The boys whooped with delight.
"Let's catch him!" Johnnie Green cried. And then he shouted to the boy who had run away, and who stood a good, safe distance off, looking back and wondering what was going on. "Hi, Bill! It's a monkey!" Johnnie bellowed.
Bill came running back at top speed.
"We're going to catch him," said Johnnie Green.
"How're we going to do that?" asked the boy who had been frightened and run away and come back.
Nobody answered him, for at that moment one of the youngsters flung a butternut at the Major, who caught the missile deftly and shot it back again.
A howl of delight from the ground below greeted the Major's ears.
"Let's stone him!" somebody cried.
But Johnnie Green said, "No! We don't want to hurt him. We'll climb the tree and get him."
His friends agreed that that was the better way, after all. And one after another they began to shin up the tree where Major Monkey was still cutting his queer capers. The boys had no sooner started to climb after him than the Major gave a shrill whistle. He was calling for help. But there was not a general in sight anywhere.