"A monkey has been ringing the bell!"

"Whose monkey is it?" someone asked.

"Why it's w.a.n.go!" exclaimed Bunny Brown, out loud, before he thought.

"It's Mr. Winkler's monkey, w.a.n.go!"

"And I know how to get him down!" chimed in Sue. "Just give him some peanuts, and he'll come down!"

The children's voices rang out clearly in the silence of the night.

Everyone heard them, Mr. and Mrs. Brown included.

"Why--why, that sounded just like Bunny!" said Mrs. Brown.

"And Sue," added Mr. Brown. "Bunny! Sue!" he called. "Are you here?

Where are you?"

"We--we're here, Daddy," said Bunny, sliding out from behind Mr. Gordon.

"And I'm here, too!" said Sue. She let her bath robe fall down over her bare legs.

"Well I never!" cried Mrs. Brown. "I thought you were at home in bed!"

"We--we heard the fire-bell, Mother," said Bunny, "and when you and daddy got up we got up, too."

"But we didn't wake Uncle Tad nor Mary," said Sue.

The crowd laughed, and Mr. and Mrs. Brown had to smile. After all, Bunny and Sue had done nothing so very wrong. It was a warm, light night, and they were not far from home. Besides, they were only following their father and mother, though of course they ought not to have done that.

"Well, well!" said Mrs. Brown. "I wonder what you children will do next?"

"We--we don't know," answered Sue, and everyone laughed again.

"As long as there isn't any fire, we'd better get back home," said Mr.

Brown. "Come on, Bunny and Sue."

"Oh, please let us watch 'em get w.a.n.go down," begged Bunny. "Did he really ring the bell?"

"I guess he must have," said Mr. Gordon. "He's a great monkey for getting loose, and doing tricks. I don't see how we're going to get him down if he doesn't want to come, though. It's too high to climb after him."

"If we had some peanuts or lollypops, he'd come down," said Sue. "Once he was up on a high candy shelf in Mrs. Redden's store, and he came down for peanuts."

"Well, we might try that," said the store-keeper. "But here comes Mr.

Winkler himself. I guess he'll know how to manage w.a.n.go."

The old sailor, who had also been awakened by the ringing of the bell, came slowly down the street. He looked toward the church steeple in the moonlight, and saw his pet.

"w.a.n.go, you bad monkey! Come right down here!" called Mr. Winkler.

But w.a.n.go only chattered, and stayed where he was.

"How'd he get up there?" someone asked.

"Oh, he broke loose in the night, when we were all asleep, and jumped out of an open window," said Mr. Winkler. "I suppose he must have climbed up inside the church steeple, and, seeing the bell rope hanging down, he swung himself by it, as he does on a rope I have fixed for him at home. His swinging back and forth on the rope rang the bell. I don't really believe he meant to do it."

And that was how it had happened, and how w.a.n.go had made people think there was a fire in the middle of the night when there wasn't any fire at all.

"w.a.n.go, come down!" called Mr. Winkler.

But the monkey would not come.

"If you had some peanuts he'd come," said Sue.

"I have some peanuts, little Sue," said Mr. Winkler, and he brought out a handful from his pocket. "Here, w.a.n.go, come and get these!" the old sailor called.

w.a.n.go chattered, and came scrambling down the church steeple. He liked peanuts very much, and he was soon perched on his master's shoulder eating the brown kernels, and throwing the sh.e.l.ls to one side.

"Well, now that everything is over all right, we'll go back home," said Mr. Brown. "But the next time a bell rings at night, I don't want you children running out," he said.

"We won't," promised Bunny. "But it was so nice and warm, and moonlight, that we couldn't stay in, Daddy."

Daddy Brown laughed, and a little later he and his wife, with Bunny and Sue, were safe at home. They went in without awakening Uncle Tad or Mary, the cook. The other people also went home. Mr. Winkler fastened w.a.n.go so he could not get loose, and soon everyone was asleep again, even the bell-ringing monkey.

In the morning Bunny and Sue went over to see the old sailor's pet.

w.a.n.go jumped around on his perch and chattered, for he liked the children.

"I--I wish we'd had him in the circus at grandpa's farm," said Bunny, as he watched w.a.n.go do some of his tricks. "He would have made them all laugh."

"Yes," said Sue. "w.a.n.go is funny!" and she petted the little, brown animal.

When Bunny and Sue reached home again, munching on some cookies Miss Winkler had given them, they found their mother reading a letter.

"Good news, children!" Mother Brown cried. "Good news!"

"Oh, are we going back to grandpa's farm?" asked Bunny.

"No, not this time," said his mother. "This is a letter from Aunt Lu.

She invites us to come to her home, in New York City, to spend the fall and winter. Oh, it's just a lovely invitation from Aunt Lu!"

CHAPTER IV

ON THE GROCERY WAGON

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue began to dance up and down, and to clap their fat little hands. They always did this when they were happy over some pleasure that was coming. And surely it would be a pleasure to go to Aunt Lu's city home.