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[Illustration: Bed Time Stories
Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail.
Howard R. Garis]
[Illustration]
_BED TIME STORIES_
Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail
(THE FUNNY MONKEY BOYS)
BY
HOWARD R. GARIS
Author of "SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL," "THE UNCLE
WIGGILY SERIES," "THE DADDY SERIES," "CIRCUS ANIMAL
STORIES," "THE ISLAND BOYS," ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED BY LOUIS WISA_
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers . . . . New York
THE FAMOUS BED TIME STORIES
Books intended for reading aloud to the Little Folk each night. Each
volume contains 8 colored illustrations and 31 stories--one for each
night in the month. Handsomely bound in cloth. Size 6-1/2 by 8-1/4.
=Price 60 cents per volume, postpaid.=
HOWARD R. GARIS' BED TIME ANIMAL STORIES
No. 1. SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL
No. 2. JOHNNIE AND BILLIE BUSHYTAIL
No. 3. LULU, ALICE AND JIMMIE WIBBLE-WOBBLE
No. 5. JACKIE AND PEETIE BOW WOW
No. 7. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG
No. 9. JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT
No. 10. CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK
No. 14. NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL
No. 16. BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL
No. 20. NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL
No. 28. JOLLIE AND JILLIE LONGTAIL
No. 30. JACKO AND JUMPO KINKYTAIL
No. 32. CURLEY AND FLOPPY TWISTYTAIL
UNCLE WIGGILY BED TIME STORIES
No. 4. UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES
No. 6. UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS
No. 8. UNCLE WIGGILY'S FORTUNE
No. 11. UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE
No. 19. UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE
No. 21. UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP
No. 27. UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY
No. 29. UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS
No. 31. UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM
For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by
the publishers.
* * * * *
A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23 Street New York
Copyright, 1917, by R. F. Fenno & Company
JACKO AND JUMPO KINKYTAIL
CONTENTS
STORY PAGE
I The Kinkytails Go To School 9
II Jumpo and the Cocoanut 16
III The Kinkytails Make a Pudding 23
IV Jacko and the Peanuts 29
V Jumpo and the Ice Cream 36
VI Jacko and the Paper Bag 42
VII Jumpo and the Green Parrot 48
VIII The Kinkytails and the Bear 55
IX The Kinkytails at Hide and Seek 62
X Jumpo and Uncle Wiggily 68
XI Jumpo and Susie Littletail 74
XII Jacko and the Little Mouse 81
XIII Papa Kinkytail and Mr. Gander 88
XIV Jumpo and the Chestnut Burr 95
XV Jacko and the Roast Chestnuts 102
XVI The Kinkytails Make Money 108
XVII The Kinkytails Spend Money 114
XVIII Jumpo and Jacko in the Auto 120
XIX Jumpo and the Roast Marshmallows 126
XX Jacko and the Busy Bee 133
XXI Jacko and the Grape Vine 139
XXII Jacko Does Some Tricks 146
XXIII Jumpo and the Paper Cup 153
XXIV The Kinkytails Blow Bubbles 160
XXV Jacko and the Paper Chain 167
XXVI The Kinkytails and the Cricket 174
XXVII The Kinkytails and the Doll's House 180
XXVIII Jacko and the Train of Cars 187
XXIX Jumpo and His Airship 194
XXX Jumpo and the Talcum Powder 200
XXXI How Jacko Washed the Dishes 207
JACKO AND JUMPO KINKYTAIL
STORY I
THE KINKYTAILS GO TO SCHOOL
Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, there were two little
monkey boys who lived with their papa and mamma off in the woods in a
funny house at the top of a tall tree. These little monkeys were the
cutest and most cunning chaps you would want to see, even if you went in
an airship to the circus.
I have already told you something about one of them--a red monkey--who
traveled with Uncle Wiggily Longears, when the old gentleman rabbit was
going about, seeking his fortune. Well, this red monkey's name was Jacko
Kinkytail; and his tail, as were the tails of all his family, was all
twisted up in kinks. That's how Jacko got his last name--Kinkytail. His
brother's name was Jumpo, and Jumpo was colored green. The reason for
that was this:
Once Jumpo's mamma bought him a green balloon at the circus. Jumpo was a
little baby then, and he didn't know any better than to try to eat the
green balloon. Perhaps he thought it was candy. At any rate, before his
mamma saw him he had chewed nearly half of the balloon, and he soon
turned a pretty green color like the leaves on the trees. Oh! his mamma
and papa felt dreadful about it, and they did everything they could to
get the color out of the little monkey, but they couldn't, and green he
stayed.
"But it doesn't much matter," said Jumpo's papa, "for as long as Jacko
is red I think it is nice to have his brother colored green. They look
so odd and queer when they go out walking together."
"Oh, but think of having one's children red and green, like some flag,"
cried Mamma Kinkytail. However, it couldn't be helped, so now I'll tell
you some stories of Jacko and Jumpo.
One morning when the two little monkey boys were eating their breakfast
in the funny house up in a tree, they suddenly heard a bell ringing.
"Ding dong! Dong ding! Ding-ding! Dong-dong!" rang the bell.
"My! I wonder what that can be?" exclaimed Jumpo, as he finished eating
some toasted peanuts with cocoanut on.
"Perhaps it's a fire," suggested Jacko, as he looked to see if any of
his red color had come off on his napkin, but it hadn't, I am glad to
say.
"Oh, if it's a fire, let's run and see it!" cried Jumpo, getting out of
his chair. "Maybe they'll let us squirt some water on the blaze."
"Silly monkey chaps!" cried Mamma Kinkytail, as she laughed at them,
"that is not a fire bell, that is the school bell, for school starts
to-day, and you must hurry or you will be late."
"Oh, dear! School!" cried Jacko, making a funny face.
"Oh, me! Oh, my!" said Jumpo. "Have we got to go to school?"
