved to and fro, and so were the privates, the Corporal and the Sergeant.

“Now the fight is over,” said Herbert, after a while. “We’ll make believe both sides won, ’cause it will be nicer that way. And you can take the soldiers away, Arnold, ’cause next is going to be a race between the Candy Rabbit and the Lamb on Wheels.”

“Oh, my Rabbit can’t race with the Lamb!” objected Madeline. “The Lamb is too big.”

“Yes, I guess that’s so,” admitted her brother. “Well, then the next part of the show,” he cried in a loud voice, “will be when the Candy Rabbit rides around the ring on the back of the Lamb on Wheels.”

“Oh, that will be nice,” said Mirabell, blowing a kiss to her woolly Lamb.

The two girls left their seats and took their places in the middle of the tent. Mirabell tied a string to her Lamb and then Madeline took her Candy Rabbit and held him on the fleecy back of the Lamb.

Around and around the little grass ring in the tent rode the Candy Rabbit on the back of the Lamb, and the boys and girls thought it was a very nice part of the show. One of the Lamb’s wheels squeaked a little where she had caught rheumatism after her ride down the brook.

“And now we come to the last act!” said Herbert. “This will be some tricks by my Monkey on a Stick.”

“I’m glad my chance has come at last,” thought the Monkey to himself. “I must do my best!”

The Monkey had got back on his stick himself after he had driven the Goat out of the tent, and now the funny chap was all ready to do whatever Herbert wanted.

“The first trick,” said the little boy ringmaster, “will be turning a front somersault!”

He pulled the string, up the stick went the Monkey, and then and there, before the crowd of boys and girls in the tent, the lively fellow turned a somersault head over tail.

“Hurray! Hurray!” cried Dick and the others, clapping their hands.

“The next trick,” went on Herbert, “will be when my Monkey turns a back somersault.”

Once more the string was pulled. Up the stick shinned the Monkey, and, when he reached the top, he turned a back somersault. Of course this was harder than a front one, and the boys and girls clapped all the more.

“And now, Ladies and Gentlemen!” cried Herbert, just like a real ringmaster in a real circus, “the next trick will be when my Monkey does a flip-flap-flop!”

And, indeed, that was a very hard trick to do. But the Monkey did it when Herbert pulled the string, and all the boys and girls said it was fine, and that the show was one grand affair.

The Monkey did several other tricks, and then Herbert’s mother, outside the tent, called, just like a circus vendor: