Summer of the Monkeys (28 page)

Daisy brought Jimbo over and set him down in the crib. Right away he got an ear of corn and joined his little friends.

By this time, Mama had gotten over most of her scare. She came over to the corn crib and looked in at the monkeys.

“Why, the poor things are starving to death,” she said, all concerned. “I’ll go and heat a pan of milk for them. I bet they’d like that.”

All excited, Daisy said, “I’ll go and get them some apples.”

Right then I saw a good chance to get back at my little sister.

“Daisy,” I said, trying to act very serious, “if you don’t stop feeding our apples to those monkeys, we’re not going to have any apples left.”

Daisy smiled and said, “Aw, Jay Berry, you’re just trying to be cute now.”

“That’s what you told me,” I said. “Remember?”

Papa said, “I think I’ll get a bale of straw and make them a bed to sleep in. After a night like they had out in that storm, I’ll bet they could use some sleep.”

Just as Papa turned to be on his way, he stopped and looked at Mama. “There’s something I’d like to know,” he said.

“What’s that?” Mama asked.

Papa smiled and said, “What are you going to do with that tea kettle?”

Mama looked at the tea kettle and I could see the surprise spread all over her face. From the way she was staring at it, you would’ve thought that she’d never seen it before.

Then she laughed and said, “Oh, for heaven’s sake, what am I doing with this thing?”

All of us had a good laugh.

Daisy squealed, “Oh, look at Rowdy!”

Rowdy had hopped up in the crib and had sat down right in the middle of all the monkeys. His old tail was really making a racket as it swished back and forth in the corn shucks.

“Rowdy,” I said, “I’m going to the store and tell Grandpa about catching the monkeys. If you’re going with me, you’d better come out of there.”

For once, Mama didn’t say one word to stop me. All she said was, “Jay Berry, you hurry back because I don’t want you out late.”

R
owdy and I had made a lot of trips to Grandpa’s store. Sometimes I would start out running as fast as I could to see if I was man enough to make it all the way before I ran out of steam. I never could make it. It was just too far. I always ran out of steam. But the day I caught the monkeys, I made the fastest trip to Grandpa’s store I had ever made. I ran all the way and even had a little steam left when I got there.

As I came in sight of the store, I saw the mail buggy at the hitching rail. As Rowdy and I came bounding into the store, I saw Grandpa and the mailman standing at the counter, looking at a catalogue.

Almost shouting, I said, “Grandpa, I caught the monkeys! Every one of them! Even the hundred dollar one!”

“You caught them?” Grandpa said, as he jerked his glasses off and stared at me.

“I sure did,” I said. “They’re locked up safe and sound in our corn crib.”

“How many did you catch?” Grandpa asked.

I reared back and said, “Twenty-eight little ones and Jimbo.”

“Twenty-nine!” Grandpa said, all excited. “I knew you could do it. I knew it all the time. A man can do anything if he puts his mind to it.”

The mailman looked at me. “Are those the monkeys your grandpa was telling me about?” he asked. “The ones that got away from that circus train—the ones they’re offering a reward for?”

I nodded my head.

The mailman looked up toward the ceiling and I could see his lips moving as if he were counting. Then he smiled and said, “Son, you’ve just earned yourself a lot of money. What are you going to do with all of it?”

“I’m going to get myself a pony and a gun,” I said, very proudly. “That’s what I’m going to do with it.”

Grandpa looked at the mailman. “I know you’re in a hurry,” he said, “but as long as you’re here, could you wait until I write a letter to those circus people? It won’t take me five minutes. I’d like to get it in the mail.”

The mailman said, “Go ahead but make it snappy. I’m running late and it’s going to be after dark when I get back to town.”

Grandpa hurried behind the counter, opened a drawer, and started fumbling through some papers. I heard him mumble, “Now what did I do with the letter that had that address on it? I thought I put it in this drawer.”

My old grandpa was so excited he had forgotten all about his glasses. He was still holding them in his hand.

The mailman said, “Maybe if you put your glasses on, you could see what you’re doing. They do help, you know.”

I had to bite my lower lip to keep from laughing out loud.

Grandpa mumbled something that no one could understand, put on his glasses, and again started looking through the drawer.

Grandpa was still searching the drawer when the mailman suddenly spoke up and said, “Hey, wait a minute! Maybe you won’t have to write that letter. I heard some fellows in town talking yesterday and they said that the circus is in Tulsa now. If it would help any, I could send a telegram over there soon as I get back to town.”

