And the next day Teddy, Janet and Jimmy began to teach the pets some new tricks. I will tell you about them when the time comes. It was not easy work, and more than once the Curlytops and their friend were discouraged. For just when they thought they had Top and Skyrocket so they would do a trick together, one or the other of the dogs would run away, wagging his tail, however, in friendly fashion, to show there were no hard feelings.
The cats were the hardest to teach. Snuff did very well with his ball rolling trick and one or two others, and Turnover would turn in a sort of side-somersault whenever told to do so by Janet. But to teach the two cats to do tricks together was much harder.
It was this—the tricks they could do together—that made Tip and Top such a valuable team of dogs.
"Do you think you'll ever get Tip back?" asked Jimmy, as he, with the Curlytops, was resting one day after putting the pets through some of their tricks.
"We keep hoping so," said Janet.
"But it doesn't look so now," added her brother. "He's been gone so long, and not even the police can find him. They can't find Shorty, either. I guess Shorty and Tip ran a way together."
"And maybe Shorty has Tip in a circus, making him do tricks," added Janet.
"Maybe," agreed Teddy. "But now we've got to think where we're going to get a tent for our show. If we give a pet animal circus we've got to have a tent."
"Sure!" agreed Jimmy. "It wouldn't be a circus without a tent. But maybe my father can get us one. He used to be in the army."
"Oh, let's go ask him!" cried Janet. "We can leave our pets here in the barn now, for they've been fed and watered."