And the man would have
picked Mappo up, and tossed him through the ring, only the monkey did
not wait for that. Instead, he gave a jump himself, and right through
the ring he went, coming down on Prince's back as nicely as you please.
Prince kept right on running around the sawdust ring.
"Fine! That's the way to do it!" cried the circus man, clapping his
hands. "I'll have to get you to show the other monkeys how to do it,
Mappo! You're the first monkey who ever learned that trick so quickly."
I guess I told you Mappo was a smart little chap.
The rest of that day he spent practicing jumping through more
paper-covered hoops, doing some of his jumps from the back of Trotter,
the pony. Then other monkeys were brought in, and they watched Mappo.
"Now let's see if they can do it," said the man, after Mappo had done
his trick several times. Well, the other monkeys tried, and while some
of them could do it pretty well, others fell off, or else were afraid
of the paper hoops. No one did it as well as Mappo.
From then on, the little monkey learned many circus tricks. He did not
learn all of them as easily as he had learned to ride the dog and pony,
or jump through the hoops. In fact, it took him several days to learn
the trick of turning a somersault. And it took him longer to learn to
sit up at a table, and eat with a knife, fork and spoon, dressed up like
a little boy, with real clothes on.
All this while the circus animals had remained in the big, warm barn,
for it was still winter.
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