"I'll do all I can!" chattered Mappo, in his monkey language.
This time, after he had ridden around the ring once or twice on the back of Prince, the circus man brought out some big wooden hoops, covered with paper.
"You are to jump through these, Mappo," said the man. "Come, let me see how you can do it." Mappo was riding on Prince's back. All of a sudden, as Prince went around the sawdust ring, he came near to one of the rings the man held out. Mappo did not in the least know what he was to do, but, all at once, the man caught him up off the dog's back, and fairly tossed him through the paper ring. The paper burst with a crackling noise, and Mappo felt himself falling.
"Oh dear!" thought the little monkey, "I wonder where I shall land!"
CHAPTER IX
MAPPO RUNS AWAY
Mappo was so surprised, as he felt himself fairly flying through the paper hoop, that he did not know exactly what was happening.
"I may land on the back of Tum Tum, for all I know," he thought.