stone the big black bear popped out of the bushes most unexpectedly, and
the stone hit him on the nose.
"Oh! I'll eat you up for that," he cried, and he made a jump for the
monkey boys.
"Run! Run!" called the cricket, "and I'll bump into his eyes and blind
him so he can't see you."
So the monkey boys ran as fast as they could, and the black cricket gave
a big hop and hopped right up against the bear's eyes and for a minute
he couldn't see. That gave Jacko and Jumpo a chance to get away, and
they ran on and on and pretty soon the cricket caught up to them,
hopping away from the bear, and they all went home to the monkeys'
house.
Mrs. Kinkytail was very glad to see the cricket, who would have been
frozen if he had had to sleep outdoors many more cold nights. She made
him a warm bed near the fireplace by putting some cotton inside her
sewing thimble.
"Oh, this is most delightful," said the cricket as he snuggled down
inside the thimble under the warm cotton. "This is the nicest place I
ever slept in." Then he sang his jolly song again, and Jacko and Jumpo
did their lessons and soon the cricket sang himself to sleep and it was
time for everybody to go to bed.
But listen! Something happened in the middle of the night. That bad bear
was so mad that along about 12 o'clock, when all was still and quiet in
the monkeys' house, he sneaked up and climbed the tree until he was at
the front door.
"Now I will go in and eat them all up," thought the bear, smacking his
lips and gnashing his sharp teeth. So with his long toenails he unlocked
the door and went softly into the house, where Jacko and Jumpo and their
papa and mamma were fast asleep. No one heard the bear come in--that is,
no one but the little black cricket in the thimble near the fireplace.
He heard the shaggy, savage creature, and all at once that cricket
chirped and cried out:
"Wake up! Wake up, everybody! You'll all be eaten!" And the cricket sang
his happy song so loudly that Jacko and Jumpo and Mr. and Mrs. Kinkytail
awakened at once, just as though they had heard an alarm clock.
Then Mr. Kinkytail took a club and began beating on the bottom of the
dishpan, and the bear heard it and he thought it was the fire engines
coming after him, so he jumped out of the front door to get away. And he
jumped so hard that he fell to the ground and broke two of its toenails,
and it served him right, I think.
So that's how the cricket saved the Kinkytails from being robbed and
eaten up, and they were very thankful to him. And he stayed with them
all winter, and sometimes he had cherry pie for supper.
Now next I'm going to tell you about the Kinkytails and the doll's
house--that is, if the alarm clock will stop making figures all over my
paper so I can write the story, and if the coffee pot doesn't step on
the rolling pin's toes.
STORY XXVII
THE KINKYTAILS AND THE DOLL'S HOUSE
"Now, boys," said Mrs. Kinkytail to her two monkey sons one morning,
"this is Saturday, and there isn't any school, so I wish you would go on
an errand for me."
"Where is it, mamma?" asked Jacko. "Do you want us to go to the store to
get some molasses, so we can make candy?"
"No, indeed, I do not!" she exclaimed. "I have plenty of molasses in the
house, and I can't let you make candy today, though I may some other
time."
"Then do you want us to get some corn so we can pop it, and make popcorn
balls?" asked Jumpo, trying to stand up on the end of his tail. But he
couldn't do it very well, so he wound his tail around the gas fixture in
the ceiling and hung head downward.
[Illustration]
"Don't do that," said his mother. "All the blood may run to your head
and there won't be any in your feet, and you may get the epizootic. But
I don't want any popcorn from the store. What I want you to do is to go
over to Grandfather Goosey Gander's house and borrow the chopper machine
he grinds up things in. I am going to make some cabbage chow-chow and
some chew-chew and some tomato pickles and I want to grind up all the
things in the food chopper.
"So hurry off, and when you come back you may take turns grinding up the
things in the chopper, and here is a penny for each of you."
"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Jacko. "You are very kind, mother."
