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“Oh, thank you!” said Sidney, when he had his toy once more. And a little later the Calico Clown was back home. But his adventures were not over.

CHAPTER X

THE TOY PARTY

“Oh, Sidney! aren’t you glad you have your Calico Clown back?” cried his sister Madeline when she saw her brother coming toward the house with his toy which he had got at Arnold’s home. “I just guess I am!” said the little boy. “I thought I’d never see him again.”

“And I’m glad, too,” cried Herbert, as he made his Monkey go up and down the Stick. “Now we can get ready for our circus.”

“Are you going to have a show?” asked Madeline.

“Yes,” answered Sidney. “We have a Clown and a Monkey, and they’re always the funniest things in a circus. Don’t you remember when we had the show with my Monkey in it?”

“Yes. And that was lots of fun,” said Madeline. “But I know something better than a show.”

“What?” Sidney asked.

“A party,” went on Madeline. “Let’s have a Toy Party. That will be better than a show, even a circus show.”

Sidney wanted to know how it would be better, and Madeline said:

“‘Cause you can have things to eat at a Toy Party, and you can’t always have things at a circus, lessen you buy ’em; and maybe not then, ‘cepting peanuts and lemonade. Let’s have a Toy Party and we can get mother to give us real things to eat.”

“Oh, that will be fun!” cried Sidney. “I should say so!” agreed Herbert.

“And we’ll ask Dorothy to bring her Sawdust Doll,” said Madeline, “Arnold can bring his Bold Tin Soldier, and Mirabell her Lamb on Wheels. And I’ll bring my Candy Rabbit.”

“You did have a party for him,” said Herbert.

“Well, this one can be for Sid’s Calico Clown,” explained Madeline. “And you can bring your Monkey on a Stick, Herb.”

The idea of a Toy Party seemed to please the two boys, and Madeline was glad she had thought of it. She lost no time in getting ready for it.

“I’ll go and put a new ribbon on the neck of my Candy Rabbit,” she said to her brothers. “You get your Monkey and Clown all nice and clean, and then I’ll ask Mother if Cook can make a special cake.”

“My Monkey is clean enough,” said Herbert. “Dirt doesn’t show on him, anyhow. He’s colored brown.”

“And my Clown’s pretty good, even if he did fall in a dirt hole,” went on Sidney. “A Clown has to be a little dirty, for he falls all over the circus ring, you know.”

“There isn’t going to be any circus ring at our Toy Party,” laughed Madeline. “Now I’ll go and see about the cake.”

“And we’ll go and tell Dick, Arnold and the girls,” said Sidney. “Here, Madeline, please keep my Calico Clown for me until I come back.”

Away he ran with his brother, who carried the Monkey on a Stick. The Calico Clown rather hoped the long-tailed chap would be left to keep him company, but it was not to be just yet.

“But perhaps I can talk to the Candy Rabbit while Madeline is getting ready for the party,” thought the Clown. “He and I are old friends.”

But even this was not to be. Madeline probably did not think that the Clown would have liked to be with some of the other toys for a while. She just kept hold of the gay red and yellow fellow after her brother had handed him to her, and took him with her to the kitchen, where she knew her mother was.

“Oh, Mother! may Cook bake us a cake for the Toy Party?” cried Madeline, and, not thinking what she was doing, she laid the Calico Clown down in a large basket of oranges which the fruit man had just set on the kitchen table.

“A cake for a Toy Party?” repeated Mother. “Yes, I think so. Tell me more about it.”