f her older
brother.

"We'll lay the banana in the middle of the net," decided Ted.

This was done, and when the curtain was held stretched as tightly as
Janet and Teddy could pull it, as they had once seen the Cresco firemen
stretch out a life-net in a practice drill, the banana was placed in the
center.

"Come on now, Jack! Jump down!" called Teddy. "Jump down and get your
other banana!"

Jack chattered, but did not jump. He clung to the edge of the tower of
boxes, made two or three motions as if he were coming down, but he did
not descend.

"I guess he doesn't see the banana," remarked Janet. "One of us ought to
hold it up."

"We can't, and hold the net too," Teddy declared. "And if we don't hold
the net, and Jack jumps, he may hurt himself, and then he can't be in the
show."

"Oh, I know what we can do!" Janet declared.

"What?" asked Teddy.

"We can have Trouble hold the banana! Let him stand right near the
outside edge of the net, near the middle, and hold up the banana. Then
Jack will see it and jump."

"That is a good idea," remarked Teddy. He was always willing to give his
sister credit for thinking of things to do. "Come on, Trouble," called
Teddy to his brother. "Hold the banana up for Jack!"

"Eess, me do dat!" replied Baby William, so excited he could hardly talk
at all, much less talk properly.

Eager to do his share in getting ready for the circus, Trouble held the
banana up as high as he could reach, so that Jack could see it. And this
time the monkey caught sight of the fruit.

With a chatter of delight at the good things he was getting to eat, Jack
came down, but not exactly in the way Janet and Teddy wanted him to. For
the pet _climbed_ down the boxes, which were of different sizes, making
many places where he could hold on by his hands and tail. He didn't jump
at all!

With a chatter and a scramble, Jack reached the ground, ran around the
net to where Trouble stood, and then just reached up, plucked the fruit
from the little chap's hand and began to eat it. And it was all done so
quickly that Ted and Janet hardly had time to say a word.

Finally, however, after laughing at the funny look on Trouble's face when
he saw the monkey snatch away the banana, Teddy said:

"Oh, Jack! I didn't mean for you to come down that way! I wanted you to
jump into the net! Here, you can't have the rest of that banana until you
jump for it."

Teddy took the fruit away from his fuzzy pet, and Jack