"To be sure," answered their mamma. "Vacation and play time is over, and
you must be at your lessons. Hurry now, there go Sammie and Susie
Littletail, and Sammie has on a new suit."
"Yes, and there go the Bushytail brothers," added Jumpo as he saw two
squirrel boys hurrying past while the school bell rang louder and
louder.
"Oh, come on, let's go. We'll have some fun!" cried Jacko, and before
you knew it he was hanging by his tail from the front door bell knob,
and the next moment he had scrambled down the tree trunk and was running
after the squirrels and rabbits.
"You've forgotten your books!" called his mamma.
"Never mind, I'll take them," said Jumpo, kindly, so, picking up his own
books and those of his brother, he wound his long tail about them, and
down he scrambled from the little house in the tree, and soon he, too,
was running to school, while the bell went on ringing.
"Ding-dong! Dong-ding!"
Now the school where the monkeys, and all the other animal children
studied, was a hollow stump in the woods, and a wise old owl bird was
the teacher. Soon all the pupils were in the room, and the teacher told
them how glad she was to see them back, and she said she hoped they had
all had nice vacations.
"And I have quite a treat for you," went on the teacher. "Uncle Wiggily
Longears, the rabbit, who has just returned from seeking his fortune all
over the world, is going to tell you a story this afternoon, if you all
have your lessons this morning. Now we will have the class in spelling.
Jacko Kinkytail, please spell me the word dog."
"I don't like to," said Jacko, waving his tail to and fro, bashful like.
"Why not?" asked the owl teacher, surprised like.
"I'm afraid if I spell the word a dog might come in through the window
and bite us."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the teacher. "Jumpo, you spell dog."
"D-o-g," spelled Jumpo, as nicely as could be.
"Very good," said the teacher. "Now, Jacko, you see no dog came in at
all, so you may go to the blackboard, Jumpo, and write the word dog."
Now Jumpo was a very mischievous little monkey--that is, he was always
doing something funny, and it was not always right and proper, either. I
forgot to tell you this at first, so I put it in here.
When Jumpo went to the blackboard he took a piece of chalk in one paw,
and, very nicely indeed, he wrote the word "dog." And then he did what
wasn't exactly right. With his long tail, which was almost like another
hand for him, he took a second piece of chalk, and, while he was once
more writing the word "dog," he drew a funny picture of an elephant
standing on his head. He did this with the chalk in his tail, and when
the other pupils saw the queer picture they laughed right out loud in
school. "Ha! ha!"
"Why, Jumpo!" exclaimed the teacher, sorrowful like. "I am surprised at
you! You are here to learn, and not to make funny pictures. There is
time enough at recess for that. I shall have to ask you to stay in after
school. Go to your seat."
Well, Jumpo felt badly. He hadn't meant to make trouble, but you see he
didn't think. All the rest of the morning he sat in his seat, feeling
sorry, and he didn't want to stay in after school, but he knew he had
to. And then something happened.
All of a sudden, just as Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl, was reciting
in the number class, and telling how many lollypops two apples and two
pears made, a lean, hungry wolf looked in at the schoolroom window, and
growled:
"Oh, ho! What a fine meal I see before me! I'll eat you all, even the
owl teacher!"
Oh, my! How frightened every one was. That is, all but Jumpo Kinkytail.
Up he leaped and rushed to the blackboard. Then, using his two front
paws and his tail, he drew with the chalk a big picture of a man
shooting a bang-bang gun.
"Look at that, Mr. Wolf!" cried Jumpo, and when the wolf saw the picture
of the man with the gun he thought it was real, and wolf was so afraid
he would be shot that he ran off as fast as he could go, and he didn't
eat anybody for nearly two weeks.
"Oh, Jumpo!" exclaimed the owl teacher after she had gotten over being
frightened. "We can't thank you enough. I forgive you for being bad in
the spelling class, and you needn't stay in after school. But please be
good after this." So Jumpo said he would.
But I'm sorry to say he soon forgot, and did more mischief. I'll tell
you about it in the next story which will be about Jumpo Kinkytail and
the cocoanut--that is, if the chocolate cake doesn't fall off the table
and splash all over the lemon pie when it makes its bow to the spoon
holder.
STORY II
JUMPO AND THE COCOANUT
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, couldn't go to the owl
teacher's school and tell the children about his travels on the day he
had promised to do so. It was because his rheumatism was very bad, so
the pupils, including Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail, the red and green
monkeys, were allowed to play a game instead of hearing a story.
"Perhaps Uncle Wiggily will come tomorrow," said the teacher. And that
is what the rabbit did, and he told how he had traveled many miles, and
had had dozens and dozens of adventures, of which I have told you in the
stories before this one. He also told how Jacko Kinkytail had been with
him part of the time.
"Oh, my, I wish I had been along," said Sammie Littletail to Jacko after
school was over.
"Yes, indeed, so do I," said Billy No-Tail, the frog, as he looked at
his grandfather's tall hat which he was wearing, to see if it had any
holes in the top; but it hadn't.
"Oh, I had lots of fun," said Jacko, the red monkey, "but I would have
had more if my brother Jumpo, or some of you boys, had been with me.
Uncle Wiggily was very nice."
"Come on, let's have a game of ball," suggested Jumpo, the green monkey.
So the boy animals put their books on the grass, and they had a little
ball game on their way home from school.
It was a fine game, too. Once when Billie Wagtail, the goat boy, knocked
the ball away up in the air with his horns, Jumpo Kinkytail climbed up a
tree, and, hanging to the top branch only by his tail, he reached up and
caught the ball before it got to the ground.
"Fine! Fine!" cried all the other animal players as Jumpo came down.
Well, after the game was over, the boy animals started for home, and on
the way a bad fox jumped out of the bushes and tried to grab the red
monkey. But Jumpo, his green brother, made such a funny face, like an
orange and a lemon twisted into an apple pie, with a stick of peppermint
candy stuck through the middle, that the fox had to laugh, and of course
when he laughed he couldn't chase the red and green monkeys, so they got
safely home.
