there aren't any fellows here with guns at all. But I made you let Jumpo
go. Ha! Ha!"
Then that wolf was so angry that he almost bit his own tail, but he
couldn't catch Jumpo, and the green parrot went home with the monkey boy
to see that no one hurt him. Then the parrot, after Jumpo and his
brother and mother had thanked him, flew back to his cage, and that's
the end of this story, if you please.
The next one will be about the Kinkytails and the trained bear--that is,
if our canary bird doesn't drop his seed dish in the sewing machine and
break a needle.
STORY VIII
THE KINKYTAILS AND THE BEAR
One day when the owl school teacher had heard the lessons of all her
animal boy and girl pupils, she said:
"You have been so good today that I am going to give you a little treat.
Now, I will let Susie Littletail decide on what would be the nicest to
do, have Uncle Wiggily Longears come over and tell you a story about his
travels, or go for a walk in the woods and see if the chestnuts are
ripe? Which shall it be, Susie?"
"If you please," said the little rabbit girl. "I think it would be nice
to go in the woods. Uncle Wiggily can tell us a story any time after
dark, but we can't see to gather chestnuts at night. Let's go to the
woods."
"Very well," said the teacher. "Put away your books, pencils and papers
and we will take a walk."
So, in a little while, all the animal children were following the owl
teacher out into the woods, where the leaves were beginning to turn
brown and yellow and crimson, all ready to fall off, so the trees could
go to sleep during the long, cold winter. Johnny Bushytail felt so good
that he sang this song:
"Oh, it's fine to be in the woody woods,
When you're done with school and books.
When the brown leaves rustle overhead,
And kiss the babbling brooks.
"The spicy wind blows full and free,
And the nuts come rattling down
On green moss, where the great trees grow,
With their golden leaves and brown."
"Indeed, it is fine," said the owl teacher. "Now scatter about, and see
who can find the first nuts. But don't get lost."
Of course Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrels, at once scrambled
up the trees, and, naturally, they found the first nuts, but they kindly
shared them with the others. Then Sammie and Susie Littletail went off
one way, and Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg in another direction, and Lulu
and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children, in still another.
And Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dogs, took a path right
through the bramble bushes, looking for butternuts to spread on their
bread, I guess.
"Come on," said Jacko to Jumpo, as the two monkey boys walked side by
side, "we'll go down by the little brook. I think there is a hickory nut
tree there."
"Are you sure there are no wolves or foxes there?" asked the green
monkey.
"I don't believe there are any," said the red monkey. "We'll get a lot
of nuts and give the others some."
So away they went through the forest, sometimes hanging by their tails
from the low branches, sometimes turning somersaults and sometimes
swinging by their feet, for they could hold on by their toes as well as
you can by your fingers.
"Oh, there's a nut tree!" suddenly exclaimed Jacko, as they got down by
the little brook.
"And see all the nuts!" cried Jumpo, for the ground was just covered
with them. Then the monkey boys began filling their pockets.
They had almost as many nuts as they could carry, and they were thinking
of going back to join the others, for they could hear the teacher
calling to the pupils some distance off in the woods. And then, all of a
sudden, Jacko looked toward a big stump, and he exclaimed in a whisper
to Jumpo:
"Look at that big bear!"
"Where?" asked Jumpo, getting close to his red brother.
"There," whispered Jacko again, and he pointed toward the stump. Surely
enough, there was a bear, wearing a blue cap and a pink coat. And, oh,
what a big fellow he was!
"He hasn't seen us," said Jumpo, in a low voice. "Perhaps we can get
softly away before he does see us, and then we can tell the others to
hurry out of the woods. Move very softly, Jacko."
"I will," whispered the red monkey, and he tried to, but all at once
some hickory nuts fell out of his pocket and they made quite a noise as
they hit a flat stone.
"Ha! Who's there?" asked the bear quickly, and he looked up, straight at
the two monkeys. Then they could see that he had been reading a big
book. "Who's there?" cried the bear again, in a sort of savage voice.
"If--if you please, we are here," said Jacko. There was no use in saying
they weren't there, for the bear could see them perfectly plain.
"All right; I am coming over to you," went on the shaggy creature,
closing his book.
"Oh, oh, please don't come!" begged Jacko. "We can see you very well
from here."
"Oh! If he comes, he'll eat us, and then he'll hear the others shouting,
and he'll go over and eat them and our teacher also," whispered Jumpo.
"Oh, if we could only send them some word to warn them to run away!"
"Why shouldn't I come over to you?" asked the bear. "Of course, I'm
coming. Watch me."
And with that he stood up on his head, and walked on his front paws and
in that way he quickly came to where Jacko and Jumpo were standing.