"She certainly is," agreed Jumpo. "And maybe Grandfather Goosey Gander
will give us some peppermint candies. Oh, I'm glad it's Saturday, and
I'm glad we're going after the chipper-chopper."
So they started off over the fields and through the woods together,
hopping and skipping and jumping. Sometimes they held each other's paws,
and sometimes they twined their tails together and went along that way.
Pretty soon they came to where Grandfather Goosey Gander lived. The old
gentleman was very glad to see them, and, after he had given them the
food chipper-chopper, which he used to grind up his corn in to make
cornmeal, the goose grandfather said:
"I wonder if you two chaps know anyone who likes peppermint candy?"
"Yes, sir!" exclaimed Jacko and Jumpo at once, very quickly.
"Where are such boys to be found?" asked Grandfather Goosey Gander, and
he made-believe look all around over the top of his spectacles.
"Right here!" exclaimed Jacko and Jumpo more quickly.
"Bless my gizzard!" cried the old goosey gentleman. "I never thought you
liked such things." But he gave them some, just the same, and they
started back home with the chipper-chopper.
But on the way something dreadful happened. Just as those two boys were
going through a dark place in the woods there was a rustling in the
bushes and out jumped the burglar fox.
"Ah, ha! Now I have you!" he cried. But he spoke too soon, for, just as
he made a grab for Jacko and Jumpo, they darted away and ran as fast as
anything, if not faster.
The foxy fox ran also, and as foxes are good runners, he was soon
almost up to Jacko and Jumpo.
"We never can get away from him," said Jacko.
"Never," agreed Jumpo, "and we haven't even one roller skate between us
now. Oh, what shall we do?"
Well, they didn't know, and that fox was coming closer and closer, and
he almost had them, when, just as the monkey boys turned around a hollow
stump corner they saw a little house. Oh, it was the cutest little
house, just about large enough for them to get in, and not much more.
"Quick!" cried Jacko. "Into that house with you, Jumpo, and we'll lock
the door."
"Whose house is it?" asked the green monkey.
"Never mind. Don't stop to ask questions. Skip in," cried Jacko. So in
Jumpo skipped and his brother was right after him, and they were only
just in time, for as they shut and locked the door the fox ran slam-bang
up against it, if you will pardon me saying so at such an exciting time.
"Come out of there!" called the fox, banging on the door with his paws.
"Indeed, we will not!" answered Jacko and Jumpo most politely, holding
tightly to the food chopper. And just then they heard some one walking
upstairs in the little house and a voice called down:
"Who is there? Who is knocking at my door?"
"Goodness me, sakes alive, and a sweet potato!" cried Jacko. "Some one
lives in this little bit of a house! Think of it!"
"It does seem so," spoke Jumpo. "I wonder who it can be?"
And just then some one came down stairs and into the front room, where
the monkey boys were hiding, and who should it be but a doll--yes, a
wonderfully nice lady doll in a blue dress--and when she was wound up by
a spring in her back she could walk and talk; and she was wound up now.
"Well, of all things!" exclaimed the doll, speaking in a squeaky sort of
voice. "What are you monkey boys doing here?"
"We are hiding from the fox," said Jacko. "He chased us on our way home
from Grandfather Goosey Gander's house and we ran in here. I hope you
are not angry."
"Indeed, I am not," said the doll, kindly. "Where is the fox now?"
And just then the bad fox banged on the door of the doll's house again
and cried out:
"Hey! I want you monkey boys!"
"Oh, the savage creature!" exclaimed the doll. "He'll be wanting to eat
me next. You see, I'm out here for my health. I belong to a little girl,
but she had my house brought out here so I could get the woodland air.
And I'm much stronger now. But I'll fix that fox."
"How?" asked Jacko.
"Why, you go close to the front door," said the doll, "and pretend that
you are coming out. Rattle the knob, you know. Then I'll go to an
upstairs window, right over the door, and when the fox is standing there
I'll pour molasses on him and he'll be so sticky that he can't even eat
a toothpick."