"You must be careful after this," said their mamma when Jacko and Jumpo
had told her of the fox. "I will have your father speak to the policeman
about it when he comes home from the hand organ factory where he works.
And now you monkey boys please go out and cut some wood for me, for I
must get supper. Then you can study your lessons. Hurry now, Jacko and
Jumpo."
"What are we going to have for supper, mamma?" asked Jumpo.
"Well, for one thing, I am going to make a cocoanut cake," said the
mamma monkey.
"Oh, goody!" cried Jacko and Jumpo as they danced around in the kitchen
and hugged each other with their long tails. "That will be fine!"
"Come, now, get in the wood for the fire!" cried their mamma, so down
the tall tree they scrambled, and soon they were gathering up sticks in
their four paws and their tails also.
"I guess I've got my share," said Jumpo at last. "I'm going in and study
my lessons." So into the house he went, while Jacko went looking for
hickory nuts. But Jumpo couldn't do much studying. He was thinking too
much about the cocoanut cake that was to be for supper.
"I guess I'll just go into the kitchen and take a look at the cocoanut,
to make sure it's there," said the little green monkey after a while.
So, laying aside his spelling-book, Jumpo went to the kitchen. Mrs.
Kinkytail wasn't there just then, having gone down cellar after some
butter. But the cocoanut was on the table in its brown shell, all ready
to be broken open and the white meat inside put in the cake.
"Oh, what an exceedingly large and fine cocoanut!" exclaimed Jumpo,
speaking very correctly as he had been taught in school. "I will just
lift it to see how heavy it is."
Now, Jumpo's mamma had told him never to meddle with the things in the
kitchen, when she was baking, for once he had mixed the sugar and salt,
and everything tasted dreadfully. But you see he forgot what his mamma
had said, and almost before he knew what he was doing he had picked up
the cocoanut.
"I'll just shake it, to see if there is any milk inside," he said, and
he held it up to his ear, and wiggled it to and fro. Surely enough there
was plenty of the milky white juice inside, and Jumpo could hear it
splashing around.
"Oh, this is fine!" he cried as he shook the cocoanut harder than
before, and then--alas and alack-a-day! The first thing he knew the
cocoanut had slipped from his paws.
Down upon the floor it fell, away it rolled, and before Jumpo could stop
it that cocoanut had fallen out of the kitchen door of the little house
in the tree, right down to the ground below.
"Oh, I must get it before mamma comes back!" exclaimed the green monkey.
Quickly he scrambled down the tree, winding his tail around the lowest
branch and leaping to the ground. But the cocoanut was nowhere to be
seen.
"I wonder if Jacko could have taken it to play a joke on me?" thought
Jumpo. Then he looked over toward the bushes, and he saw something
moving, and there was the cocoanut rolling along, faster than ever.
"My! It must be going down hill!" cried Jumpo, as he sprang after it.
Well, the cocoanut kept on going. Once Jumpo almost had it in his left
paw, but the cocoanut hit a stone and bounded away from him. Then he
almost had it in his right foot, but the cocoanut went splash into a
little brook of water and the green monkey couldn't see it. Then it
rolled out and he managed to get his tail around the nut, but it was so
slippery that it got away from him--the cocoanut got away, not Jumpo's
tail, you understand. No, that stayed fast on the monkey boy.
"Oh, I guess we won't have any cocoanut cake for supper to-night,"
thought the little green fellow. "I wish I had stayed out of the
kitchen, as mamma told me. But I'm not going to give up yet. I'll get
that cocoanut if it's possible!" So he ran on, faster than ever, but the
cocoanut rolled quicker and quicker. It was now getting late, and Jumpo
didn't know what to do. He could still see the cocoanut ahead of him,
but he couldn't catch up to it.
"Oh, whatever shall I do?" he cried. And just then he saw something like
a big red hole, with rows of sharp white teeth in it. At first he
thought it was his red brother Jacko, but when he looked again he saw
that it was the skillery-scalery alligator.
"Oh, I'm just waiting for you," said the 'gator with his mouth open real
wide.
"Oh, dear!" cried Jumpo, "this comes of not minding one's mother. The
cocoanut is gone and I'll soon be gone, too," for he surely thought the
alligator would get him.
In fact the alligator was just going to eat up the little green monkey
when the skillery-scalery creature gave his tail a big flop. Then
something round and brown sailed up into the air, came down ker-bunk,
right on the end of the 'gator's nose, and bounded off.
"Oh, my! Some one is shooting cannon balls at me!" cried the 'gator. "I
never can stand cannon balls." So away he went, as fast as he could,
taking his double-jointed tail with him. And listen, as the telephone
girl says, it wasn't a cannon ball at all, that had hit the 'gator, it
was the lost cocoanut.
Jumpo caught it as it came down, after the 'gator had accidentally
tossed it into the air with his tail, and then the green monkey hurried
home with it as fast as he could hurry, and so he had cocoanut cake for
supper after all.
Of course, Jumpo's mamma scolded him a little for what he had done, and
he said he was sorry, so she forgave him. And the monkeys had more
adventures. I'll tell you of one soon, and the next story will be about
the Kinkytails making a pudding--that is, if the elephant in the
picture-book doesn't take the baby's rattle-box and beat the drum with
it.
STORY III
THE KINKYTAILS MAKE A PUDDING
It happened, once upon a time, that Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail, the red
and green monkey boys, didn't have to go to school. This was because it
was Saturday, when there was no school; so now I've told you the true
reason.
"What shall we do?" asked Jumpo of his brother, as he wound the end of
his long tail around a tree branch and swung head downward while he ate
an apple as easily as you can shell a peanut.
"Do you want to play Indian and let me shoot you with my make-believe
gun?" asked Jacko, the red monkey.
