"The hand-organ man took him away when he was eating a banana," added Teddy.
"Our monkey—his name is Jack—he was eating the banana—not the hand-organ man," said Jan, fearing Mr. Anderson might not understand what her brother meant.
"And he does tricks, and we're going to have him in our little circus—I mean our monkey does tricks," went on Teddy.
"Well, I guess I'll get the straight of it after a while," said Mr. Anderson, with a little laugh. "Anyhow it seems that some stray hand-organ man has taken your monkey, has he?"
"Yes. And we want our monkey back!" cried Janet.
"Then you'd better get up here in the wagon with me," went on the grocery man, "and I'll drive you down the street. It will be quicker than walking, and, as I've delivered all the orders, I'm in no hurry to get back to the store. Hop up, Curlytops!"
He helped Janet and Teddy to the seat beside him, and drove off. It was not the first time the children had ridden with Mr. Anderson, for he often took them with him when he had occasion to stop at their house.
"Do you know which street he went down?" asked the grocery man, as he called to his brown horse which started off again.
"We don't know," answered Teddy. "We didn't see him. We were in the barn, getting some boxes so Jack—that's the monkey—could do some tricks. We left him eating a banana, and when we came out he was gone. But Mrs. Johnson said she saw a hand-organ man come out of our yard and he had a monkey."
"And it must 'a' been Jack!" added Janet.