"Fine!" cried Jacko, so he and his brother rattled the door knob.
"Ah! Here comes my monkey dinner!" said the fox, smacking his lips
hungry like.
And just then that brave doll in the blue dress opened the window over
the fox's head and poured a whole dish pan of molasses on him.
"Wow! Oh, wow! Bow-wow!" cried that fox.
Oh, I wish you could have seen him. He was so stuck up from the tip of
his toes to the tip of his nose that he was all kerflumixed and
kerflimixed and he ran off in the woods taking his tail with him. So he
didn't eat Jacko or Jumpo, and soon they came out, and after thanking
the brave doll in the blue dress they went safely home and helped make
chow-chow-chew-chew pickles in the chipper-chopper.
Now, in case the tomato can doesn't roll over in bed and fall out on the
floor so it bumps the kitty cat's nose, I'll tell you next about Jacko
and the train of cars.
STORY XXVIII
JACKO AND THE TRAIN OF CARS
"May we go over to Sammie Littletail's house and play this afternoon,
mamma?" asked Jacko Kinkytail as he and his brother came home from
school. It was about three days after the monkey boys had hidden from
the fox in the doll's house.
"What about your school lessons and home work?" asked the monkey boys'
mother.
"Oh, we both did fine to-day, and we both went to the head of the
class," said Jumpo. "First I went up and then Jacko went, and we haven't
much home work to do, only some spelling words to learn."
"Then you may go," said Mrs. Kinkytail, "but be sure to be home for
supper." So they promised, and away they hopped through the woods toward
the place where the Littletail rabbit family lived.
"What shall we play when we get there?" asked Jumpo, as he wound his
tail around the low limb of a tree and swung himself across a little
brook as nicely as you can fold your napkin.
"Oh, we'll play tag, and hide-and-go-seek, and maybe football," spoke
Jacko. "Perhaps Susie Littletail has been helping her mother bake a cake
or a pie, and she might give us some. I'm not saying for sure," said
Jacko, as he winked both his eyes, "but she might."
"Oh, I wish she would!" cried Jumpo. "When we go in, we'll just sort of
look hungry, and when they ask us what's the matter we'll say we haven't
had any pie or cake in a long, long time. For you know mamma doesn't
allow us to ask for things to eat when we go calling; but that wouldn't
be asking, would it?"
"I guess not," said Jacko, slow and thoughtful like.
Well, they were soon at the rabbit children's house and they saw Sammie
Littletail outside. He was playing with his football, and when he saw
Jacko and Jumpo he cried:
"Oh, goody! Now we can have a game," and he kicked that ball away up in
the air, so high that when it came down it stuck in the top of a tree.
"Now see what you did, Sammie!" cried his sister Susie, sorrowfully.
"You can't get your ball," and there she stood in the door, with an
apron on, and that apron was covered with flour dust, yes, really it
was.
"Hey! What did I tell you?" whispered Jumpo to Jacko. "They're baking
cake, all right. See the flour on Susie's apron. I'm going to look
hungry."
"And I'm going to get the football," said Jacko. "Maybe that will
surprise Susie, and she'll offer us some cake without us looking hungry.
Here I go."
"Good!" cried Jumpo, and before he could say anything more up the tree
scrambled the red monkey to where the football was caught on a crooked
branch.
"Look out! Here it comes down!" cried Jacko, in about a minute, and,
surely enough, down came the football bouncing up and down like a bowl
full of jelly on Christmas morning.
"Oh, fine!" cried Sammie. "I thought I would never get it back again.
Isn't there something I can give you and your brother, Jacko?"
"Well," said Jacko, slow and hungry like, "we might have--"
"I know the very thing!" cried Susie. "I have just baked some cherry
pies for Uncle Wiggily Longears and I know he'd want you to have some.
Come in and I'll cut one."
"Oh, if this isn't the best luck!" exclaimed Jacko. "We didn't have to
ask, so it's all right; eh, Jumpo?"