"No, indeed! Thank you just the same," replied his green brother as he
unhooked his tail from the tree and stood on his head, getting ready to
turn a somersault. "The last time you shot at me while we were playing
Indian, you didn't remember that you had a cork in your pop-gun, and it
hit me on the end of the nose. I haven't forgotten that."
"I'm very sorry," spoke Jacko. "Then I'll tell you what let's do. We'll
go off in the woods, and maybe we can find the old monkey who has five
hand organs, one of which he plays with his tail. Perhaps he'll let us
play one."
"Fine!" cried Jumpo, so off they started for the woods.
Well, they looked and they looked some more, but they couldn't find the
monkey who had five hand organs, and pretty soon those two boys went
back home.
But when Jacko and Jumpo got to the little house in the tree, their
mamma wasn't there. Instead she had left a note on a plate of bread and
jam for them. The note said:
"Dear Jacko and Jumpo. I have gone to call on Aunt Lettie, the old lady
goat. I will be back in time to get your supper."
"Well!" said Jumpo, winding his tail around the leg of a chair, before
he sat down in it. "I hope she does come back in time for supper, for I
am hungry. However, she left some bread and jam for us. Let's eat that."
"She is the best mamma in all the world," said Jacko, as he took some of
the bread and jam, "and I think we ought to do something for her."
"What could we do?" asked Jumpo.
"Why, we could get something ready for supper, so she won't have to work
so hard when she comes in. Let's make a cake."
"No, let's make a pudding," suggested Jumpo. "A pudding is ever so much
easier, and besides it will be done quicker, and we can taste it to see
if it's good."
"Fine!" cried Jacko, "we'll make a pudding. But how do you do it?"
"It is easy," said his brother. "You take some milk and some sugar and
some eggs and cocoanut, and things like that, and mix them up in a pan.
Then you bake it in the oven."
"What, the pan or the pudding?" Jacko wanted to know.
"Both, I guess," answered Jumpo. "Anyhow I know mamma puts the pudding
in the pan, and then she puts both of them in the oven, so she must bake
both."
"Then we'll do it that way," decided Jacko. "Now here are some eggs, and
we can get the milk and sugar and other things. But, hold on, Jumpo; do
you put the eggs in just as they are, with the shells on, or do you
break them?"
"I don't know," spoke the green monkey, as he looked at his tail to see
if it had any hard knots in it, but it hadn't.
"Then we can't make a pudding if you don't know," said Jacko,
disappointed like.
"Oh, yes, we can, easily," went on his brother. "We can put in some eggs
without the shells, and some with the shells on."
"The very thing," cried Jacko. "I never would have thought of that. You
are very clever, Jumpo." So the two monkey boys took a pan, and into it
they broke some eggs, throwing the shells away, and into the pan they
also put some whole eggs with the shells on.
"Now for the milk," said Jumpo.
"Should we use sweet milk or sour milk?" asked his brother.
"There you go again!" exclaimed Jumpo. "You are always asking questions
to puzzle me. What do you think--sweet or sour milk?"
"Both!" cried Jacko, "then we'll be sure to be right."
"Of course!" agreed Jumpo; so into the pan they put some sweet and also
some sour milk.
"Now for some sugar and some raisins and grated cocoanut and the pudding
will be done!" called Jacko. So they put those things in the pan and
stirred them up with a big spoon.
"Now, should we bake this pudding in the oven or on top of the stove in
a frying pan?" asked Jacko.
"Oh, there you go again!" cried Jumpo. "Asking more puzzling questions!
Let's do both."
"We can't," decided his brother.
"Well, then, we'll fry this pudding in a pan on top of the stove, as
mamma does an omelet," said Jumpo. "It looks like an omelet, anyhow." So
into the frying pan they poured their pudding, set it on the stove, and
soon it began to cook.
"Now when it's brown on one side, I'll turn it over with the pancake
turner," said Jumpo, "and cook the other side."
"Good!" cried his brother. So they carefully watched the pudding,
waiting for it to be cooked on one side. And, just as Jumpo got ready to
turn it, there was a knocking on the door of the little house, and a
voice cried:
"I'm coming in to eat you monkeys up!" And with that in came a savage
wolf. Oh, how frightened Jacko and Jumpo were! But Jumpo knew just what
to do.
First he quickly tied his tail into a hard knot so it would be short,
and not in the way. Then he took up the soft pudding out of the frying
pan on the pancake turner and he threw it right in the face of that
wolf.
Oh! I wish you could have seen him! That wolf was all covered with
broken eggs, and whole eggs, and raisins and sweet milk, and sour milk,
and cocoanut, and sugar and everything like that. Oh! what a sight he
was! And as he was so frightened that he ran down the tree, up which he
had climbed by his sharp toenails, and he hid himself in the woods.
"Oh, but our pudding is spoiled!" cried Jacko, sad like.
"Never mind," said Mamma Kinkytail, who came in just then, having seen
the wolf run away. "Jumpo was a good boy." And when she heard how they
had made the pudding she said it was just as well, after all, that it
was thrown at the wolf, for it would not have been good to eat. So she
made a nice chocolate cake for supper, leaving out the egg shells and
sour milk, and the pudding was all eaten up, for the red and green
monkeys and their papa were very hungry.
Now the next story will be about Jacko and the peanuts--that is, if the
little girl across the street doesn't wheel her doll carriage into a mud
puddle and splash my new shoes that I want to dance in at the moving
pictures.
STORY IV
JACKO AND THE PEANUTS
One day Jumpo Kinkytail, the little green monkey, was ill with the
sniffle-snuffles and could not go to school. I don't know whether it was
because he had missed his lesson the day before, or because he waded
through a mud-puddle on his way home, and got his feet wet that made him
sniffle. Anyhow Dr. Possum came and gave him some bitter medicine.
