Herbert and Sidney, standing at the gate, saw the music man turn around the corner of the street.
"Now we'll go back and play with my Monkey and your Clown," said
Herbert. "We'll practice for the circus we're going to have."
"That'll be fun!" laughed Sidney.
But when the two boys went back to the porch—well, you know, as well as I, what happened. They saw the Monkey on a Stick, but no Clown!
"Why—why, where is he?" asked Sidney, looking around. "Did you take him, Herb? Did you take my Calico Clown?"
"No, of course not," answered Herbert. "They were both here when we went to get our bread and jam. Oh, Sid! I know what happened!" he suddenly exclaimed.
"What?" asked his brother.
"The hand-organ monkey took your Clown away with him!" went on
Herbert.
At first Sidney thought that this might be so, but, after thinking over the matter for a moment, he shook his head and answered:
"No, the live monkey didn't take my Clown. Don't you remember? He came up here with his cap in his hand to get our pennies. Then, when he went away, he was sitting on top of the organ and he had his cap off and so did the music man, and they didn't either of them have my Clown."