"Sure," said Jumpo in a whisper.
I just wish _you_ could have had some of that cherry pie, but of course
you couldn't, for there wasn't any left. Then pretty soon the monkey boys
and Sammie went outside to play football again. And, all of a sudden, as
Jumpo kicked the ball, it bounced on Sammie's nose and made it bleed.
Oh, how that poor rabbit boy's nose did bleed. He cried and cried again,
and Susie and his mamma, the muskrat lady housekeeper, Nurse Jane
Fuzzy-Wuzzy, came running out. They did all they could for him, such as
putting a cold key down his back and making him chew paper, and they
even put some paper under his upper lip, but it did no good, for the
nose still bled.
"We must send for Dr. Possum at once," said Mrs. Littletail. "He will
have to come in a hurry to stop the bleeding."
"Oh, if we only had our automobile, we could go very quickly," said
Jacko, but they didn't have it.
"Oh, I'm so sorry; it was my fault," exclaimed Jumpo. "I will run for
Dr. Possum."
"You never can run fast enough," exclaimed Mrs. Littletail. "Why, even
an airship wouldn't be quick enough. Oh! What shall I do? Sammie may
bleed to death."
"Wait, I have an idea," cried Susie. "Why can't Jacko go for the doctor
in Sammie's toy train of cars?"
"In a toy train of cars?" exclaimed Jacko.
"Yes, the engine is very big and strong, and it runs very fast. Just
hitch one car to it and go for Dr. Possum."
"But doesn't that engine have to run on a track?" asked Jumpo.
"No, if you wind the spring up real tight it will run right over the
ground without any track," said Susie, for Sammie couldn't talk on
account of the nose bleed. "Hurry off, Jacko. You can ride in the cab
and be the engineer and Dr. Possum can ride in the passenger coach."
Quickly Mrs. Littletail wheeled out the toy engine and one car. It was
quite large, plenty big enough for Jacko to get in. He and Jumpo wound
up the spring real tight and then Jacko got in the engine cab.
"Toot! Toot!" he blew the whistle and with a whizz and a rattle, away
the engine went right along a smooth path in the woods toward Dr.
Possum's house. Faster and faster rode Jacko, ringing the bell every
once in a while. Faster and faster he went until he came to Dr. Possum's
house.
"Oh, doctor, come quick!" he cried, stopping the engine by pulling on a
handle. "Sammie Littletail has the nose bleed very bad!"
"I'll be with you at once," said Dr. Possum. So he took a big bottle of
nose bleed medicine and into the coach he sprang. Jacko rolled the
engine around and turned on the spring. Away it went back through the
woods, pulling him and Dr. Possum as nicely as a stick of molasses
candy.
All of a sudden out from the bushes sprang the burglar fox.
"Hi! Stop that train!" he cried. "I want to get on!"
"No! No! Never! Never!" shouted Jacko.
"Then I'll stop it!" said the bad fox. So he took a stone and put it in
front of the engine but do you s'pose the engine minded that?
Not a bit of it! Why, with the cow-catcher the engine just pushed the
stone out of the way so that it fell over and pinched the fox on the
tail, and then the engine went on faster than ever.
And pretty soon they were back again at Sammie's house. Out jumped the
doctor, out of his valise he took the bottle of nose-bleed medicine.
"Smell of that!" he said to Sammie. And smell of it Sammie did, and in a
second and a half his nose stopped bleeding and he was all better.
So that's how Jacko went for the doctor in an engine and part of a toy
train of cars, and that's all to this story, if you please, for then it
was time for Jacko and Jumpo to go home to supper, and now it's time for
you to go to bed.
But the next story, in case the wallpaper doesn't fall down and get
tangled up in pussy cat's oatmeal dish, will be about Jumpo and his
airship.
