“Now put Patter up on it and see if he’ll stay there and swing,” suggested Charlie.
They made a pile of boxes near the trapeze, and Bunny got his dog to get up on the boxes. Then, pointing to the trapeze, Bunny called:
“Jump up there, Patter.”
The dog jumped, but the board was smooth and his toenails, not being sharp, like those of a cat, just slid off, so that Patter fell down on a pile of hay on the other side of the trapeze. He did not hurt himself—in fact he thought it was fun—but the trick was spoiled.
“Try it again,” said George, while Wango, Mr. Winkler’s pet monkey, sat in the hay chewing a stem of dried grass and looking like a little old man who had come to see what was going on.
Again Patter jumped, and again he slid off the smooth board into the pile of hay. And then Bunny had an idea.
“If we put a piece of carpet on the board so it won’t be slippery, just as we put carpet on our sleds, Patter won’t slide off,” said Sue’s brother.
“That’s a good idea!” cried Charlie. “Let’s do it.”
Bunny found a piece of carpet and the boys fastened it with ropes to the board that was tied to the trapeze bar. The next time Patter jumped from the pile of boxes to the board he did not slide off, but remained there, slowly swinging to and fro and looking at the boys as much as to say:
“Well, I did it all right that time. Why didn’t you think of the carpet in the first place?”