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“I can ask you a riddle about what makes more noise than a pig under a gate,” said the Clown. “Shall I?”

“Please don’t do that,” begged the monkey. “I never was any good at guessing riddles. Can’t you do anything else?”

“Yes, a few things,” the Clown said. Then he banged his cymbals together and began to jiggle his arms and legs in such a funny way that the monkey who was holding him laughed and laughed and laughed.

“Oh, you are too funny for anything!” cried the monkey. “I’m glad I picked you up. Oh, excuse me while I laugh a little harder!”

The monkey set the Clown down astraddle the limb of a tree near the trunk, and quite a distance up from the ground. Then the monkey laughed so hard that, if he had not been holding on by his tail, he surely would have fallen. For the Clown kept on doing his funny antics and tricks, and the monkey kept on laughing until he had to hold his sides with feet and hands, they ached so.

“Oh, I’m so glad I met you!” said the monkey, when he had a chance between his fits of laughter. “I hope my master comes through this street every day with his hand organ. I’ll be looking for you.”

“And I’ll be looking for you–to keep out of your way, if I can,” thought the Clown, though he did not say it out loud.

The monkey finally grew a little quiet, and he was just going to ask the Clown to do some more jiggling when, all at once, the music of the hand organ stopped, and the Italian man cried:

“Ah, Jacko! I see you! Up-a in de tree. Bad monk! Come down right away to your Tony! Come, Jacko!”

“Oh, goodness me! I’ve got to go. My fun is over! Now I’ve got to go to work gathering pennies in my cap!” said the monkey. “Good-bye!” he called to the Calico Clown, and down out of the tree the monkey began to climb, swinging from limb to limb by his tail, as he used to do in the cocoanut groves of the forest where he had once lived.

“Here! Come back and get me! Don’t leave me up in a tree like this!” begged the Calico Clown, who had sat down astride the limb after he had done his last funny trick. “Come and get me!”

“Sorry, but I haven’t time! My master is calling me! I must go!” answered the monkey, hurrying more than ever. Down the tree he swung.

“Oh take me down! Don’t leave me like this!” begged the Clown. But it was of no use. There he was, left all alone, high up in a tree, sitting on a branch.

Of course neither Tony, the music man, nor Sidney nor Herbert had heard this talk between the toy and the animal, for they spoke in a language that only a few can understand. The organ grinder was anxious for his monkey to come back, and he watched him scrambling down the tree. The two boys, who had gone to get bread and jam, came back to the front yard. They saw the organ grinder and his monkey, and, for the moment, they forgot all about their Clown and the Monkey on a Stick. They did not look toward the porch, or they would have noticed that the Clown was gone, though the toy Monkey was still there. The live monkey was dancing toward the boys, holding out his cap for pennies.

And the Calico Clown was up in the tree, not knowing how in the world he was ever going to get down.

“Oh, look at the monkey!” cried Herbert, as he saw the music man’s long-tailed animal.

“He’s nice,” said Sidney. “He’s like your Monkey on a Stick, only bigger, Herb. I’m going in and ask mother for a penny.”

“So’m I!” said Herbert.

Still thinking that their own toys were safe on the porch, the little boys ran back into the house, where each one got a penny for the hand- organ monkey. And the monkey took off his blue cap to gather the pennies for his master.