STORY XXIX
JUMPO AND HIS AIRSHIP
"Well, what in the world are you making now?" asked Mr. Kinkytail of his
little boy Jumpo one morning, just as the papa monkey was starting to
work in the hand organ factory. "Is that going to be a tent, Jumpo?"
Jumpo looked up from where he was making something down in the yard.
"No, papa, it isn't going to be a tent," he said.
"Then what is it?" asked Mr. Kinkytail.
"It's going to be an airship, to sail up in the air as the birds do,"
replied the little green monkey boy.
"Oh, my! You never can make that!" said his papa, and he went off
laughing. "Is Jacko helping you?" he asked.
"No, Jacko has gone off in the automobile to give Grandfather Goosey
Gander a ride," said Jumpo.
"That is very kind of Jacko," spoke Mr. Kinkytail, "but I hope he
doesn't upset and spill out the old gentleman duck. But you be careful
not to fall out of your airship, Jumpo."
So Jumpo said he would, and he went right on making it. I suppose you
know what an airship is? It's something like two tablecloths fastened
over some sticks, and one end is a thing like the tail of a goose, and
on the other end is something like the tail of a bird, and in the middle
there is a thing like a pinwheel, which goes around buzzity-buzz, and
there's an engine to make the buzzity-buzz thing go. Then there are
wheels like on a baby carriage, only they are blown up with air like a
big bologna sausage, and that's an airship.
And that is what Jumpo was making. He had two old umbrellas, and he had
fastened them together, one over the other, with some strings. He had a
big palm leaf fan for one tail and another fan for the other tail, and
four wheels he took off an old pair of roller skates. Then he had a
little toy locomotive, and he used that for the engine, and it was very
good, for it went whizzing around very fast when he wound up the spring.
And for the buzzity-buzz thing he had a green paper pinwheel.
"Do you think your airship will sail, Jumpo?" asked Jimmie
Wibblewobble, the duck boy, as he came along just then.
"I'm sure it will," said the green monkey boy. "You see I get in it and
sit on this seat. It's made from an old washboard that mamma didn't
want. Then I start the engine and I will go rolling along over the
ground. Pretty soon I will get going so fast that I'll sail up in the
air, and then I'll be like a bird. Don't you want to sail with me?"
"Are you going up pretty soon?" asked Jimmie, "because my dinner is
nearly ready and I don't want to miss it."
"Oh, I'm going up very shortly," said Jumpo. "All I've got to do is to
fasten some court plaster on the wheels so they won't drop off when
we're up in the air, and then I've got to take along a piece of string
to tie the engine fast with, and then we'll go up. I'll bring you back
in time for dinner, all right."
"Then I'll go," said Jimmie. "I never have been up in an airship, and it
must be fun."
"I'll be glad to have you along," spoke Jumpo, "because if anything
happens, you can fly down to the ground with me on your back and neither
of us will get hurt."
"Why, do you think anything may happen?" asked Jimmie, sort of scared
like.
"Well, you never can tell," answered Jumpo, as he fastened the roller
skate wheels on with sticking plaster. "Airships sometimes do fall," and
he whistled a funny little tune.
"Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! Wow!" exclaimed Jimmie. "I guess my mamma is calling
me. I'll see you again, Jumpo. Goodbye!"
"Oh, don't go. I guess nothing will happen," called the green monkey,
and then Jimmie came back.
Well, pretty soon the airship was finished. Oh! I wish you could have
seen it, but of course you can't on account of what happened to it. I'll
tell you all about it, however.
"Come on, get aboard, Jimmie!" called Jumpo. "There's room for you
beside me on the washboard," and he got up and so did the duck boy, and
then they were ready to start. Jumpo had placed the airship on a smooth
place where the roller skate wheels could go around very easily. The two
umbrellas were hoisted to catch the air and the pinwheel buzzer was all
ready to go bizz-buzz.
"Here we go!" called Jumpo, and he started the engine.
My! How the pinwheel buzzer did whirl around! Faster and faster it went
until you could hardly see it. But alas and alack a-day! The airship
didn't go up.