It was so bitter that Jumpo made a funny face like two sour oranges and
a piece of lemon pie all rolled up together. And his brother Jacko
laughed, which didn't make Jumpo feel any better.
"Humph! I don't laugh when you are ill," said Jumpo, twisting up his
face like a crooked doughnut.
"I'm sorry, but really I couldn't help it," said Jacko, as he got ready
to go off to school. "You do make the funniest faces, Jumpo. But I'll
tell the teacher you can't come to class, and I'll ask her what lesson
you are to study. Then I'll bring home your books."
"Oh, you needn't bother," said Jumpo quickly. "I--I guess I'm not sick
enough for that. Just tell teacher that I can spell cow now. I know
better than to begin it with a 'K.'" For that is the lesson Jumpo had
missed the day before he was taken ill.
Well, Jacko started for school, and on the way all the other animal
children asked him where his little green brother was.
"I'm very sorry," said Bully No-Tail, the frog, when he had heard what
was the trouble. "I like Jumpo because he is the same color I am, and
tomorrow I'm going to bring him some green grapes so he can play marbles
with them in bed."
"That will be nice," said Jacko. Then he got to school and told the
teacher about Jumpo. Of course the owl lady was also sorry for the
little sick monkey, and she wrote him a nice note on a piece of white
cocoanut, so that after Jumpo had read it he could eat the
cocoanut--that is, when he was well enough.
Pretty soon it was time for school to be out, and Jacko hurried home to
be with his sick brother.
"I'll just take the short path through the woods," thought the little
red monkey. "Then I'll be home quicker. And I wish I had a penny, or a
five-cent piece. Then I would buy Jumpo an ice cream cone. But I haven't
any money."
So of course when one has no money one can buy no ice cream cones, but
still Jacko wished it just the same, which shows that he had a kind
heart.
He was going through a dark part of the woods, when all of a sudden he
saw, just in front of him, some small, whitish looking things, like
little stones.
"Ha! I wonder what these are?" said Jacko, as he took hold of his books
in his tail and went carefully forward. "Perhaps that is a trap to catch
me."
Then he saw that the little things were a lot of peanuts, all strung out
in a row on the ground, like grains of corn, one after another. "Ah, ha!
I see!" exclaimed the Jack o'Lantern--oh, I beg your pardon, I mean the
red monkey. "These are peanuts. Some one has been along here with a bag
that had a hole in it, and the peanuts dropped out," went on Jacko.
"Well, if I knew to whom they belonged I'd give them back. But, as I
don't, I'll take them home to my sick brother, and later on, if some
one claims them, I'll save up my pennies and pay them back."
So with this kind thought in mind, Jacko set to work to gather up the
peanuts. There were quite a number of them, when they were all in one
pile--as many as two five-cent bags full.
"I think I will eat just one, to see if they will be good for Jumpo,"
said Jacko, after a while. So, with his strong, white teeth he cracked
the shell of one peanut and ate it--that is, he ate the peanut, not the
shell. Of course, you understand and I suppose I needn't have mentioned
it. But, anyhow, I did.
"Oh, my! Oh, dear! Oh, hum suz dud!" exclaimed Jacko, when he had eaten
the peanut. "This will never do at all. The peanuts are damp, and wet,
and not nice and brown and crisp as they ought to be." For you know
there is nothing more unpleasant than half-roasted and soft
peanuts--even onions aren't much worse, I think.
"I must build a fire and roast them nice and hot and fresh," said Jacko.
"Then they will be good for sick Jumpo." So then and there Jacko built a
little fire in the woods, and set to work to roast the peanuts over
again, first taking his books out of his tail and putting them safely
on a stump where they wouldn't burn.
When the fire was nice and hot, Jacko took a tin can, put the peanuts in
it, and set the can on the hot coals. Then he stirred the peanuts with a
long stick so they wouldn't burn.
He was doing this, and thinking how pleased his brother would be, when,
all of a sudden there was a noise up in a tree over Jacko's head, and
down climbed the black bear. He landed right near the red monkey and
that bear cried out:
"Oh, ho! Things are nice and warm and comfortable here. I have come just
in time. Now I will have a good supper. I was afraid I wasn't going to
have any."
"Were you--that is, were you thinking of eating the peanuts?" asked
Jacko. "Because if you were, they are my brother's."
"No. I wasn't thinking of eating the peanuts," growled the bear. "I was
thinking of eating you. And now I am done thinking, and I am going to
get busy. Here I come!"
Then, with a growl, he made a grab for Jacko, but the monkey jumped
back. He was thinking very hard, for he didn't want to be eaten up. Then
he said very quickly:
"Will you grant me one favor before you eat me, Mr. Bear?"
"What is it?" growled the shaggy creature.
"Please let me take the peanuts off the fire so they won't burn," spoke
Jacko.
"Go ahead," growled the bear. "That will be the last thing you do."
"We'll see about that," thought Jacko, as he tied a hard knot in his
tail. Then, taking a lot of damp leaves in his paws so he wouldn't get
burned, he lifted off the fire the can of hot peanuts. And then and
there, while the bear was still growling, the red monkey threw the hot
pan, hot peanuts and all, right on top of the bear's soft and tender
nose.
"Wow, Oh, wow! My! Oh, my!" howled the bear, and he felt so badly about
it that he ran off through the woods to find a spring of water where he
could cool his nose.
But Jacko didn't wait for the bear to come back. Instead, the red monkey
gathered up the hot peanuts from where they had fallen. Into his school
bag he packed them as fast as he could and then he set out for home on
the jump, and got there safely.
And oh! how glad Jumpo was to get the hot roasted peanuts. In fact they
made him well the next day. And he said Jacko was a brave monkey boy to
think of such a trick to play on the bear. And so did Mr. and Mrs.
Kinkytail. But you are sleepy now, so you must go to bed. Good night.
