stone, making a noise like a gun, and he looked so angry that the bear
let go of the rope and quickly sneaked away where no one could find him.
So Jacko was free, and didn't have to do any tricks unless he wished to.
Then Uncle Wiggily took him home, and they arrived just as Mrs.
Kinkytail was sending out old dog Percival to look for her son and tell
him to come to supper.
So that's how Jacko escaped from the bad bear. And on the next page, in
case the stove lifter doesn't pull out the carpet tacks and feed them to
the gold fish, I'll tell you about Jumpo and the paper cup.
STORY XXIII
JUMPO AND THE PAPER CUP
One day, when Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail, the red and green monkey boys,
were coming home from school, Jacko said to Jumpo:
"I have five cents, that I have been saving up for a long while. Now I'm
going to buy a bag of hot roast peanuts, and I'll give you some."
"Oh, fine!" cried Jumpo. "But where can you buy any peanuts in these
woods?" for you see at that time the monkey boys were going home through
a place where the trees grew thick and tall, almost up to the sky, it
seemed.
"Oh, perhaps we will meet some one with a hot peanut wagon, or we may
come to a store where they sell them," said the red monkey. "You look on
that side of the path, Jumpo, and I'll look on this side."
So they did this, looking as hard as they could look, for they were
quite hungry for peanuts, but all they could see were the brown leaves
being blown about in the wind.
"I guess there are no peanuts here," said Jacko at length. "We will have
to wait until we get home."
"No!" exclaimed Jumpo, as he tied his tail in three hard knots and
untied it as quickly as you can watch the baby shake his rattlebox.
"I'll tell you what we'll do," said Jumpo. "You let me take the five
cents, and I'll go look for a peanut wagon in the woods. Then you stay
here and watch for one to come along. If one does come you kindly ask
the man to wait here until I get back with the money, for, of course, I
may not find anybody with peanuts."
"But how can I tell you to come back with the money, when you are away
off in the woods?" Jacko wanted to know.
"Why, you take two stones, and hit them together as hard as you can,"
explained the green monkey, "and it will sound like a drum. Then I'll
come back running, but if I should happen to find a peanut wagon before
you do, I'll come back anyhow."
Well, Jacko thought that was a good plan, so he gave his brother the
five-cent piece, and then he sat down on a stone under a tree to wait
while Jumpo went off in the woods. Then Jacko began to study his
spelling lesson. And he learned to spell cat, and rat, and dog, and boy,
and words like that.
But now we needn't think of Jacko for a little time, as I am going to
tell you what happened to Jumpo. On and on the green monkey boy went
through the woods, looking for a hot peanut wagon. Of course, I don't
mean that the wagon would be hot, no, indeed. I mean the peanuts would
be nice and warm after being roasted.
"Well, I guess I'm not going to find the peanut man," thought Jumpo, as
he looked all over, and in several other places. Then he listened to see
if he could hear the whistle of the hot peanut wagon, but he couldn't,
and he was just getting ready to turn around and go back where his
brother was, for it was getting late, and would soon be dark.
Then, all of a sudden, Jumpo heard a queer sound. It was like some one
talking, and the words were these:
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I'll never get a drink, I'm afraid. And I'm so
thirsty, and I can't walk home. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What shall I do?"
"Ha! I wonder who that can be?" thought the green monkey boy. "Perhaps
it is the peanut man, and he has eaten so many of his peanuts that he
needs a drink. I guess I had better help him."
So Jumpo started through the woods toward where he heard the voice
talking. Then, all at once he thought of something.
"That may be a bear, or a burglar fox talking that way just to catch
me," he whispered to himself. "I had better go slowly. I'll just peek
through the bushes, before I go any closer, and see who it is."
Then Jumpo looked through the bushes. And whom do you s'pose he saw,
sitting on a stump near a little spring of water? Well, I don't believe
you'd ever guess, so I'm going to tell you. It was Uncle Wiggily
Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily was looking at the
spring of water and saying: "Oh, dear!" so many times that Jumpo
couldn't count them.
"Ha! There is no danger for me now!" exclaimed the green monkey boy. "I
must go and help him. Why, what is the matter, Uncle Wiggily?" asked
Jumpo as he walked toward him.
"Oh, it is you; is it, Jumpo?" spoke the rabbit. "Well, I am very glad
to see you. But, oh dear! how thirsty I am. I ate some salted muskmelon
with pepper cabbage sauce on it for dinner, and I am so thirsty that I
don't know what to do."
"But why don't you drink, when you are so close to a spring of water?"
asked Jumpo.
