He brushed Mappo’s jacket and cap, and then, after a very little breakfast, out they started.  Through street after street they went, but the man did not stop to play in front of any houses.

“I wonder why that is,” thought Mappo, for his master had never done that before.

And then, all of a sudden, Mappo saw a big white tent, with gay flags flying from the poles.  He saw the big red, gold and green wagons.  He heard the neighing of the horses, the trumpeting of the elephants, the roaring of the lions, and the snarling of the tigers.

“Oh, it’s the circus!  It’s my circus!” cried Mappo to himself, and so it was.

“Now we make much money!” said the hand-organ man.  “The people who come to the circus have many pennies.  They give them to me when I play.  Come, Mappo, be lively—­do tricks and get the pennies,” and he shook the string and chain, hurting Mappo’s neck.

Then the organ began to play.  But Mappo did not hear it.  He heard only the circus band.  And he smelled the sawdust ring.

“Oh, I must get back to my dear circus!” he chattered.  Then, with one big, strong pull of his paws, Mappo broke the collar around his neck, and, as fast as he could run, he scampered toward the big tent—­the tent where he knew his cage was.  Oh, how Mappo ran!

CHAPTER XII

MAPPO AND THE BABY

“Come back here!  Come back!  My monkey!  He is running away!” cried the hand-organ man, as he raced after Mappo.  Mappo looked behind, and saw his unkind master coming, so the little monkey ran faster than ever.

“Oh, if I can only find Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, and get up on his back, that man can never get me again!” thought Mappo.  “I must find Tum Tum!”

Into the big circus tent ran Mappo.  The show had not yet begun, and one of the men who was at the entrance to take tickets seeing Mappo, cried out: 

“Ha!  One of our monkeys must have gotten loose.  I will call the animal trainer.”

So Mappo came back to the circus again.  But his adventures were not yet over.

That afternoon, when he had been given his own circus suit, which fitted him better than the one the hand-organ man had put on him, Mappo went through his tricks in the big tent.  He had not forgotten them.

He rode on the back of Prince, the big dog, and also on Trotter, the pony, coming in first in every race.  Then Mappo jumped through the paper-covered hoops, he played soldier, and he sat up at the table and ate his dinner with a knife, fork and spoon, almost as nicely as you could have done it.  He used his napkin, too.

The circus traveled on and on.  One day it came to a big city, and some of the tents were set up in a field, near some houses.  From his place near his cage Mappo could look out of the crack in the top of the tent, and see the windows of the houses near him.