"And we"re not lost so _very_ much," said Flossie slowly. ""Cause _we_ are here. It"s Daddy and the rest who are lost."
"Well, they"ll soon be along--coming on the next train," said the guard.
"I"ll turn you over to the agent at One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street and you"ll be all right."
This was done. The train came to a stop; many pa.s.sengers got off and a kind woman took Flossie and Freddie in charge and saw that they got inside the elevated station, where the agent, who had been telephoned to, knew about them and was expecting them.
"Now, just sit right down here and be comfortable," the agent said to the Bobbsey twins. "You"ll be all right, and your folks will soon come for you. I have to sit in the office and sell tickets."
The kind woman called a good-bye to the children and went away; so Flossie and Freddie were left by themselves in the elevated railroad station at One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street.
For a while they sat quietly, watching the people come in to buy tickets or get off trains. The agent did not pay much attention to them, being very busy, for it was toward the close of day when the rush was like the morning, greater than at other times.
"Say! What"s that?" suddenly asked Flossie, holding up her chubby hand to tell Freddie to stop whistling, which he was trying to do.
"What"s what?" he asked, looking at his sister.
"I hear music," went on Flossie.
"So do I!" exclaimed Freddie.
They both listened, and from somewhere outside they heard the sound again.
"It"s a hand organ!" cried Flossie.
"No, it"s a hand _piano!_" said Freddie. "Hear how jiggily the tune is."
"Well, it"s the same thing," Flossie insisted, "I wonder if there"s a monkey with it."
"Let"s go downstairs and see," proposed Freddie.
Once Flossie or Freddie made up their minds to do a thing it was almost as good as done--that is, if it were not too hard. This time It seemed easy to do. They looked toward the little office in which the ticket seller had shut himself. He was busy selling tickets.
"He"ll not see us," whispered Freddie. "Besides, we"re coming right back as soon as we see the monkey."
"And we"ll give him some peanuts," added Flossie. "You can buy some with your five cents, Freddie. And we won"t give them _all_ to the monkey. I want some."
"So do I. Come on, we"ll go down."
The agent seemed to have forgotten them. At any rate his door was closed and he could not see them. None of the pa.s.sengers, hurrying in to buy tickets, paid any attention to the Bobbsey twins. So, hand in hand, Flossie and Freddie went out of the station, and down the long stairs to where they could hear the music of the hand piano.
It was being played by an Italian man in the street, almost under the elevated station, and, as Flossie leaned over the stair railing to look down, she cried out:
"Oh, there is a monkey, Freddie! The man has it on a string!"
"That"s good. Do you see peanuts anywhere?"
"Yes, there are some at that stand near the bottom of the stairs. Don"t lose your five cents!"
"I won"t!"
Freddie hurried down with Flossie. He bought a bag of peanuts, and the children hastened across the street to where a little crowd of boys and girls stood in front of the hurdy-gurdy, or hand piano, listening to the music and watching the monkey. This will draw a crowd, even in New York, where there are many more and stranger sights to be seen.
"Oh, isn"t he cute!" cried Flossie, tapping her feet on the sidewalk in time to the music.
"He"s coming over this way," said Freddie. "I"m going to give him a peanut."
"But don"t let him get the whole bag."
"I won"t. Here, Jacko! Have a peanut!" and Freddie held out one to the hurdy-gurdy monkey.
The long-tailed animal lost no time in making a grab for it, and soon he was chewing it hungrily. The man grinding out the music shook the cord which was fast to a collar around the monkey"s neck. What the street piano man wanted was pennies and five-cent pieces put in the monkey"s red cap.
Peanuts were good for Jacko, but money was better for his master.
The monkey well knew what the jerks meant on the cord around his neck.
They meant that he must scramble around in the crowd and hold out his cap for pennies. The monkey would much rather have eaten peanuts, but even monkeys can not do as they like in this world.
So, with a chattering sound, and with another look at Freddie, who tossed him a peanut, the monkey, catching the dainty in one paw, started to try to collect some money.
But he must have been a hungry little monkey, for, when he looked at Flossie, and saw on her hat what he thought were red cherries, that monkey made up his mind to get some of them if he could. Though the cherries were made of celluloid, they looked very real, and they might have fooled even a boy or a girl, to say nothing of a monkey.
So with a quick bound Jacko--which seems to be the name of all those long-tailed chaps--was perched on Flossie"s shoulder, tearing at her hat with two paws, trying to pull off what he thought were ripe, red cherries.
"Oh! Oh!" screamed Flossie. "Oh, stop!"
"Wait till I get hold of him!" cried Freddie.
"Come away! Come away froma de littlea gal!" yelled the piano Italian.
Some in the crowd laughed and others screamed.
The monkey kept pulling and tearing at Flossie"s hat until he had pulled it from her head and then, jumping down off her shoulder to the ground, the animal crouched under the piano and began pulling off the red cherries. But one bite told him they were not real, and then, perhaps frightened at what he had done and fearing he would be punished, the monkey tried to run away.
But he was held by the string on his collar, and the Italian, perhaps afraid that he would be made to pay for Flossie"s hat, which his monkey had torn to pieces, pulled Jacko to him, perched him on his shoulder and hurried away, wheeling the street piano.
"Oh, Freddie! Freddie! What shall I do?" cried Flossie, as she looked at her sadly torn hat.
"It"s a shame," said a woman in the crowd.
"You"ll need a new hat, little girl," said another woman.
That gave Freddie an idea. If his sister needed a new hat he was the one to help her get it. He looked up and down the street. Across the way was a large drygoods store, in one of the windows of which were many hats and other things for girls and ladies to wear.
"Come on, Flossie!" cried Freddie, clasping her hand. "I"ll take you there."
"Where?" she asked. Tears had come into her eyes when the monkey tore her nice, new hat. But she did not really cry. "Where are you going to take me, Freddie?" she asked.
"Over to that big store; and we"ll buy a new hat for you," said the little fellow. "Then we"ll go back to the station and wait for Daddy and the rest. Come on. I"ll get you a new hat."
Flossie wondered how Freddie was going to do it, but she did not ask.
Leaving the torn hat in the street, she went with her brother. He led the way into the big store, which, though it was not one of the large ones of New York, was much bigger than any in Lakeport.