"I never saw a bear walk that way before," said the red monkey,
surprised like.
"Perhaps he is a crazy bear?" suggested Jumpo. "That kind is very
savage. Oh, I know he'll eat us. Poor teacher, too!"
By this time the bear was close to the monkeys.
"I am very pleased to see you," he said in a growlery voice, and he
turned a somersault, and stood on his left hind leg. Then he took off
his blue cap in his claws, made a low bow, and began to dance around
Jacko and Jumpo, at the same time humming a tune.
"How's this?" asked the bear, as he stood on the end of his stubby tail,
and opened his mouth real wide. "I call that a right clever trick
myself, but what do you think of it?"
"It--it is very pretty," said Jumpo. "But when--when are you going to
eat us?"
"Eat you! Why, bless my huckleberry pie appetite!" cried the bear
kindly. "I never eat anything but popcorn balls. You haven't one about
you I suppose?" and he stood on one ear and made a funny face, by
twisting his tongue like a merry-go-round.
"No, we have no popcorn balls," spoke Jacko. "But aren't you a savage
bear?"
"Not a bit of it!" roared the bear in a laughing voice. "I'm the
jolliest trained bear you ever saw. I wouldn't hurt even a trolley car,"
and with that he did another dance, and sang such a funny song that
Jacko and Jumpo burst out laughing.
"Eat you!" cried the bear. "I never thought of such a thing. You see I
work for a man who makes me do tricks all day long. So I never get any
time for studying. But today I ran away and took my book with me. I'm
studying up to be a cook, you see, and I want to learn how to make
popcorn balls, so I won't have to buy any," and then he stood on one
toenail and cracked a nut in his teeth.
Well, of course, Jacko and Jumpo were glad they weren't going to be
eaten up, and when the trained bear heard there were other pupils in the
woods he went with the monkeys to where the rest of the animal children
were and did for them all his tricks, and some more besides. Then the
bear had to go back home, and so did the pupils and the owl teacher, and
I guess you have to go to bed.
Now I'm going to tell you next about the Kinkytails playing hide and go
seek--that is, if the postage stamp doesn't stick on my spectacles so I
can't see the gold fish jumping over the snail's back.
STORY IX
THE KINKYTAILS AT HIDE AND SEEK
It was a rainy Saturday, and if there is anything worse than that I'd
like to know it. You see you don't have to go to school, and you have
all day to play, but when it rains--why, what can you do? Just answer me
that, if you please. Ha! I knew you couldn't.
Well, that's exactly how it was with Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail, as they
stood at the window of the little house up in the tree and looked at the
rain drops splashing against the glass.
"Oh, dear!" cried Jumpo.
"Oh, dear!" groaned Jacko.
"Oh, my!" exclaimed their mamma. "What poor, miserable little monkey
boys you are to be sure!"
"But there isn't anything to do," grumbled the red monkey.
"And we can't go out because it is raining too hard," added the green
monkey.
"Suppose you help me with the housework," suggested Mamma Kinkytail.
"After we get the breakfast dishes washed I'm going to make a cake and a
pudding, and you may help me. But mind!" she said, shaking her tail at
Jumpo, "you mustn't let the eggs or the sugar or the milk fall out of
the house, as you once did with the cocoanut."
"I won't," said Jumpo, and then he and his brother helped dry the dishes
and set back the chairs, and when their mamma had swept the bungalow
they dusted the piano. Then came the making of the cake and pudding. Of
course, there were some dishes with nice sweet batter, and sugar and
chocolate icing left in them, and Jacko and Jumpo cleaned these out so
clean that there was hardly any need of washing them. By this time it
was the dinner hour, and Mr. Kinkytail came home from the hand organ
factory where he worked at making music.
But in the afternoon it still rained harder than ever, and the monkey
brothers stood at the window and looked at the splashing drops, and
cried "Oh, Dear!" so often that finally their mamma said:
"I'm going to telephone over for the Wibblewobble children to come and
play with you. Those ducks won't mind the rain a bit, for it will run
right off their backs. You can play in the house, and I can have some
peace and quietness to get my mending done. I'll telephone right away."
So Mrs. Kinkytail telephoned, and Mrs. Wibblewobble said the duck
children could come right over. Jacko and Jumpo watched for them at the
window and soon they saw Jimmie and his two sisters paddling through the
mud puddles.
"What shall we play?" asked Jacko, when the visitors had shaken the
water off their feathers, after having flown up into the tree-bungalow.
"Tag," said Alice Wibblewobble, as she looked to see if her hair ribbon
was on straight.