"What's the matter?" asked Jimmie anxious like.
"Oh, I see!" cried Jumpo, looking over the side. "I put too much court
plaster on the roller skate wheels, and they're all stuck up. I'll soon
fix it."
Well, it didn't take him long, and once more he started the engine.
Faster and faster went the buzzer. The airship began to shiver and to
shake, and then all of a sudden it began rolling over the ground.
"Oh, we're moving! We're moving!" cried Jimmie.
"Of course we are," said Jumpo proudly. "I told you we'd fly like a
bird."
And then, would you believe me, that queer airship did go in the air a
little distance because the wind got under the umbrellas and lifted them
up. Up and up it went, with Jimmie and Jumpo in it.
"Wow! Isn't this great?" cried Jumpo.
"Yes, we're right over our duck pond," said Jimmie. "I hope we don't
fall."
But alas! Just as he said that, something happened. The engine went so
fast that the spring flew out of it. One umbrella turned inside out and
the other outside in. The sticking plaster fell off, and the roller
skate wheels dropped into the pond with a splash. Then the whole airship
began falling into the pond.
"Oh, save me! Save me!" cried Jumpo.
"I will!" cried Jimmie. "Get on my back."
So Jumpo did this and Jimmie spread out his strong wings and flew safely
to the ground with Jumpo, while the airship fell into the duck pond with
a big splash--splash--splash--and it was drowned, I believe, for no one
ever saw it again.
"Well," said Jumpo, as he got off Jimmie's back when they had landed, "I
guess I don't know how to make airships. But I'm much obliged to you.
I'm glad you came along."
"I don't know whether I am glad or not," answered Jimmie, as he looked
at a place where a stone had bruised his foot. "But anyhow I'm sure you
don't know how to build airships that will fly. I'll stick to my own
wings after this." And he did!
Now, next in case the man who cleans our windows doesn't put the soap in
the sugar bowl and make the gold fish sing like a canary bird, I'll tell
you about Jumpo and the talcum powder.
STORY XXX
JUMPO AND THE TALCUM POWDER
Jumpo Kinkytail was home all alone in the cute little monkey-house in
the top of the tree, so the mosquitoes couldn't get in unless they flew
very high. And I'm going to tell you the true and only reason why Jumpo
was home alone.
It was because his mamma had gone down to the five and ten-cent store to
get a new piano with a dishpan on top, so she could wash her dishes and
play the piano at the same time. And Jacko was at school, but Jumpo had
been kept home because he had a cold.
"So you will be in charge of the house while I am away," said his mamma,
as she started for the five and ten-cent store.
"All right, and I'll take good care of the house," said Jumpo. And he
felt quite pleased to think that he was old enough to take care of a
whole big house all by himself.
"I wonder what I can do to make the time pass quickly until Jacko comes
home from school," thought Jumpo as he looked out of the window. "It's a
bit lonesome, so I guess I'll dust some of the furniture for mamma."
He took a dust rag in each of his two front paws, and also one in his
kinkytail, making three in all, and he went about the rooms knocking the
dust off the furniture on to the floor, where no one would see it.
When Jumpo got tired of that he read a story book. He read about a big
giant with a blue nose and how one day a yellow dwarf saw the giant
asleep and painted his nose green and the birds used to think the nose
was grass and they would nestle down on the giant and tickle him so that
he sneezed like thunder booming in the sky.
"Well, it will be an hour yet before mamma or Jacko comes home," said
Jumpo, as he looked at the clock after finishing the story. "What can I
do next?" So he looked around but he couldn't see anything, and he was
just going to knock some more dust off the furniture, when he heard some
one crying out-of-doors.
"My! I wonder who that can be?" he thought. So he looked down from the
front porch, and there on the ground at the foot of the tree was Buddy
Pigg, the little guinea pig boy. And he was crying very hard.
"What's the matter?" asked Jumpo.