I could see the relief on Grandpa’s face.

“Help any!” he exclaimed. “I’d say it would help. How much will it cost to send it?”

“Oh, I don’t think it’ll cost over fifty cents,” the mailman said. “It’s not very far. What do you want me to say in the telegram?”

Grandpa thought a second, and said, “Just tell them that the monkeys have been caught and we’re waiting to hear from them.”

Grandpa and I followed the mailman out to his buggy and watched as he took off down the road.

We were back in the store when Grandpa said, “Tell me how you caught those monkeys. I want to know. I was beginning to think they couldn’t be caught.”

“Grandpa,” I said, “those monkeys were so easy to catch, it’s still hard for me to believe that I caught them. If it hadn’t been for that storm, I probably never could have caught them. Papa thinks they wanted to be caught.”

“What did the storm have to do with it?” Grandpa asked.

I told Grandpa all about catching the monkeys; from the time I found them until they were locked in the corn crib.

Grandpa chuckled. “Well, it makes no difference how they were caught,” he said. “You caught them and that’s that. Another thing, I don’t think we’ll have to wait very long to hear from those circus people. They want those monkeys pretty bad. I bet we hear from them in a day or two.”

“You think so, Grandpa?” I said, all excited.

Nodding his head, Grandpa said, “If they get that telegram tonight, I don’t think they’ll fool around. From what they told me, those monkeys are really valuable to that circus.”

“Boy,” I said, “in a day or two! Wouldn’t that be something!”

I had never seen my old grandpa so pleased and happy. He didn’t know what to do with himself. He stepped behind the counter, picked up a good-size paper sack, handed it to me, and said, “Here, help yourself to the candy.”

I was so surprised I didn’t know what to say. This was the first time that Grandpa had ever told me to help myself to the candy. I
opened the sack and looked inside it. I asked, “How much do you want me to put in it, Grandpa?”

“Fill it up,” Grandpa said. “All the way to the top.”

As I headed for the candy counter, I said, “Boy, if I eat that much candy I’ll probably have a bellyache for six months.”

Grandpa chuckled and said, “Oh, I don’t think so—I’ve never heard of a boy having the bellyache from eating candy. I don’t think that’s possible.”

Rowdy followed me and watched while I filled the sack with gumdrops, jawbreakers, peppermint sticks, and horehound candy. I didn’t take any of the penny suckers. I figured that the sticks would take up too much room in the sack.

Rowdy knew that practically every time Grandpa gave me some candy, he was supposed to get something to eat, too. He turned, walked over to Grandpa, and sat down right in front of him. With begging eyes, he looked him straight in the face.

Grandpa didn’t say a word. He shoved his hands down in his pockets. With a grin on his whiskery old face, he just stood there staring back at Rowdy.

Rowdy couldn’t stand to have anyone stare at him and not say anything. His tail started beating the floor and he whimpered a few times. Then he raised his old head straight up and bawled. Never before had I heard such a bawl come out of my old hound.

Grandpa started laughing. He reached down, patted Rowdy on the head, and said, “All right, old fellow, I understand. I’ve been saving something for you. We had company yesterday and the women cooked a big ham. I saved the bone for you, but you’ll have to take it outside to eat it.”

That was the biggest bone I had ever seen Grandpa give to Rowdy. It had meat all over it.

When I saw Grandpa give that ham bone to Rowdy, I thought of the fairy ring and the wishes.

“Grandpa, did you ever see a fairy ring?” I asked.

Grandpa frowned, looked at me for a second before he said,
“No, I’ve never seen a fairy ring. From what I understand, very few people have ever seen one. Why did you ask?”

“I saw a fairy ring this morning,” I said.

As if he couldn’t believe what he had heard, Grandpa said, in a rather loud voice, “You saw a fairy ring this morning?”

“I sure did, Grandpa,” I said. “Daisy found it.”

“Daisy found it!” Grandpa said. “Where did she find it?”

“Up on the hillside,” I said. “Right in front of her playhouse.”

Grandpa was flabbergasted.

“Did you make a wish?” Grandpa asked.

“All of us made a wish, Grandpa,” I said. “Even Old Rowdy sat down in the fairy ring and acted like he was making one. If he did, it’s a cinch he wished for a bone and it looks like his wish has just come true.”