"No, there isn't room for that," spoke Lulu. "I think hide-and-seek
would be better. We can play that, can't we, Mrs. Kinkytail?"
"Oh, yes," said the monkey mamma as she mended one of Jumpo's torn
stockings.
"A ball game would be lots of fun," said Jimmy, the boy duck, "but then
I s'pose we might break a window. It will have to be hide-and-seek." So
they got ready to play.
First Lulu covered her eyes and she called out: "Ready or not I'm
coming!" Then she went to find the others. She easily found Alice, who
was standing up behind the flour barrel.
"I might have crawled under the barrel, only I was afraid of spoiling my
new sky-blue-pink hair ribbon," said Alice.
Then Lulu found Jimmie hiding under the couch in the dining-room and
Jumpo she discovered as he was trying to wiggle farther in behind an old
looking-glass in the hall.
"Now if I find Jacko," said she, "I'll have everybody, and it will be
Alice's turn to hunt for us. I wonder where Jacko can be?" She looked
all over, taking care not to go too far away from "home," for if the red
monkey got a chance he could run in and touch the table, which was
"home," and then he would be "in free."
"I don't know where he is," said Jimmie. Neither did Alice or Jumpo.
Jacko had gone off by himself, and he was well hidden. Lulu looked
everywhere. She even looked inside the flour barrel, as if the red
monkey would hide in there and get all white. And she took the cork out
of the molasses jug, and tried to look down inside the sticky place, as
if Jacko would go down there and get all stuck up.
"Oh, I'm going to give up," said Lulu at last.
"Oh, no, we'll all help you look," said the other children, and they all
joined in. But what had happened to Jacko, I suppose you are wondering.
Well, I'll tell you. He had gone up to the attic and there he found a
big empty trunk.
"This will be a fine place to hide," he said, so in he crawled, and
closed down the lid. It snapped shut, but Jacko didn't mind. He thought
he could open it when he wanted to. However, after a while he got tired
of hiding, especially when Lulu couldn't find him, and he decided to
come out.
Only he couldn't. He tried to open the cover, but it was shut fast. Then
Jacko became scared. He pushed and he pushed, but the trunk cover held
tight. Then he called out as loud as he could, but the dust got up his
nose, and his voice was very faint and far away. He even tried to put
the end of his tail in the keyhole and open the lock of the trunk, but
he couldn't. He heard Lulu and the others come up in the attic to find
him, and he called: "Here I am!" But they were laughing and shouting and
making so much noise that they never heard him.
"Oh, I guess I'll have to stay here forever!" thought poor Jacko. "Oh,
if I could only get out!" Then he heard a little noise in one corner of
the trunk, and he thought at first it was a fox. Then he knew a fox
could never get in the trunk, and he looked and saw a little gray
animal.
"I'll help you out of the trunk," said the animal; and who was it but
Jillie Longtail, the girl mouse. Quickly Jillie gnawed a hole in the
trunk. At first it wasn't large enough for Jacko to get out, but the
mouse soon made it larger, and then the monkey boy could crawl out, and
after thanking Jillie, he hurried down the stairs, glad enough to be
free from the stuffy trunk.
My! How surprised the others were to see him, for they were becoming
much frightened, and Jacko's mamma said he must never do a thing like
that again. And he never did. Then they all had some bread and jam, and
pretty soon it stopped raining.
So that's all this story, but the next will be about Jumpo and Uncle
Wiggily--that is, if the fish peddler doesn't blow his horn loud enough
to wake up the kittie cat who goes to sleep in the doll's carriage every
day.
STORY X
JUMPO AND UNCLE WIGGILY
It was almost time for school to be out, and nearly all the pupils were
sitting quietly at their desks. The owl school teacher was just hearing
the geography class recite, and that was the last lesson of the day.
"Jacko Kinkytail," spoke the teacher, as she took up a piece of red
chalk, "where do cocoanuts grow?"
"In our house," said Jacko very quickly.
"Why, the idea!" exclaimed the teacher. "I mean in what _country_ do
cocoanuts grow?"
"Well, I'm sure they grow in our house," said the red monkey, "because I
saw one there to-day. My mamma is going to make a cake of it."
Of course all the children laughed at that, and the teacher had to laugh
also, though she didn't exactly want to.
"Well, Jacko, you may go home," she said suddenly, "and so may all of
you. School is out. Now be on time to-morrow, and, Jacko, you must take
your geography, when you get home, and find out where cocoanuts really
come from."
So when Jacko and Jumpo were walking home together the red monkey asked
his green brother where he thought cocoanuts came from.
