So Uncle Wiggily hid the club under an apple tree, but the monkey said it would be needed, and he wanted Uncle Wiggily to keep it, and take a whip, too.  But the old rabbit shook his head.

“I’ll try being kind to the boys,” he said.  “You let me have my way, Mr. Monkey.”

Well, pretty soon, not so very long, the show began.  The monkey went inside the tent, and he blew on the horn, and he made music on the fiddle, and sang a funny song about a little great big pussy, who had a red balloon.  She stuck a pin inside it, and it played a go-bang! tune.

Of course, as soon as the show started the people came crowding up to the tent, just as they do at the circus.  There were men and women, and little boys and girls, and big boys and girls, and they all wanted to get inside to see what the monkey was doing.  But, do you know, I believe all that he was doing was playing monkey-doodle tricks—­but, of course, I might be mistaken.

Well, as it always happens, some boys didn’t have any money with which to pay their way inside the tent.  And, of course, as it will sometimes happen, one boy said to another: 

“Hey!  I know a way we can crawl in under the tent, and see the show, and not have anything to pay.”

“But that wouldn’t be fair,” spoke the other boy.  “It would be cheating, and there’s nothing meaner in this world than to cheat, whether it’s playing a baseball game or going to a circus.”

“I guess you’re right,” said the first boy.  “What shall we do, though?  I want to see the show.”

“Well, we must be fair, anyhow,” spoke the second boy.  “We can’t crawl in under the tent, but perhaps if we ask the monkey to let us in for nothing he’ll do it.”

“Very well, we will,” said the first boy.  So they went up to the monkey and asked if they could go in for nothing, but, of course, he wouldn’t let them.

“May we crawl in under the tent, then?” asked the second boy.

“If Uncle Wiggily will let you,” answered the monkey, blinking his two eyes and wrapping his tail around his neck.

So those boys tried to crawl in under the tent, and as soon as Uncle Wiggily saw them he rushed up and cried out: 

“Hey!  Hold on there!  Nobody must go under the tent.  You must buy a ticket,” and he shook a feather at the boys and, instead of hitting them, he only tickled them, and didn’t hurt them a bit, for they sneezed.

Well, those boys were very troublesome.  They kept on trying to crawl under the tent, and Uncle Wiggily rushed here, there and around the corner trying to stop them, and he cracked the lash on his whip, just like the man in the circus ring.  But those boys kept on trying to crawl under the tent, for the monkey had given them permission, you see.

So finally Uncle Wiggily said: 

“I’ll give those boys a little show myself, outside the tent, for nothing.  Then maybe they’ll stop bothering me.”