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Freddie's Engine · The Bobbsey Twins at Cherry Corners

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  Chapter twenty one of The Bobbsey Twins at Cherry Corners by Laura Lee Hope.
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  This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Freddy's Engine, Missus Bobbsey did
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  not know for a moment whether or not to take seriously what Bert said.
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  He seemed to be laughing and was much excited, and he often played jokes.
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  But Nan joined in. Yes, mother, I saw the monkeys.
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  First. They frightened me, and I ran and dropped the bag of sugar.
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  Then I met Bert and we went back to look, and the monkeys
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  had taken all the sugar out of the bag and were up in a tree.
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  You ought to see them, really, asked Missus Bobbsey. Real monkeys,
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  exclaimed Bert. We didn't know where they were from, but if they
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  got out of the circus train, there will be a reward for telling about
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  them or getting them back. I'm going to do it. Wait a minute
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  now, Bert advised his mother. Tell me more about this. This he
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  and Nan did by turns. Then Missus Bobbsey read from the weekly paper the
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  account of the monkeys getting away from the circus train. It appeared that when
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  the circus train reached the town for which it was headed. When passing through
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  cherry Corners, it was discovered that about eighteen monkeys, most of them captives
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  fresh from the jungle, had gotten out of their traveling cage, and none
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  of the circus men knew where they were. The beasts, it was said
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  in the paper, were not dangerous unless someone tried to harm them. But
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  they are very mischievous, the paper said, and will pick up little things,
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  especially if they were bright in color. So if any nearby residents miss
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  looking glasses or silver knives or forks, they may guess that some of these
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  escaped monkeys are in their vicinity, unless it can be proved that human hands
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  had to do with the disappearance of the trinkets. That's it, cried Bert,
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  excitedly, jumping about. That's it, what's what, asked his mother,
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  smiling at his eagerness. That's what has been happening to the things that
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  have been missing from around here, Bert went on. Those monkeys had been
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  coming in windows at night and taking everything they could lay their hands on.
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  Monkeys haven't hands, Nan declared to her brother. Well, pause then,
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  but monkeys do have hands, men and the apes have hands, and not
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  pause, missus Bobbsey told the twins, it's all the same. I wonder
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  if they took my watch, cried Bert excitedly. If they did, then
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  Nick didn't do it, Nan remarked, no, I guess he didn't.
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  Bert answered, isn't it queer? Who would ever think of a troop of
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  monkeys escaping from a circus train and hiding in the woods around here to take
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  things? Flossie and Freddy came along just then, and, hearing some of
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  what was said, asked to be told the whole story, which was related
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  to them. If the monkeys take any of my dolls, I'll chase after
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  them, threatened FLOSSI so will I if they take my toy fire engine,
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  declared Freddy, and I'll pull their long tails. Now see here, exclaimed
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  their mother. Seriously, I don't want you twins to start any monkey hunts
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  by yourselves. Remember that Flossie and Freddy, and she shook a finger at
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  each of them in turn. May I hunt the monkeys, ask Bert,
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  Not unless your father, says so, answered his mother. Even though monkeys
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  are funny to look at, they may bite or scratch if you try to
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  catch them. Wait until your father comes home, and we will tell him
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  all about these escaped monkeys, don't you think. Mother asked Bert that we
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  had better tell mister Tansey and the other farmers. Now maybe they might want
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  to try to catch the monkeys. The monkeys might spoil a lot of cherries,
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  that's so, agreed missus Bobbsey. Well, then Bert, you and
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  Nan may spread the news. After lunch, Bert went back to his work
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  of picking cherries, and the news he brought with him caused a stir.
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  It spread from one farm to another, and several of the men engaged in
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  picking cherries gave up their jobs and started off for the woods, saying they
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  were going to try to capture a monkey or two and get the reward they
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  were sure the circus people would offer. There was much talk as to how
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  the monkeys could have gotten out of their car, but no one knew for
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  certain. When Bert was on his way home that evening after his day in
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  the cherry orchard, he met some of the men who had gone to the
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  woods to hunt monkeys. Did you catch any, he asked? Not a
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  one, was the answer of a big, good natured man. I guess
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  the monkeys got word we were coming and they hid. But they're in the
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  woods, all right, said another man. We saw several farmers who had
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  caught sight of them. Bert said that if the monkeys had escaped when the
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  circus train passed through Cherry Corners some days ago, it was queer that they
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  had only showed themselves now when Nan first caught sight of them. I guess
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  they hid in the woods, afraid to come out after they escaped from the
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  circus car, said the big man. When they got hungry, though,
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  they began showing themselves. I guess the sugar your sister dropped was just what
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  they wanted. Bert agreed this might be so, and hurried home to see
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  if his father had arrived. As Bert wanted permission to hunt the long tailed
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  creatures. Mister Bobbsey's train was not yet in but would come soon. Meanwhile,
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  Missus Bobbsey, the children, and Dinah talked about the monkeys that it
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  was thought were roaming the woods in the neighborhood of Cherry Corners. It must
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  have been dim longtail chaps. What done took my shiny pans, declared Dinah.