"The grocery store, of course," said the green monkey, quickly. "I
should have thought you'd have known that. Didn't you go to the store
for some the other day, and didn't the grocery man have a lot of them in
a barrel? Cocoanuts grow in barrels in the store, of course."
"Oh, why didn't I think of that?" cried Jacko. "I'll tell the teacher
to-morrow. But now let's have a race, and we'll see who'll be the first
to get to the old black stump where the giant used to eat his dinner."
"All right," agreed Jumpo. So off they started. First Jacko was ahead,
and then he accidentally got a stone in his shoe and had to stop to take
it out, so Jumpo got ahead. And then, as the green monkey was going
through a dark part of the woods, he saw something crawling under the
leaves.
"Oh, maybe it's a snake!" exclaimed Jumpo. "I'm going to wait until
Jacko catches up to me." So he waited and waited, but no Jacko came. In
fact, Jacko had got tired of playing the racing game, and he had gone
home another way. Then Jumpo thought he would be brave, and go over by
himself to see what was moving under the leaves. And, if you will
believe me, it was nothing but a harmless snail, crawling along with his
shell house on his back.
"How silly of me to be frightened!" cried Jumpo, with a laugh. "After
this I'm first going to see what it is, and get frightened afterward;
that is, if there is anything to scare me." So he said "How-de-do" to
the snail, and then the monkey boy went on toward home.
Over the hills, up and down, among the trees, hopping across little
brooks he went, until pretty soon, just as he was coming out of the
woods he heard a loud, banging noise.
"That's a gun!" cried Jumpo. "A gun, and some one is out shooting. Oh, I
must be careful or I'll be shot."
So the poor monkey boy hid down behind a rock and waited. And then, all
of a sudden, there came another bangity-bang-bung noise and some one
shouted out loud:
"My, I nearly got it that time!"
"Worse and worse!" thought poor Jumpo, shivering. "They are coming after
me." Then he saw something moving behind a stump, and a big, ugly fox
looked out at him.
"Oh, this is terrible!" cried the green monkey. "I can't stay here or
the fox will get me, and if I go out of the woods the man with the gun
will shoot me. What shall I do? Perhaps the man may be kind, and let me
go. I think I'll go out so the fox won't eat me."
And Jumpo leaped out only just in time, for the fox saw him then, and
made a jump for him. And there came another bangity-bung-bang noise, and
Jumpo shivered again.
When he got out in the field, just beyond the woods, he looked for a man
with a gun, but he could see no one. Down the road, however, he did see
a friend he knew, and it was no one else than Uncle Wiggily Longears,
the old gentleman rabbit. And Uncle Wiggily was standing beside
something with four big wheels and a black front on it, and it had a
wheel up by the seat, and a lot of shiny things on it, and there was a
smell like gasoline coming from it.
"My! I wonder what it is that Uncle Wiggily has?" thought the green
monkey. "It looks like a carriage, but there is no horse to it. However,
I'm going to ask him to save me from the man with the gun."
And as Jumpo ran toward the old gentleman rabbit, once more there
sounded that banging noise, and the monkey saw Uncle Wiggily jump back
very quickly.
"Why, it's Uncle Wiggily who is shooting!" cried Jumpo. "Oh, you Uncle
Wiggily!" called the monkey. "Please don't shoot me!"
"Shoot! I'm not going to shoot anybody," said the rabbit. "I'd like to
shoot my automobile, though, for it won't go, and it is making those
banging noises like a gun. I never saw such a machine--never in all my
travels to seek my fortune. Here I am--stuck!"
"Oh, ho! An automobile, eh?" cried Jumpo.
"Yes," said the rabbit, "since I got so rich I bought one of them, and
now I wish I hadn't. Here I am, miles from home, and I can't get it to
go. I've twisted the thing-a-ma-bob, and poured oil down the what-is-it,
and squirted gasoline on the dingus-dingus, and wiggled the
touch-me-not, and jiggled the who-is-it and even tickled the
tinkerum-tankerum. Still it won't go, and it keeps making that bang-bang
noise like a gun whenever I turn the crank. Oh, and my rheumatism hurts
me so! And I'm so tired!"
"Perhaps I can help," said Jumpo. "Does that crank in front make music
like a hand organ?"
"I only wish it did," spoke the rabbit, as he gave it another twist. But
there was only another bang.
"I give up!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "That crank doesn't do anything."
"Never mind!" cried Jumpo. "I'll help you home. You sit up in the auto
and steer it, and I'll get a rope and pull you home along the road, and
you'll be there in time for supper."
Well, the rabbit gentleman didn't believe the green monkey was strong
enough to pull the heavy car, but Jumpo was, and soon the auto and Jumpo
and Uncle Wiggily were safe home, and the auto man soon had the machine
fixed, so it would run like an alarm clock.