"Ah, why indeed?" said Uncle Wiggily. "Well, the truth of the matter is
that I have no drinking cup; so how can I get a drink?"
"That is easy," said Jumpo. "Do as we boys do. Lie down flat on your
face, and sip up the water. Here, I'll show you," and Jumpo stretched
out on the ground, and took a long drink from the spring.
"Very fine--for you," said Uncle Wiggily. "I tried that way, but every
time I began to sip up the water it squirted up my nose, and that
tickles me, and I have to sneeze, and when I sneeze I can't drink. No
one could. You just try it. Sneeze, please."
So Jumpo did, and surely enough he couldn't drink and sneeze at the same
time.
"Did you try to dip up some in the top of your hat?" asked Jumpo.
"Yes," said Uncle Wiggily, "but my hat is a tall silk one, with holes in
to let out the hot air, and the water all runs out before I can drink
it."
"I'll try my cap," said the monkey boy, and he did but all the water ran
out of that as soon as it was dipped up.
"Oh, what shall I do?" said Uncle Wiggily. "I am afraid I shall die of
thirst, for my rheumatism hurts so that I can't walk very fast and it
will take me a week to get home."
Then Jumpo thought real hard, and he suddenly exclaimed:
"Oh, I know the very thing! I will make you a paper cup."
"A paper cup!" spoke the rabbit. "One cannot drink out of a paper cup."
"I will prove it to you," said Jumpo. "Our teacher showed us how to make
paper cups that would last long enough to get a good drink from."
Then the monkey boy took a piece of paper from his pad that was strapped
in with his schoolbooks and he folded it and creased it and folded it
again, doubling it over until he had a cute little paper cup. Then he
opened it out and dipped it into the water and held it up for Uncle
Wiggily to drink.
"Well, I do declare!" exclaimed the rabbit, as he drank the water.
"That's fine." Then he drank some more until he had enough, and by
leaning on Jumpo's shoulder he managed to walk along toward home.
Then, all of a sudden, a big black bear jumped out of the woods crying:
"I'm going to eat you both!" But what did Jumpo do? Why, he scooped up a
paper cupful of water and threw it in the bear's eyes and made him
sneeze, and the bear was so scared that he cried out, "Wow! Wow! Wow!"
three times and ran away.
Then Uncle Wiggily and Jumpo went to where Jacko was waiting for them,
and a hot peanut wagon came along and the old gentleman rabbit bought
each of the monkey boys a bag full, and they went home, helping Uncle
Wiggily all the way.
Now, that's all to-night, if you please; but the next story I'll tell
you will be about the Kinkytails blowing bubbles--that is, if the
soapdish doesn't jump up and bite the bathroom towel and make it cry.
STORY XXIV
THE KINKYTAILS BLOW BUBBLES
"Oh, dear, I wonder what we can do to-day?" exclaimed Jacko Kinkytail,
as he got up one Saturday morning and saw that it was raining quite
hard.
"Yes, isn't it too bad," said his brother, the green monkey. "Here it is
Saturday, when there is no school, and we can't go out and play. Oh,
dear!"
"Oh, my!" cried Mamma Kinkytail, as she came in to see if her boys were
ready for breakfast. "Why are you so sad?"
"I guess you'd be sad if you couldn't go out and play," answered Jacko,
as he parted his hair on the left side and took the kinky spots out of
his tail where he had slept on it in the night.
"We'll see if we can't have some fun in the house," his mamma said.
"Just you get your breakfasts and then you boys can help me dust a bit.
Then I'll think up some way so you may have some fun, even if it rains."
"Oh, goody!" cried Jacko and Jumpo together, and they jumped up and
down, and Jacko climbed on Jumpo's back and tried to touch the ceiling,
only Jumpo toppled over and they both fell right down on top of the bed,
so they weren't hurt.
"Now, if you'd only jump around, and help me dust, it would be better
than jumping on the bed," said their mamma with a laugh. So they got
some old rags, and soon all the furniture was polished so shiny that you
could see yourself standing upside down in it.
"Now for the fun!" said Mrs. Kinkytail. "Jacko, you get me some bowls
with warm water in them, and, Jumpo, you shave up some of that nice
smelling soap in the bathroom."
"Are you going to wash us, ma?" asked Jumpo, scared like.
"No, indeed. You will have your baths tonight. This is a little trick I
am going to do for you. While you are getting the soap and water and
bowls I will go to the telephone. But you mustn't listen to what I say."
Well, of course, the monkey boys promised, and they got the things their
mamma told them to, while she was telephoning. Then she showed them how
to mix up the soap and water in the bowls. Just as this was finished the
door bell rang.