And the next story will be about Jumpo and the ice cream--that is, if
the bathroom looking-glass doesn't see the pussy cat standing on its
head under the stove and get so frightened it can't clean its teeth.
STORY V
JUMPO AND THE ICE CREAM
It was a few days after Jumpo Kinkytail, the little green monkey boy,
had been taken ill with the sniffle-snuffles, and now he was all better,
for the hot peanuts had made him well. He and his brother Jacko, the red
monkey, were hurrying along the road together to get to school before
the last bell rang.
"For we must not be late," said Jumpo.
"No, indeed," agreed Jacko. "Shall I carry your books for you, Jumpo?
You are not yet strong from having been ill."
"Thank you, I'll be glad to have you carry them," said Jumpo politely,
so Jacko put his brother's books in the loop of his tail together with
his own, and they got to school just as the doors were being closed.
"Now the class in number work will recite," said the owl teacher, as she
took a piece of blue chalk and went to the blackboard. "If I had two
apples, and Jacko Kinkytail gave me three more, how many would I have?"
asked the teacher, and she wrote a big figure 2 on the blackboard, and
under it a big 3. "You may answer, Jumpo," she said.
Jumpo thought for a few seconds.
"Well, can't you tell?" asked the owl kindly.
"If you please," said Jumpo, after a bit, "it can't be apples that Jacko
would give you, because it's pears that Jacko has in his pocket. Three
pears--I saw Mamma give them to him for recess. I can't add pears and
apples together."
Well, the whole class laughed at that, and the teacher said:
"I was only making believe, Jumpo, just as when Uncle Wiggily Longears
pretends as he tells you a story. However, we will say two pears and
three pears, if that will suit you better. You may come to the board and
add up this sum for me."
So Jumpo went to the board, and he took the piece of blue chalk in his
left paw. And then he couldn't seem to help doing a funny trick. When
the teacher wasn't looking he reached over, and with his tail he took an
eraser and erased the numbers from another part of the board where
Jennie Chipmunk was doing a sum in arithmetic, so Jennie didn't have
any numbers to add up, and she cried out:
"Oh, dear!"
"What's the matter?" asked the teacher quickly, and then, turning
around, she saw the mischief Jumpo had done.
"You may go to your seat," she said to the green monkey, sad like, "and
you must stay in after school. Sammie Littletail, you may finish the sum
on which Jumpo started. He is too playful today."
At first Jumpo thought it was fun to have rubbed out Jennie Chipmunk's
numbers with his tail, and then he felt sorry. He was more sorry as his
brother and all the other pupils went out when school was done, and he
had to stay in the room. He could hear the boys having a ball game, and
the girls were playing tag, and Jumpo wished he hadn't been bad. But
that's the way it is sometimes in this world.
After a bit the teacher said:
"You may go now, Jumpo. Tomorrow please try a little harder to be good.
I know you can if you will."
"Yes'm," was all Jumpo said.
It was quite late when he got out, and all the boys and girls had gone
home. Jumpo thought he might as well go home, too, but as it was
getting dark he didn't go through the woods. Instead he went around by
way of Grandfather Goosey Gander's home.
Now, not far from where the old gentleman gander lived there was a bad
fox who had built himself a bungalow. And he was a very rich fox, having
ice cream for supper nearly every night. Still he was never satisfied.
He wanted a goose, or a rabbit, or a squirrel, or a monkey, or something
like that. So when he looked out of his bungalow window, and saw Jumpo
Kinkytail coming along, this fox said to himself:
"Ah, ha! Perhaps I can have a monkey supper tonight. I must catch that
little green chap." Still the sly fox knew better than to rush out and
try to grab the monkey. "I must play a trick on him," he said to
himself. "What shall I do?"
Now, outside the fox's bungalow was a freezer full of ice cream ready
for his supper. Quickly taking out the can with the ice cream in it, the
fox left nothing there but the wooden tub filled with freezing ice and
salt. On this he put a sign which read: "Help yourself to ice cream."
Well, of course, when Jumpo saw that sign he thought he would take some
cream.
"I'll eat a bit," he said, "and bring some home to my mamma and papa and
Jacko. Oh, some one was very kind to leave this here for me." You see,
he didn't know the trick the fox had made up to catch him.
Into the freezing mixture of ice and salt poor Jumpo plunged his paw,
and in an instant it was frozen fast there, and he couldn't get it out,
as the late afternoon was cold. Pull and pull as he did, the little
green monkey was held fast, just as if he was in a trap.
"Oh, dear! This is terrible! Oh, it isn't ice cream at all. It's just
ice, and I'm frozen fast. Will no one help me?" cried Jumpo.
"No," said the fox, "no one will, and when it gets dark enough, so no
one can see me, I'm coming out and get you and eat you. I have you fast,
just where I want you."
And indeed it did seem so, for the harder Jumpo pulled the tighter he
was held. He begged and pleaded, but it was of no use. It got darker and
darker, and the fox was just coming out with a hatchet to chop Jumpo's
paw out of the ice, so he could take him inside the bungalow stump,
when, all of a sudden, Grandfather Goosey Gander heard the monkey boy's
cries.
"That is some one in trouble!" exclaimed the old gander gentleman, and
he put back on the stove the hot flatiron with which he was ironing his
silk hat ready for Sunday. So he opened the door and called: "What's the
trouble?"
"I'm frozen fast in the ice cream tub, and the fox is going to catch
me!" cried Jumpo.
"Ha! Hum! We'll see about that!" shouted Grandfather Goosey Gander. In
an instant he caught up the hot flatiron off the stove, and out he ran.
Then, before the fox could get at the monkey boy the goose gentleman had
put the hot flatiron on the ice in the tub, taking care not to burn
Jumpo. And there was a sizzling, hissing sound, and in another instant
the ice was melted because of the hot flatiron, and Jumpo was free. Then
he ran to Grandfather Goosey Gander's house with the old gentleman, and
the fox didn't get him, and pretty soon Jumpo went home to tell the
folks all about it. And for some time after that Jumpo was a good monkey
boy in school.
