The Curlytops and Their Playmates Part 15

I wish you could have seen Fluff lap up the milk, which was warmed for him and put in a saucer on the floor of the automobile. He was hungry--was the little stray kitten that had come down out of the evergreen tree--and his little sides seemed to swell out like balloons as he lapped up every drop of milk.

"I hope your cat Choo-Choo won't get hungry," said Jan, as the last of the milk disappeared.

"I can get him some more," said the agent. "Anyhow, he isn't as hungry as your p.u.s.s.y was."

"Good-bye!" called Uncle Toby, as he started off once more. "I hope the stalled pa.s.sengers will soon be shoveled out."

"I guess they will be," the agent said.

It was almost dark when the big automobile reached the village of Pocono where Uncle Toby lived.

"Now we'll soon be snug and warm," he told the children. "I have more of a load than when I started, but I'm glad I found you two," he said to Mary and Harry. "You're going to have a good time with my Curlytops."

Harry and Mary, who had never had much of a good time in all their lives, were beginning to be happy. They had been very small when their father went off to war--they hardly remembered him, in fact. Mr. Benton need not have gone, had he wished to stay at home, for he could have been excused, or have done some other war work than fighting. But he was a brave man and wanted to do his best for his country. So he had gone to France. After awhile he was missing, and though his wife was helped by her friends and by the government, still she had hard work to get along and there was not much money with which to give Mary and Harry good times. But happier days were ahead of them.

"There's Uncle Toby's house!" cried Ted, as the automobile turned into the driveway.

"Oh, but something has happened!" exclaimed Jan. "Look! There's a crowd out in front!"

And surely enough, a throng of people could be seen standing in the dusk and storm in front of Uncle Toby's home.

CHAPTER X

AMONG THE PETS

As the automobile driven by Uncle Toby and containing the Curlytops and their playmates came to a stop near the side entrance to Mr. Bardeen's house, the door opened, letting out a stream of light on the white snow.

"Is that the police?" asked a voice which Ted remembered as that of Mrs.

Watson, or "Aunt Sallie," as Uncle Toby called her.

"No, this isn't the police," Uncle Toby answered, through the half-opened door of the car that Ted had unlatched, ready to leap out.

Aunt Sallie did not seem to know Uncle Toby's voice, for she asked another question.

"Is it the firemen then?"

"Good gracious!" cried Uncle Toby, opening the automobile door wider, so that a swirl of snow drifted in. "What in the world is the matter? Why do you want the firemen and policemen, Aunt Sallie?"

"Oh, thank goodness! It's you, is it, Uncle Toby?"

"Yes! Yes!" was the quick answer. "You stay in the car a moment, children," said Mr. Bardeen, as he got out on the side of the steering wheel. "Something must have happened. I'll see what it is."

Just then the crowd, which stood partly in the street and partly in the yard of Uncle Toby's house, but up at the farther end, away from the driveway, gave a shout.

"There he goes!" cried several voices.

"What can have happened?" exclaimed Janet, greatly excited.

"It's a fire, I guess," said Ted. "Aunt Sallie was asking for the firemen."

"And she asked for the policemen, too," said Tom. "Maybe it's a burglar up on the roof."

"That's right!" chimed in Harry, the new boy. "And maybe he's trying to go down the chimney."

"Like Santa Claus," added his sister Mary, whom Jan and Lola had begun to like very much.

"I want to see Santa C'aus!" cried Trouble, and he made a wiggle to get out of the open door by which Uncle Toby had left.

"No! No!" cried Ted, catching hold of his little brother.

"Something has happened, anyhow," decided Tom. "This crowd wouldn't be here for nothing. But I don't believe it's a fire, for there isn't any smoke. I guess the reason Aunt Sallie wanted the firemen was because they have ladders to get somebody down off the roof."

"Who could be up on the roof?" Jan wanted to know.

No one answered, but as both front doors of the closed automobile were now open the children could hear what Uncle Toby and Aunt Sallie were saying.

"What in the world has happened?" asked Uncle Toby.

"It's Jack, your monkey," was the answer. "He got loose a little while ago and scrambled up on the roof. He's perched there now, near the chimney. First I knew of it was when I saw a lot of boys in front of the house, looking up. I thought the chimney was on fire."

"Was that why you wanted the firemen?" asked Uncle Toby.

"Partly," answered Aunt Sallie. "I telephoned for the fire department, and when I heard your automobile in the side yard I thought it was the firemen."

"But why did you send for the firemen when you found out the chimney wasn't burning?" Uncle Toby asked.

"I thought they could get the monkey down with ladders," was the housekeeper's reply.

"Then why did you send for the police?" went on Uncle Toby.

"To keep the crowd in order," sighed Aunt Sallie. "Oh, I've had such a time! Some of the boys cut up so, and threw s...o...b..a.l.l.s at Jack."

"My goodness! That's so, it is snowing!" cried Uncle Toby, as if, for the time, he had forgotten all about it. "Poor Jack will catch his death of cold up there on the roof in the storm. How did he get out? Never mind; don't tell me now! I must get him down before he gets pneumonia.

Monkeys are very likely to get that if they get a chill."

"I don't believe he'll get cold," said Aunt Sallie. "He has a coat on."

"A coat on? Whose coat?"

"One of your old ones," answered Aunt Sallie. "He grabbed it up off the rack as he scrambled out of the window and climbed the rain-water pipe to the roof. If any one can get him down, you can, Uncle Toby."

"Yes, I guess I can. Jack always minds me. But it's hard to see him in the dark."

"Oh, the electric light in front s.h.i.+nes right on the roof," replied Aunt Sallie. "And as the roof is white with snow, Jack shows quite plain. Do get him down so the crowd will go away."