“What about your wish?” Grandpa said. “Hasn’t it come true?”

“No, not yet,” I said, “but I sure hope it does.”

Grandpa frowned and said, “I don’t understand. Didn’t you wish you’d catch those monkeys so you could get that pony and gun? I thought you wanted that more than anything.”

“I do want a pony and gun, Grandpa,” I said, “but I didn’t wish for that. I started to, but I changed my mind.”

“Changed your mind,” Grandpa said. “I thought catching those monkeys was all you could think about. It’s all I’ve been thinking about. What did you wish?”

“Oh, Grandpa,” I said, “I can’t tell you what I wished. The legend says that if you tell anyone, the wish won’t come true, and I really want my wish to come true.”

Grandpa fidgeted a little. “Things like this bother me,” he said. “I don’t like to be left hanging on a limb. Maybe if you whispered and told me what you wished, no one would hear and everything would be all right.”

“Oh, no, Grandpa,” I said. “I don’t want to take the chance. I want my wish to come true.”

Grandpa grinned and said, “I was just kidding you. I don’t
want you to tell me what you wished. I just wanted to see if you were man enough to stick with it. I’m proud of you.”

“Grandpa,” I said, “if my wish comes true, I won’t only tell you, I’ll tell the whole world.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” Grandpa said. “You can’t ever tell, maybe your wish will come true.”

Grandpa looked at his watch and said, “I think you and Rowdy had better hightail it for home. I’m going to lock up the store and make a trip up the road.”

“Where are you going, Grandpa?” I asked.

“I’m going up to Indian Tom’s place,” he said.

“Do you mean Indian Tom, the horse trader?” I asked.

“That’s right,” Grandpa said, nodding his head.

“What are you going there for, Grandpa?” I asked.

“Indian Tom has been trying to get me to keep a couple of his horses here and sell them for him,” Grandpa said. “I think this is a good time to make a deal with him. I’ll tie them behind my buckboard and bring them home with me. When you come up tomorrow, you can pick the pony you want.”

I was so surprised by what Grandpa had said, I dropped the sack of candy I was holding in my hand. My old heart gave one big thump and then it really took off. I wanted to say something but I couldn’t. I just stood there with my mouth open; looking at Grandpa and not even seeing him.

Grandpa grinned and said, “Well, say something. Isn’t that what you’ve been wanting—a pony?”

I swallowed a couple of times, nodded my head, and said, “Sure, Grandpa, I want a pony and a gun real bad, but I don’t have any money yet.”

“You will have,” Grandpa said. “In a day or two, you’ll have plenty of money. You can buy that pony and gun and have money left over.”

“Boy, Grandpa,” I said, “it’s hard to believe all of this is happening to me. It’s like a dream coming true.”

“If a fellow didn’t dream and have hope,” he said, “life would sure be miserable.”

“Grandpa,” I said, “why can’t I go with you to Indian Tom’s? I might learn something about buying horses.”

Grandpa frowned and said, “I thought about that, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. When two old horse traders get together, you might hear some words I wouldn’t want you to hear; especially, if you’re doing business with Indian Tom. He’s the most bull-headed Cherokee I’ve ever run into. He’s smart, too. When it comes to trading or buying horses, he’s as smart as a two-headed fox.”

“Aw, Grandpa,” I said, “I don’t think Indian Tom could ever get the best of you in a deal, could he?”

“I’m not too sure about that,” Grandpa said. “I’ve been buying and trading with Indian Tom for a long time now and I always seem to come out on the short end. I can’t see how that Indian can be so smart. I don’t think he ever saw a schoolhouse.”

“Grandpa,” I asked, “how much does a pony cost?”

“I don’t know,” Grandpa said, “but if I know Indian Tom, it won’t be cheap. Horses and mules are really bringing a price. Everything else is dirt cheap, but not horses and mules. I’ll do the best I can.”

“Grandpa,” I said, “tomorrow will really be a big day for me—the biggest day of my life.”

Grandpa smiled and said, “When you get to be as old as I am, you’ll have a lot of memories. I can still remember my first pony. Someday when we have time, I’ll tell you about it.”

I thanked Grandpa for all he had done for me and I was walking on a cloud as I started for home.

When I reached home Daisy was sitting at the kitchen table where she was putting a new dress on a corn-shuck doll. With the sack of candy in my hand, I walked over and handed it to her. “Here, this is for you,” I said.