Now, in the next story I'm going to tell you about Jacko and the paper
bag--that is, if the sofa cushion doesn't get tangled up in the lamp
chimney and spoil the pudding for supper.
STORY VI
JACKO AND THE PAPER BAG
"Well, what shall we do today?" asked Jumpo of his brother, as the two
monkey boys slid down out of the tree-house one Saturday morning.
"We don't have to go to school," spoke Jacko, "and I'm glad of it.
Suppose we play soldier. I'll let you shoot me, if you don't do it too
hard."
"All right. Oh, I tell you what let's do!" and Jumpo was so excited that
he tied his tail in three hard knots and he could hardly get them out
again.
"What shall we do?" asked his brother, as he kindly helped untie the
knots in Jumpo's tail.
"We'll get a lot of the fellows, and have a regular battle," proposed
Jumpo. "We'll get Sammy Littletail and the two Bushytail brothers, and
Buddy Pigg, and Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, and Jimmy Wibblewobble and
Billie Wagtail, the goat, and all the others, including Munchie Trot,
and we'll choose sides and have a big fight. One side can be Indians,
and the other white men."
"Fine! Fine!" cried Jacko. "You go get the fellows, and I'll whittle out
the make-believe wooden guns."
Off Jumpo started, and it wasn't long before he had met a lot of his boy
friends. Of course they thought it was great fun to play soldier, and
they hurried back with him. By this time Jacko had a lot of guns made,
and then the boys divided into two parties.
Jacko was captain of one side, and he and his friends were to pretend to
be white soldiers, and the others, of which Jumpo was captain, were to
be the Indians.
"Now, we'll go off in the woods," said Jumpo, "and we Indians will wait
until you white fellows have built a cabin. Then we'll come in the
night--make-believe night, you know--and we'll shoot at you, and burn
the cabin down, and take you prisoners."
"No fair throwing stones!" cried Buddy Pigg, looking to see if any tail
had grown on him yet, but none had.
"No, there must be no stones," declared Jacko. "Now fellows, get to work
building our cabin. Billie Wagtail, you get some long sticks, and,
Buddy, you get some small ones." Buddy and Billie were on Jacko's side,
and Sammie Littletail was one of the Indians, and so was Johnny
Bushytail and Munchie Trot, the pony. In fact there were about seven
boys on each side.
Well, pretty soon the white soldiers had their cabin built, and then it
was time for the Indians to come and fight them. Jacko hollered when
they were ready, and then he and his friends went inside the little
cabin and made believe go to sleep.
"And, mind you," said Jacko, "when the Indians come you fellows must
shoot off your guns as hard as anything."
"Sure," said Billie Wagtail, shaking his horns.
Pretty soon there was a rustling in the bushes, and along crept the
make-believe Indians, softly and silently. Then, when they saw the
cabin, Jumpo cried:
"Fire! Fire! Shoot 'em! Bang! Bang! Capture 'em!"
Up jumped Jacko and his men.
"Bangity-bang-bang!" cried Jacko. "Shoot 'em fellows! Fire like
anything! Don't let 'em take us!"
Well, I just wish you could have heard that racket! No, on second
thought perhaps it's just as well you didn't, for it might have made
you deaf to hear so many guns going off at once. Oh, it was a fierce
fight! if you will excuse me saying so. And after a while the Indians
won, and into the cabin they rushed.
"Escape! Get away fellows," cried brave monkey boy Jacko. "I'll keep
them back until you get away."
"That's not fair!" shouted Sammie Littletail. "Yes it is," said Billie
Wagtail. Well, Billie and the other white soldiers ran out the back
door, while Jacko was shooting at the Indians at the front door, and so
all the white soldiers got away except little red monkey, and he was
caught.
"Now, we'll tie him to a tree, and we'll go off and try to catch the
others," said Jumpo. So, in fun, they tied Jacko fast to a tree, and
left him there in the woods by the make-believe cabin all alone, while
they ran off shouting.
"My! That was jolly sport," thought Jacko, and he was glad to rest for a
while. Then he began to feel a bit lonesome. "I wish I could get away,"
he said, and he found that he could wiggle his arms out of the ropes.
"But it wouldn't be fair to run off when they have captured me," he went
on. "Though I know what I can do. I'll play a trick on them when they
come back."
In his coat pocket he found an empty paper bag. This he blew up full of
wind, and he twisted the neck of it so the wind wouldn't get out.
"When they come back I'll crack the bag and make it burst. They will
think it's a cannon," he said with a laugh. Then he waited.
But all of a sudden, before he could count forty-'leven, along came the
skillery-scalery alligator. The creature with the double-jointed tail
saw the little red monkey tied fast to the tree with ropes.
"Ah, ha! Now I have you!" cried the 'gator, licking his chops. "You
can't get away from me this time."
And it didn't seem as if Jacko could. He tugged and strained at the
ropes, but they were too tight. It looked as if he were going to be
eaten up.
Nearer and nearer came the alligator. He opened his big mouth, full of
sharp, shining white teeth to bite Jacko, when, all of a sudden the
monkey boy thought of the blown-up paper bag.
"That's the thing," cried Jacko, and with that he clapped his paw down
hard on the bag.
"Bang!" it went, just like a cannon. My! how loud!
"Oh, I'm shot! I'm killed! My double-jointed tail is blown off!" cried
the alligator, and then, half frightened to death, he scurried off
through the woods, taking his tail with him, for of course it wasn't
blown off at all.
So that's how the paper bag saved Jacko, and pretty soon his brother and
the other Indians came back with their prisoners and the game was over.
Then they untied Jacko and they all went to the home of the red and
green monkeys, and Mrs. Kinkytail gave them all some bread and jam. She
spread thirty-three loaves of bread and used up seventeen pots of jam
before they had enough, and the alligator didn't have a smitch, I'm glad
to say.
