top him!"

But it was too late. Jack had jumped!

CHAPTER XVI

TOP IS GONE

Mrs. Martin ran as fast as she could from the back door of the house to
that part of the yard where the Curlytops and Trouble were planning and
practicing the new circus trick. Ted and Janet heard their mother's cry,
and, for the first time, realized that perhaps they had done wrong in
taking the lace curtain for a net.

And by the time Mrs. Martin reached the place where Trouble was standing,
Jack had jumped into the curtain. Right into the middle of it he landed,
and you can guess what happened.

Yes, Jack tore through, making a big hole in the lace. For it was not
strong enough for even a play circus net, and, really, Ted and Janet
should have known this.

Down through the hole in the curtain fell Jack, but he did not go quite
all the way through. That is parts of the torn lace clung to him.

In another instant, after landing lightly on the ground, Jack sprang up,
grabbed the banana away from Trouble, and then made a flying leap for the
nearest tree, trailing the lace curtain after him, dragging it on the
ground, catching it on the branches of the tree and tearing it worse than
ever.

So suddenly did Jack snatch the piece of banana away from Baby William
that the little fellow was knocked down, just as Jack, leaping away from
the Italian hand-organ man, had knocked Teddy to the sidewalk.

"Oh! Oh!" wailed Trouble, and then he began to cry.

"Oh, Curlytops! Curlytops! What have you done?" exclaimed Mrs. Martin in
dismay.

Teddy and Janet could not say a word. They seemed frightened and dazed
when Jack, in his wild leap, pulled the curtain from their grasp.

"We--we----" began Janet.

"Didn't mean to," finished Teddy.

And then Jack began to chatter as he tried to tear loose the lace curtain
which was tangled all about him as he sat perched in a tree, licking
from his paws some bits of crushed banana.

With the crying of Trouble, the chatter of the monkey, and Mrs. Martin
saying: "Oh dear! Oh dear!" again and again, there was quite a little
excitement in the yard of the Curlytops just then.

"Poor Trouble!" sighed Janet, as she walked over to her little brother,
who was crying and sitting on the ground where Jack had knocked him. "Did
the monkey scratch you?"

But Trouble was sobbing too hard to answer.

"What in the world were you doing?" asked Mrs. Martin, as she picked
Trouble up in her arms, and finally made