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  And maybe they took my cake and Nick didn't at all, added Nan.
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  That's so, admitted Bert. I didn't think of that all the while.
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  I was sure Nick did it. And it was a monkey that came
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  into my room that night, exclaimed Freddy. I believe it was, said
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  his mother, and in mine too, went on. Flossie, did it
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  look like a monkey, asked Nan. I don't exactly remember, but it
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  had a long tail, said the little girl. It was surmised by more
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  than Freddy and Flossy that one or more of the circus animals had entered the
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  Bobbsey house, not only in the night when Flossie and Freddy saw them,
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  but several other times when things were taken. Then a monkey must have my
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  knife, said mister Bobbsey when he reached home a little later in the evening
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  and heard the story. This is great news, wild monkeys in cherry Land,
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  and he laughed as he pretended to wrestle with Freddy. Can we hunt
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  them, asked Bert eagerly. If we could catch them, we'd get a
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  big reward from the circus. Maybe and maybe not, laughed mister Bobbsey.
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  I guess the circus people would be glad to pay a reward, for monkeys
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  are valuable animals, but it isn't so easy to catch them. However,
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  we'll see about it. Mister Bobbsey talked with his farmer neighbors, and they
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  all agreed that something ought to be done, not because the monkeys were dangerous,
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  but that they were mischievous. That night, Flossie and Freddy hardly wanted
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  to go to bed, fearing one of the long tail creatures might again come
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  in the window. But their mother pointed out to them that now their windows
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  had wire screens in, which was not the case before, and no monkeys
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  could get in. This satisfied the small twins, and at last they fell
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  asleep. Bert and some of the other boy cherry pickers were on the lookout
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  until it was time for them to go to bed, but they neither saw
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  nor heard anything of the monkeys. The next day, when Bert had gone
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  to pick cherries in his father's orchard, now the last of the crop at
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  Redgate Farm was being gathered, something happened in Dinah's kitchen. Bert had come
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  to the house for a drink of water after spending some time up in a
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  tree, when he heard Dinah shouting, get out, get out my kitchen,
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  you long tailed limp. Then followed a shrill chattering and the sound of
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  blows. Dinah's caught a monkey, cried Freddie, who was playing in the
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  yard with his toy fire engine. Dinah's caught a monkey. Much excited,
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  he and Bert, followed by Flossie and Nan, ran to the rear of
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  the house. They saw a curious sight. Perched on the wind and of
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  sill of the kitchen was a large monkey. But it did not seem to
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  be running away. In fact, it could not. Something was holding it
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  fast. Dinah's got him by the tail, yelled Bert with a laugh.
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  That is just what had happened. The black cook had surprised a monkey in
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  her kitchen in the act of taking a cake off the table. She rushed
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  at the animal at the same time, banging two empty pans together and shouting
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  an alarm. The monkey chattered back. Then the fat cook made a jump
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  and caught hold of the monkey's tail as it leaped for the window. Get
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  out of muck kitchen, yelled Dinah, But the poor monkey could not while
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  she had hold of its tail. At last, however, the monkey pulled
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  loose and with a final scream and chatter of rage and pain, climbed up
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  into a tree. Clutching in one hand the remains of the crushed cake.
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  Where am the police? Cried Dinah, get me a policeman. Honey,
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  lambs, she begged the boar twins. I done wance that monkey arrested.
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  But Bert, Nan and the others were laughing so hard they could not have
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  called a policeman had there been one in Cherry Corners. The beasts are certainly
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  getting very bold, declared Missus Bobbsey, when in answer to the shouts of
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  excitement and laughter she arrived on the scene. I think your father will have
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  to notify the circus people to come and get their jungle beasts. Maybe the
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  whole circus will come here, said Flossi with a laugh. Missus Bobbsey and
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  the older twins went around to the front yard, leaving Dinah bemoaning her lost
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  cake. Then a sudden cry of dismay arose from Freddy. Maybe a monkey
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  has him, shouted Nan, starting on a run, followed by Bert and
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  his mother. But Freddy's voice came back to them as he cried, my
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  injun's gone. My toy fire engine. I just saw among you take it.
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  Oh, he's got my engine. Bert and Nan ran around the corner
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  of the house just in time to see one of the long tailed apes scampering
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  up a tree with Freddy's beloved toy. End of Chapter twenty one, read
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  by Martha Heaton, October twenty twenty three,