Up ran Carlo; and as soon as he saw the brook full of water what did that little dog do but start to run right into it!

“Oh, look out!  Stop him!” cried Herbert.  “He’ll get my Monkey all wet and spoil him!”

“Come back, Carlo!  Come back!” ordered Dick, making a jump toward his pet.

But Carlo had no idea of going too deep into the brook.  He just wanted to get a drink.  So he waded in only a little way, stopping just before the dangling feet of the Monkey would have got wet.

“Oh, I guess he isn’t going to roll in the water,” said Dick.  “Sometimes he does that—­just rolls right over in it like a fish.”

“If he did that now, with my Monkey on his back, he’d spoil him,” said Herbert.  “I’m glad he didn’t.”

Carlo lapped the cool water up with his red tongue, and then he waded out of the brook and toward the boys.  He seemed to be asking them: 

“What shall we do next?  That was fun—­giving the Monkey a ride.  But what shall we do next?”

“I know what we can do,” said Dick to Herbert, after they had sailed some little make-believe ships in the brook, while Carlo lay in the grass on the bank.  “We can take your Monkey and my dog down the street.  People will see him and laugh.  Shall we do that?”

“Oh, yes.  Let’s do it!” exclaimed Herbert.

Once more the boys started to run across the meadow, and Carlo, seeing them go, and not wanting to be left behind, started after them with a “bow-wow.”  The Monkey was still on his back.

The two boys were almost across the meadow, and were thinking what fun it would be to see the dog going down the street, giving the Monkey a ride, when, all of a sudden, Carlo saw a cat.

Now you know what dogs do when they see cats.  They chase them, just for fun, you understand.  And this is what Carlo did—­he raced after this cat as fast as he could go.

“Carlo!” chattered the Monkey.

Now, somehow or other, the strings by which the boys had fastened the Monkey on the back of the dog had become loosened.  One knot after another came undone, and the Monkey felt himself slipping.

“Oh, wait a minute!  Wait a minute, Carlo!” cried the Monkey, for he could talk now, being out of hearing of the boys.  “Wait!  Wait!” cried the Monkey.  “I am falling off!”

“I can’t wait!” barked Carlo.  “I must get that cat!”

On he ran, faster than before.  Dick and Herbert saw him, and Dick cried: 

“Oh, look at my dog chasing a cat.  Let’s see if he gets her.”

So they ran after the dog.

Faster and faster went Carlo, and the strings that held the Monkey on became looser and looser until, at last, they slipped off altogether, and down fell the Monkey into the grass.

The grass was tall and thick, and at the moment when the Monkey fell Dick and Herbert were down in a sort of little valley, and they did not see what had happened.  So the Monkey fell off the dog’s back before they noticed it.