And the next story will be about Jumpo and the green parrot--that is, if
the window pane doesn't get the toothache in the night and cry like a
baby so it wakes up the pussy cat.
STORY VII
JUMPO AND THE GREEN PARROT
It was about three days and a half after the adventure with the
alligator, when Jacko Kinkytail had scared the skillery-scalery creature
by bursting the paper bag, and the two monkey brothers were coming home
from school in the afternoon.
"Did you miss any of your lessons today?" asked Jacko, as he twined his
tail around a hickory nut on the ground, and picked it up so he could
eat it--eat the nut, not the ground, you understand, of course.
"I missed one example," answered Jumpo, "but it was very hard."
"What was it?" inquired Jacko, as he cracked the hickory nut in his
strong teeth.
"It was this," spoke his brother: "If a boy has a chocolate ice cream
cone, and his sister has two, how many oranges can you buy for a bag of
peanuts when a stick of peppermint candy breaks in three pieces and one
of them falls inside a lemon? Don't you think that's a hard example,
Jacko?"
[Illustration]
"Indeed it is. Let me see, I think the answer is a pound of chocolate
drops."
"I thought it was a piece of cherry pie," went on the little green
monkey, "but the teacher said it was a dozen of eggs, so I missed."
"Never mind, as long as you didn't have to stay in," said Jacko. "Now
let's hurry on and see who will get home first. You go one way and I'll
go the other, and we'll race."
This suited Jumpo all right, so off he started by the path that led
through the woods, while Jacko took the road that led past the house of
Grandfather Goosey Gander. And when Jacko reached there the old
gentleman was just looking for some one to go to the store for him to
get a pound of sugar. So Jacko went, and he earned a penny. Then he
hurried home. But Jumpo hadn't yet reached there, and I'll have to tell
you what happened to him.
For a while the little green monkey boy hurried on through the woods. He
was thinking how surprised Jacko would be to find his brother home ahead
of him, and Jumpo was even planning to hide behind the rain water barrel
and jump out to make-believe scare Jacko. Then, all of a sudden, as
Jumpo went past a big rock he saw a nice big yellow orange on the
ground.
"Oh, joy!" exclaimed Jumpo. "I'll take that home and give Jacko half of
it."
But as Jumpo reached for the orange it suddenly rolled a short distance
away from him, and he couldn't get it.
"Ho, ho!" exclaimed the little green monkey. "That is odd. That must be
one of those queer rolling oranges I have read about in fairy stories.
But I'll get it yet."
So he went forward very slowly and carefully, and, all of a sudden, he
made another grab for the orange, but it rolled still farther away.
"Hum!" exclaimed Jumpo. "This is strange. But I'll try again." So he
tried once more, and, all this while, as he was reaching for the orange,
he kept coming nearer and nearer to a big hollow stump. And Jumpo never
noticed that there was a string tied to the orange, and that the orange
was being pulled by a bad old wolf, who was hiding in the stump. You see
that the wolf was so old that he couldn't walk around and catch his
meals any more, so he took that plan of getting little animals to his
den.
Nearer and nearer rolled the orange to the stump, with Jumpo chasing it,
and almost getting it at times. But he never really got it, and finally
he was so close to the stump that the wicked wolf could reach out and
grab the green monkey in his claws.
"Oh, ho! Now I have you!" cried the bad wolf. "My orange trick was a
good one," and he carefully put the orange and the string away on a
shelf to use next time.
"Was that you making the orange roll?" asked Jumpo, as he tried to get
away, but couldn't.
"It was," said the wolf, showing his sharp teeth.
"Oh, please let me go!" begged Jumpo. "I was racing with my brother, to
see who would get home first. Please let me go!"
"No, indeed, I'll not," answered the wolf, "and if your brother ever
comes past here I'll catch him also. Now, I'm going to lock you up in a
dark closet until supper time."
"Do you mean my supper time, or yours?" asked Jumpo, hoping there might
be some mistake about it.
"My supper time, of course," growled the wolf, and he was just going to
shut Jumpo up in the dark closet, when he happened to look out, and he
saw something green in a tree near the stump. Jumpo saw it, too.
"Hum! That is queer," said the wolf. "There are no green leaves on the
trees now, as it is getting close to winter. I wonder what it can be?
But I have no time to bother with anything like that. I must make a hot
fire to cook my monkey supper."
Oh, how badly Jumpo felt at hearing that, and how hard he tried to get
away from the wolf, but it was of no use. Then the monkey looked, when
the wolf had his head turned to one side, and Jumpo saw that the green
thing was a big poll parrot.
"Save me! Save me!" cried Jumpo. The parrot just nodded his head, wise
like, and hid behind the tree trunk. Then, all of a sudden, a voice
cried:
"Hey, Mr. Wolf, you let that monkey go!"
"Was that you speaking?" asked the wolf, of Jumpo, for the wolf didn't
see the parrot.
"No," answered Jumpo, "I didn't speak," and the wolf thought it was very
queer. Then the voice cried again:
"Let that monkey go, or I'll shoot a lot of guns at you!"
"Pooh. I'm not afraid," said the wolf, for he could not see anyone.
Then, all of a sudden, the voice cried again: "Get ready now, fellows.
Aim your guns right at that wolf, but don't shoot Jumpo! Ready! Aim!
Fire! Bangity-bang-bang! Boom! Bang!"
And it sounded like forty-'leven guns going off. My! How that parrot did
yell!
"Oh, don't shoot me! Don't shoot! I'll be good! Honest I will! I'll let
the monkey go! Hurry, monkey, run along and tell them that I let you
go!" begged the wolf, letting go of Jumpo. And you can believe that
Jumpo hurried away from that stump.
Then the green parrot hopped into sight on the limb of a tree and cried: