Margaret Sidney

“ THE MONKEY PAYS ITS COMPLIMENTS TO PHRONSIE.
“What is a monkey?” asked Phronsie, skurrying after Polly to the gate where her mother was waiting for them.
“Why, a monkey's—a—monkey,” explained Polly, “I don't know any better'n that. Here he is! Isn't he splendid!” and she lifted Phronsie up to the big post where she could see finely.
“O-oh! ow!” screamed little Phronsie, “see him, Polly! just see him!”
A man with an organ was standing in the middle of the road playing away with all his might, and at the end of a long rope was a lively little monkey in a bright red coat and a smart cocked hat. ”

“ Suddenly the horse stopped. Ben doubled up the reins to give him a cut, when “Whoa!” he roared so loud that the horse in very astonishment gave a lurch that nearly flung him headlong. But he was over the wheel in a twinkling, and up with a bound to a small thicket of scrubby bushes on a high hill by the road-side. ”

“ Pepper.
“We must go all roads,” said Ben, firmly; “one must take the stage to Boxville, and I'll take Deacon Brown's wagon on the Hingham road, and somebody else must go to Toad Hollow.”
“I'll go in the stage,” screamed Joel, who could scarcely see out of his eyes, he had cried so; “I'll find—find her—I know.
“Be spry, then, Joe, and catch it at the corner!”
Everybody soon knew that little Phronsie Pepper had gone off with “a cross organ man and an awful monkey!” and in the course of an hour dozens of people were out on the hot, dusty roads in search. ”