on't you want me to come an' help you, Ben?"

"You keep that monkey back, that's all the helpin' I want," Ben replied,
almost sharply, and then the sounds indicated that the cat had suddenly
changed her position to one farther under the barn, while the boy was
trying to frighten her out.

"Give it up, Ben," shouted Toby, after waiting some time longer, and not
seeing any sign of success on the part of his friend. "If you come up
here about dark you'll have a chance to catch her, for she'll have to
come out for something to eat."

"You take the monkey into the house, an' I'll get along all right," was
the almost savage reply. "She smells him, an' jest as long as he's there
she'll stay under here."

It seemed to Toby almost cruel to desert his friend and partner just at
a time when he needed assistance; but he could do no less than go away,
since he had been urged so peremptorily to do so, and, catching his pet
without much difficulty, he carried Mr. Stubbs's brother away from the
scene of the ruin he had caused.

Ben's remark, that the monkey had "broke the show all up," seemed to be
very near the truth; for the boys would not think of going on with so
small a number of animals; and, even if they decided to do without the
menagerie, Bob's calf had wrecked one side of the tent so completely
that that particular piece of canvas was past mending.

"I don't know what we'll do," said Toby, mournfully, after he had
finished telling the story to Aunt Olive. "The boys act as if they
blamed me, because Mr. Stubbs's brother is so bad, and Joe's squirrels
an' Bob's mice are all gone. Ben's hen don't look as if she'd ever
'mount to much, an' it don't seem to me that he can get Mrs. Simpson's
cat an' every one of the kittens out from under the barn."

"Now don't go to worryin' about that, Toby," said Aunt Olive, as she
patted him on the head, and gave him a large piece of cake at the same
time. "You can get a dozen cats for Mrs. Simpson if she wants 'em; and
as for mice, you tell Bob to set his trap out in the granary two or
three times, an' he'll have as many as he can take care of. I'm glad the
squirrels did get away, for it seems such a sin to shut them up in a
cage when they're so happy in the woods."

Toby was cheered by the very philosophical view that Aunt Olive took of
the affair, and came to the conclusion that matters were not more than
half so bad as they might have been.

"You be careful that your monkey don't g