“I don’t see any monkey,” spoke Tommy, looking all around the playroom.
“Oh, he’s only a make-believe monkey, just as I am a make-believe hand-organ man,” explained Johnny. “Only my music-box is real, of course, and it plays real tunes. Listen!”
Then he played another one for his brother and sister, and they liked it very much.
“I know what I am going to do,” said Johnny, when the tune was over. “I’m going to put a cushion down on the floor, and then my little make-believe monkey won’t be afraid to climb up, for if he falls he won’t get hurt.”
“Why, how funny!” exclaimed Mary. “If he’s a make-believe monkey he can’t fall, so what good will a cushion do him?”
“Oh, but I’m only going to put a make-believe, pretend cushion down for him, so that part is all right,” went on Johnny, and then Mary and Tommy both laughed, and so did Johnny.
They went on playing, Mary with her doll, and Tommy with his toy ship, and Johnny with his music-box and his make-believe monkey. And he pretended that a chair was a house, and he had lots of fun making the make-believe monkey climb up the porch.
After a while Johnny got tired of this game, and Mary got tired of playing with her doll.
“Oh, I wonder what we can do next?” asked the little Trippertrot girl.
“I know,” answered Tommy. “We can pretend that my ship is a real big one, and we can go sailing all over the world. Where shall we go? Mary can have first choice, because she is a girl.” And then Tommy put his ship in the middle of the playroom floor, and the three children sat around it, and made-believe they were on the deck of it. “Where shall we go first, Mary?” asked her brother, politely.