"I wonder who that can be?" said Jacko, surprised like.
"Suppose you go and see," answered his mother with a smile.
Jacko went to the front door and looked down toward the ground, for you
know the monkeys' house was up in a high tree. In the rain he saw three
duck children standing there.
"Oh, it's Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble!" cried Jacko in
delight. "Oh, how did you happen to come in all the rain?"
"Why, your mamma telephoned for us," said Jimmie, as he wiggled his
wings to toss off some of the water, for you know the ducks didn't need
umbrellas.
"Oh, come right up!" cried Jumpo, who had also run to the door. "We're
going to have fun. Come up."
"But how can we, when there are no stairs?" asked Lulu.
"Wait, I'll let down the basket," spoke Jacko, and soon he lowered a
basket, fastened to a rope. This was always kept for visitors, but the
monkeys could climb up without it.
Into the basket Alice and Lulu and Jimmie stepped, and Jacko and Jumpo
pulled them up, for monkeys are very strong.
"Come right in, Jimmie, and your sisters, too," invited Mrs. Kinkytail.
"Did you bring the pipes, Jimmie?"
"Yes, ma'am," said the boy duck.
"What pipes?" Jumpo wanted to know.
"Some nice, new, clean clay pipes, that you are going to blow bubbles
with," explained his mamma. "That is the good time I have made for you.
You are going to have a soap-bubble party. Now, children, come right out
in the kitchen and the party will begin."
"Oh, how lovely!" cried Alice Wibblewobble, as she looked in a glass to
see if her hair ribbon was on straight. "I love soap bubbles."
"So do I," said Lulu, whistling just like a boy.
Out in the kitchen a soft cloth had been spread on the floor for the
bubbles to fall on, so they wouldn't get hurt. And Jimmie put the new
pipes on the table beside the bowls of soap and water.
"Now, begin," said Mamma Kinkytail. So each one dipped a pipe into the
soapy water and began to blow. Oh, what fine bubbles they made! Some
were white, and some blue, and some green, and some red--just like the
rainbow colors.
Lulu blew a very big bubble, almost as big as the moon looks, and all of
a sudden it burst, making her sneeze like the time when Uncle Wiggily
got the water up his nose.
Then Jacko blew a bubble and bounced it on the soft cloth until it
looked like a football rolling along.
"Oh, see mine!" cried Alice, as she shook one off her pipe. It floated
about the room. "It's on Jumpo's head!" said Alice. And, surely enough,
it was, only it didn't stay there very long, as it burst. And Jimmie
Wibblewobble blew one that almost reached the ceiling. Then Jumpo blew
two at once, like twins, and they stayed on the cloth a long time.
Oh! They were having such fun that they didn't even think of the rain.
They blew hundreds of bubbles, and laughed and shouted until you would
have thought there were a dozen children at the party. And then, all of
a sudden, something happened.
All at once there was a noise at the window, and a great big black bear
poked his head in. He gave a growl and cried:
"Ah, ha! Now I'll have plenty for my supper. I am very fond of monkeys
and ducks. I'm glad I climbed up the tree to get you. All ready now,
I'm coming in!"
"You get right out of here, you bad bear!" cried Lulu.
"No, I will not," said the bear, savage like.
"I'll go tell my mamma if you don't," said Jacko, for Mrs. Kinkytail
wasn't in the kitchen just then.
"I'm not afraid!" growled the bear. "Here I come in after you."
Well, he was just getting in through the window, when Lulu Wibblewobble
cried:
"Oh, let's blow a whole lot of bubbles at him and scare him!"
And that's what those brave animal children did. They dipped their pipes
in the soap and water and blew forty-'leven-sixteen-twenty-one bubbles
and shook them at the bear. And my! how frightened he was. He'd never
seen soap bubbles before, and he thought they were red and green and
yellow and blue cannon balls going to hit him on his nose and toes.
Quickly he turned around and crawled out of the window and down the pole
before any of the bubbles could burst and make him sneeze, and he ran
off to the woods, and so that's how he didn't eat anybody that night.
Then Mrs. Kinkytail came in and heard what happened, and she said Lulu
was a very bright little duck girl to think of it. Then the mamma monkey
called:
"Come into the dining-room now and have ice cream and cake." And, oh!
wasn't it good!
Then they blew more bubbles and soon the party was over, and Jacko and
Jumpo were glad it had rained. Now on the next page, if the boy who
lives in the corner house doesn't lose his roller skates down our
chimney and make it sneeze, you may read about Jacko and the paper
chain.