And that night Uncle Wiggily came to the monkey boys' house, and gave
them each a peppermint candy and told them a story before they went to
bed. And, in case the man across the street, who has an auto, doesn't
put one of the big rubber tires on our front doorknob, to make it look
like a doughnut, I'll tell you another story on the next page. It will
be about Jumpo and Susie Littletail.
STORY XI
JUMPO AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL
It had rained quite hard in the night and when Jacko and Jumpo
Kinkytail, after they had gone to bed, suddenly woke up in the darkness
and heard the drops pattering on the roof, the little red monkey boy
said to his green brother:
"Oh, dear! Now we can't go off in the woods to-morrow and take our lunch
and play camping, as we were going to do."
"No; isn't it too bad?" agreed Jumpo. "It always seems to rain at the
wrong time, doesn't it?"
"Come, come!" exclaimed Mr. Kinkytail, who was in the next room. "You
boys must go to sleep. The sun may shine to-morrow. Don't grumble and
find fault ahead of time."
And surely enough, the sun was shining brightly the next morning, and as
it was Saturday the Kinkytails didn't have to go to school.
"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Jacko as he leaped out of bed and saw what a fine
day it was. The rain had washed everything nice and clean, and it was
just lovely out-of-doors.
"Now, let's hurry and get our breakfasts," said Jumpo. "Then we'll pack
up our lunch and stay all day in the woods."
"And gather chestnuts and bring them home and roast and boil them!"
exclaimed Jacko, for monkeys are very fond of chestnuts, you know. Oh,
my, yes! and some sweet potatoes also.
Pretty soon the two monkey boys started off for the woods, and each one
had a little package of lunch. On and on they went, and in a short time
they were quite a distance from home, but that didn't matter, as they
knew the way back. They looked at the different trees in search of
chestnuts, but for some time they didn't find any.
"I tell you what let's do," suggested Jacko. "I'll go off on this path
to the right, and you take the one to the left, and whoever finds a lot
of chestnuts first can holler. Then, if it's you, I'll come and help you
gather them, but if I find them, then you must come and help me."
"Good!" cried Jumpo. "We'll do it!" So Jumpo went to the left path and
Jacko took the one on the right. Well, Jacko hadn't gone very far before
he came to a tree, and under it was a whole pile of chestnuts, all
nicely gathered together.
"Oh, ho! This is fine!" cried the monkey boy. "Hello, Jumpo!" he called,
as loudly as he could. "Come here!"
"What do you want Jumpo for?" asked a voice in a tree overhead, and
there was an old gentleman squirrel with a small sack on his back.
"I want him to help me pick up these chestnuts," said Jacko.
"Oh, but those are _my_ chestnuts," said the squirrel. "I have gathered
them to eat during the winter. I'm sure you wouldn't want to take them
away from me."
"No, indeed," said the red monkey politely. "I didn't know they were
yours."
"Then I'll show you where there are a lot more," said the squirrel
gentleman, "and you can gather them for yourself." The squirrel took the
monkey boy to another place in the woods, and oh! what a pile of
chestnuts were there. Jacko called for Jumpo as hard as he could, but
the green monkey didn't come.
"Perhaps he has found some nuts for himself," thought Jacko. "Very well,
I'll gather these, and wait until he comes."
But Jumpo was having quite an adventure by himself, and I'll tell you
about it. He walked along and along, after Jacko had left him, but he
couldn't find even a last year's chestnut burr, and he felt quite badly
about it. Then, all of a sudden he heard a voice singing. And this was
the song:
"Dear little dollie go fast asleep,
Mamma is here, so don't cry or weep.
Stand on your toes--wiggle your nose,
Then I will dust all the rooms as I sweep.
"See the blue lion a-switching his tail,
Hear how he roars inside the milk pail.
The elephant, dear, will flap his big ear,
And then the old babboon will go for a sail."
"Well, did you ever hear the like of that!" exclaimed Jumpo. "I'd better
look out. There must be a whole circus over there. But I don't see how a
dollie can wiggle her nose, nor how a lion can roar inside a milk pail,
nor yet why the old babboon should want to go sailing. I'd better go
back home while I have the chance. That may be the burglar fox singing."
But the green monkey took one peep through the bushes, and there he saw
Susie Littletail, the little rabbit girl, rocking her dollie in a
hammock made from a grape vine, and it was Susie who had been singing
the funny song. Just as she started on the forty-'leventh verse Jumpo
came out from where he was hiding, and exclaimed:
"Why, Susie Littletail! How glad I am to see you! What are you doing
here?"