I'll help you lock up every night," added Janet.

"Well, then I will leave the pets to you Curlytops," said their father.
"It is on your account that your mother and I are keeping them instead of
selling them, and while they will be some care, we do not mind if you do
your share."

"The first thing I'm going to do," said Teddy, when he and Janet were
left to themselves, their father going to his store, "is to see how many
tricks Top can do."

"Isn't it too bad we haven't Tip?" said Janet. "They were so cute
together!"

"Yes," agreed her brother. "But maybe I can make Skyrocket let Top ride
on his back, and teach 'em some other tricks. Come here, Top!" he called
to the white poodle with the black spot on top of his head. "Let's see
you walk on your hind legs."

Top was very willing to do this, and while Ted and Janet sat on boxes in
the barn, with their other pets around them, Uncle Toby's poodle went
through his performance. When he had walked on his hind legs in a little
circle he suddenly sneezed.

"Oh, maybe he's catching cold!" cried Janet.

"No, I think that was a trick," suggested Teddy. "Sneeze, Top!" he
ordered. Surely enough, the poodle sneezed, and he would do it every time
Teddy or Janet told him to.

"Oh, he knows two tricks, besides the one he does with Tip," Teddy said
in delight. "Maybe he does a lot more. I wish Uncle Toby had written them
down, so we'd know what the dogs can do for our circus."

"We can write to Uncle Toby, when daddy gets the address, and ask about
the tricks," Janet said.

"Yes," agreed Teddy, "we can do that. I wonder if Slider can do any
tricks?" he asked, when Top had been rewarded for his efforts with a
little bone to gnaw.

[Illustration: SLIDER WENT SLIDING DOWN THE SMOOTH SLANTING BOARD. "The
Curlytops and Their Pets." Page 102]

"Do alligators do tricks?" asked Janet, as she reached in through the
bars of Mr. Nip's cage and scratched the head of the red and green
parrot.

"I guess they do," Teddy answered. "If they don't we'll teach our Slider
to do a trick. I'm going to take him out of his tank."

The cage of the little pet alligator was a sort of tank, in the bottom of
which was some water, and in this were little pebbles, like those in some
goldfish bowls. The tank stood near a window in the barn where the sun
shone in, for Mr. Martin had told the Curlytops that their pets who lived
in warm, or tropical, countries must be kept where it was warm and sunny.