iam first. He needs it more than I."

Mr. Martin advanced toward the monkey, swinging by his tail from the
chandelier, when Mrs. Watson, the housekeeper, said:

"I'll attend to him! I know how to manage Jack if I don't any of the
other animals. I found a way to make him behave. Here!" she suddenly
cried, catching up a feather-duster and shaking it at the long-tailed
creature. "Get back to your cubby-hole, Jack!"

With a shrill chatter the monkey dropped Trouble's cap, which he was
trying to make stick on his own head, and a moment later he jumped down
from the chandelier and scampered into a box at the side of the room.

"That's where he belongs!" said Mrs. Watson. "He's always afraid of that
feather-duster. Maybe he thinks it's a big eagle coming to bite his tail.
Anyhow, show him the feather-duster whenever you want to quiet him."

"That's a good thing to know," said Mr. Martin, when it was a little
quieter in the room, because Jack, the monkey, had stopped chattering.
"But what shall we do about the parrot on my wife's shoulder?"

"Oh, Mr. Nip is all right. He's very gentle," said the housekeeper.
"Uncle Toby named him Mr. Nip because he used to nip and bite when he
first came. But Uncle Toby soon cured him of that. Mr. Nip is a nice
polly."

"I'm a crack! I'm a crack! I'm a crack-crack-cracker!" shrieked the
parrot, and then he flew from Mrs. Martin's shoulder to the regular
perch, near the little cage of the monkey--the "cubby-hole," as Mrs.
Watson called it.

"Thank goodness!" sighed the mother of the Curlytops.

"You scared, Mother?" asked Trouble, who was now wishing the monkey would
come back, for after his first fright, the little fellow rather liked the
fuzzy chap.

"Only a little," said Mrs. Martin, for she thought if the Curlytops were
to have anything to do with Uncle Toby's pets, it would not be well for
her to say they frightened her.

"I 'ike 'em all," remarked Trouble, while Janet was rubbing the big
Persian cat and Ted was playing with the two dogs. "Uncle Toby nice man
to have all nanimals 'ike dis!" and he looked around the room. Surely
there were quite a number of animal pets there.

"How in the world did my uncle ever come to have so many?" asked Mr.
Martin. "And what in the world are we going to do with them?"

"I'll tell you about it after we've fed them," said Mrs. Watson. "They'll
be quieter after they're fed, and you might as well start in now to give
them something to eat. If