Jane said: “All right, Billy. We can try it, but I doubt if it will work. I love Butch. I think he’s clever and cute, but he’s so perverse that if he thought we really wanted him to do one thing, he’d do another.”
They walked down to the cottage together and found Butch playing the piano. He was delighted to see them so soon after he had been banished, and he seemed to listen very carefully while Billy explained what they wanted him to do.
“You go back under the little cottage,” said Bill, “and bring us the purse you found.” He gave him a playful little push, and then brother and sister lay flat on the grass, watching to see how he would obey their instructions. He made straight for the hiding place, dug for a moment, and then dragged forth the purse. He held it up for their delighted applause.
“Good work, Butchie.”
“Good monkey!”
Even as they spoke there was a wild uproar, and Buick, the neighbor’s dog appeared at the other side of the cottage. He was barking with all the fury that the sight of the monkey always aroused in him.
Butch grabbed his prize to his chest, and raced for the porch pillars. He was up as fast as you could call his name. Once off the ground, he was safe from Buick’s angry barking. He put his purse in a safe place, and then leaned over the porch roof to see what was going on. When the children would beg him to come down he would place both paws over his heart, and roll his eyes, as if to say, “Can’t you see that this black, short-legged, bewhiskered monster would tear me to shreds?” The next minute he would wave his little red shirt like a bullfighter at the dog, and grin and prance in glee from his safe perch.
Mom appeared to find out what all the shouting and barking was about. She smiled at Butchie’s predicament, and told Bill to quiet Buick and take him home.
“Okay, Mom. Then I’ll get a ladder and go up and rescue Butch.”
“No, whatever you do, don’t go up on that roof,” said Mrs. Murray seriously. “There’s a loose wire up there that could give you a very bad shock. If Daddy is able to come out this week-end, he’ll go up there and repair it, but in the meantime, don’t any of you go near it.”