Toby Tyler; Or, Ten Weeks with a CircusOtis, James
General
Toby Tyler; Or, Ten Weeks with a Circus
Otis, James
Circus -- Fiction; Runaways -- Fiction
“We can't stand this,” moaned Toby to the monkey; “we've got to have
something to drink, or else we can't eat all these sweet things, an' I'm
so tired that I can't go any farther. Don't let's eat dinner now, but
let's stay here an' rest, an' then we can keep on an' look for water.”
Toby's resting spell was a long one, for as soon as he stretched himself
out on the ground he was asleep from actual exhaustion, and did not
awaken until the sun was just setting, and then he saw that, hard as
his troubles had been before, they were about to become, or in fact had
become, worse.
He had paid no attention to his bundles when he lay down, and when he
awoke he was puzzled to make out what it was that was strewn around the
ground so thickly.
He had looked at it but a very short time when he saw that it was what
had been the lunch he had carried so far. After having had the sad
experience of losing his money he understood very readily that the old
monkey had taken the lunch while he slept, and had amused himself by
picking it apart into the smallest particles possible, and then strewn
them around on the ground where he now saw them.
Toby looked at them in almost speechless surprise, and then he turned to
where the old monkey lay, apparently asleep; but as the boy watched him
intently he could see that the cunning animal was really watching him
out of one half closed eye.
“Now you have killed us, Mr. Stubbs,” wailed Toby. “We never can find
our way out of here; an' now we hain't got anything to eat, and by
tomorrow we shall be starved to death. Oh dear! wasn't you bad enough
when you threw all the money away, so you had to go an' do this just
when we was in awful trouble?”
Mr. Stubbs now looked up as if he had just been awakened by Toby's
grief, looked around him leisurely as if to see what could be the
matter, and then, apparently seeing for the first time the crumbs
that were lying around on the ground, took up some and examined them
intently.
“Now don't go to makin' believe that you don't know how they come
there,” said Toby, showing anger toward his pet for the first time. “You
know it was you who did it, for there wasn't anyone else here, an' you
can't fool me by lookin' so surprised.”
It seemed as if the monkey had come to the conclusion that his little
plan of ignorance wasn't the most perfect success, for he walked meekly
toward his young master, climbed up on his shoulder, and sat there
kissing his ear or looking down into his eyes, until the boy could
resist the mute appeal no longer, and took him into his arms and hugged
him closely as he said:
“It can't be helped now, I s'pose, an' we shall have to get along the
best way we can; but it was awful wicked of you, Mr. Stubbs, an I don't
know what we're goin' to do for something to eat.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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