STORY XXV
JACKO AND THE PAPER CHAIN
"Now sit up nice and straight, children," said the owl school teacher
one day, "and pay close attention. I am going to show you how to make
paper chains, so you can decorate the Christmas trees with them when the
time comes. I have shown you how to make paper cups, and this time it
will be paper chains."
"And the paper cup was very useful," thought Jumpo, as he remembered the
time he had given Uncle Wiggily a drink from it.
"I don't see how you can make chains out of paper," said Jacko in a
whisper to his brother.
"Oh, you must not talk in school!" exclaimed the teacher quickly, "for
it takes your minds off your lessons. Now look at me and do as I do."
But even when the teacher took out some squares of prettily colored
paper and began cutting them in strips with her scissors, Jacko couldn't
understand how she was going to make a chain that way.
"For chains are made of iron or steel or silver or gold, and not paper,"
he thought. "But I'll wait and see."
The teacher took a narrow strip of red paper, and she pasted the two
ends together, making a little ring. Then she slipped another narrow
strip of paper, colored green, inside the first red ring and she
fastened the ends of the second strip together, making a second ring,
right inside the first, like a watch chain. And so she went on until she
had about forty-sixteen rings all fastened together, and that was a
paper chain.
"Now you try to make one," said the owl teacher, and all the animal
children did. Susie Littletail, the rabbit, made a very fine chain of
the most beautiful colors, and her brother Sammie made two paper chains,
while the Bushytail squirrel brothers made some yellow chains that
looked like gold.
"You may each take some paper with you," spoke the teacher when school
was nearly over, "and make some chains at home."
So they all went up to her desk to get the paper, but Jacko Kinkytail,
the red boy monkey, was a little late because he couldn't get his book
strap fastened. And all there was left for him was some black paper.
All the pretty colored pieces had been given away.
"Never mind," said the teacher, kindly, "I'm sure Jacko will make a very
good black paper chain. Now school is over. Run home."
So they all ran home. Suddenly Jumpo Kinkytail happened to think that
his mamma had told him to go to the store on his way from school, and
bring her a yeast cake.
"Will you come with me?" Jumpo asked his brother.
"Oh, I don't want to," answered Jacko. "But I'll wait here in the woods
for you."
"All right," said Jumpo, so off he started to the store.
Well, Jacko sat down on a hollow stump, taking good care not to fall in
it and get his long tail all tangled up. He had his squares of black
paper with him, and also a pair of scissors and some paste which the
teacher had given him.
"I think I will start to make my paper chain now," he said to himself
when he had been sitting there a little while. "Then I won't have to do
it at home, and Jumpo and I can go for a little ride in our auto."
So he cut the black paper into strips, and made rings of them, fastening
them together, one inside the other, until he had a nice long chain.
"Ha! That is very fine!" thought the monkey boy. "I will have it all
done when Jumpo comes back."
He was holding up the chain by the end, to see how long it was, when,
all of a sudden he heard a noise in the bushes. At first he thought it
was his brother, coming with the yeast cake, but, somehow it didn't
sound like the green monkey. It was a crashing-bashing-rashing-smashing
sort of a noise, and Jacko began to be afraid, thinking it might be the
burglar fox.
And then, before he could stand up and sing a song about four-and-twenty
blackbirds baked in a rice pudding, out from the bushes came the savage
skillery-scalery alligator with the double jointed tail. Oh, but that
alligator was savage! And how he glared at Jacko with his mean, green
eyes. Then the bad creature smacked his jaws together like an automobile
running over a pair of roller skates.
"Ah, ha!" cried the alligator. "At last I have a monkey for supper. I
would like two--a red one and a green one--but as long as there is only
a red one I'll eat him."
"Are you really going to eat me?" asked Jacko, dropping the paper chain
and the paste and the scissors. He was real scared.
"I am," said the alligator, "and if your brother was here I'd eat him
also."
Then Jacko was glad his brother hadn't come back. Nearer and nearer came
the alligator, with his mouth wide open. And, oh! how frightened Jacko
was. He didn't know what to do.
"Please, Mr. Alligator, don't eat me!" he cried.
"Yes, I must eat you," said the unpleasant creature with the
double-jointed tail. And he stood up on the end of it and waggled his
head up and down and sideways and opened his mouth still wider.
Well, of course, Jacko didn't want to be eaten up, but he didn't know
how to get out of it, until all of a sudden, he thought of a plan. His
paper chain! It was black, and looked just like one made of strong iron.
Perhaps he could fool the alligator.
All at once the red monkey boy caught up the rings of paper, all pasted
together. Very quickly he threw the chain around the alligator's neck,
and then he fastened both ends of the chain to the stump with strong
paste. And he had the alligator fast in the paper chain.
Then Jacko jumped to one side and cried out:
"Now you can't get me, bad Mr. Alligator, for I have you chained fast to
the stump! You can't get away, and you can't eat me!"
Well, that alligator looked at the paper links of the paper chain around
his neck and fast to the stump. And as the paper was black, and looked
like iron, the savage creature with the double-jointed tail really
thought it was iron. So he didn't try to get away, for he knew he
couldn't break iron, but if he had known that it was only paper he could
have broken away as easily as not, just by one flip-flop of his tail, or
by biting the paper with his strong teeth. But you see he didn't know.
"Now, I have you fast!" cried Jacko.
"Oh, please let me go," begged the alligator. He it was who was scared
now.
"Never!" exclaimed Jacko. "I am going to run and meet my brother and we
will go home. You can't catch us, for you are held fast."
So Jacko ran to meet Jumpo and told him how he had caught the alligator
with a paper chain, and Jumpo was very glad. Then the monkey brothers
went safely home, and the alligator stayed in the woods chained fast to
the stump.
But in the night it rained, and the water melted the paste so that paper
chain came all apart. Then the alligator was loose, and when he saw how
he had been fooled with just paper he was as mad as anything, yes,
really he was. But he couldn't catch Jacko and Jumpo.
So that's all now, but if the pretty little girl on our street doesn't
sweep the dried leaves up in a pile and cover up the pussy cat, so it
can't go to the moving pictures, I'll tell you next about the Kinkytails
and the chirping cricket.
STORY XXVI
THE KINKYTAILS AND THE CRICKET
One day, as Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail were coming home from school they
happened to go past a pile of stones in the woods. And just as they got
near to the stones they saw something black on top.
"Oh!" exclaimed Jacko, "perhaps that is one of the rings from my black
paper chain that I fastened the alligator with."
"Maybe it is," agreed Jumpo. "And if it is, why the alligator may be
around here. We had better be careful. Let's run home."
Well, they were just going to run, not knowing the alligator had gone
away as I told you in the previous story, when the black thing on the
pile of stones gave a jump and disappeared down in a crack between two
rocks.
"Ha! That is very funny!" said Jacko. "I didn't know that pieces of
paper could jump."
"Me either," said Jumpo. "Let's go up and take a look. Maybe it isn't a
piece of your paper chain after all; and the alligator may not be
there."
So they went closer to the pile of stones, and all at once, and as
quickly as you can eat a dish of ice cream on a hot day, they heard a
little voice singing. And this was the song, which goes to the tune of
"Rinky-tinky diddily-dum,"
"Let's be jolly, don't be sad,
Let's be good and not be bad.
If you fall and hurt your nose,
Dance upon your tippy-toes.
"Always try to sing or play,
Laughter drives dull care away.
Whistle with a happy shout,
Music turns the world about."
"My, you must be a jolly fellow, whoever you are!" said Jacko.
"Oh, no; I am the most miserable creature in all the world," was the
sorrowful answer from beneath the pile of stones.
"Then why do you sing about happiness; and who are you?" asked Jumpo.
"I am a chirping black cricket," was the answer. "I was sitting on this
stone pile when I happened to see you coming. I thought you were two
bears, so I jumped down in here and now I cannot get out again, for
every time I try to jump out I bump my nose. Are you really bears?"
"No, indeed; we're two monkey boys," spoke Jacko. "But we will help you
out of the stone pile. Come, Jumpo, let's toss the stones away, one by
one, and the cricket can get out."
So they did this, and pretty soon the little black creature could crawl
out.
"Well, are you happy now?" asked Jacko.
"Oh, no; I am very sad, for I know winter will soon be here and I will
freeze to death," said the cricket. "But still I sing my joyous song as
I want other people to be happy. I am much obliged for helping me out,
but I will soon be dead."
"Oh, nonsensicalness! Don't talk so!" exclaimed Jumpo. "Winter isn't at
all bad. Think of the skating, and the snow, and riding down hill on
your sled, and making forts and snow men and--"
"Yes, that's all right for any one who can keep warm, but I can't," said
the black cricket. "Oh, I am so miserable," and then he began to sing
again about always being happy and not sad.
"I think we can easily fix this," said Jacko. "We will take you home
with us, Mr. Cricket, and you can stay in the warm fireplace all winter.
Then you will keep warm until summer comes again, and you can sing to us
as we study our lessons, for some of them are so hard that they make us
sad."
"That will be lovely," spoke the cricket. "I'll come with you gladly.
But first throw away the rest of the pile of stones so no one else will
fall down among them as I did."