swelling up from it, so that I can hardly walk."
"Oh, that's too bad," said Jumpo. "Come up here and I will put some
stuff on to make it better."
"I can't climb that high tree," said Buddy, sad like.
"No more you can!" exclaimed Jumpo. "Wait a minute."
So Jumpo let down a basket fastened to a string and Buddy got in it--I
mean he got in the basket, not the string, you understand, of course.
Then Jumpo pulled him up.
"Now let's see where that mosquito bite is," said the monkey boy, and
Buddy showed him. "I should say it was a big one!" cried Jumpo. "That
needs some witch hazel on it right away."
Well, Jumpo put a lot of witch hazel on the bite, but that only seemed
to make it worse.
"I know what's good for it," said Buddy. "It's some stuff my mamma
uses."
"What is it?" asked Jumpo.
"Talcum powder," replied the guinea pig. "It's a white, smooth powder,
and it comes in a tin box and smells nice."
"What smells, the powder or the box?" asked Jumpo.
"The powder smells, of course," said Buddy. "Have you any?"
"Yes, I guess so," answered Jumpo. "Let's look in the bathroom. Mother
isn't home to-day," so into the bathroom those two animal boys went, and
they hunted all over for the talcum powder.
"There it is, up on that shelf!" said Buddy at last. "I can tell by the
cover of the box. You just get it down and smell of it."
So Jumpo curled up his tail, reached it up and wound it around the box
just as an elephant in the circus winds his trunk around a peanut, and
the monkey boy lifted down the talcum powder box.
"How does it smell?" asked Buddy.
"Fine!" said Jumpo. "Have a smell yourself. It's talcum powder, all
right."
So they decided that it was, but when Jumpo tried to get some powder out
none would come. There were little holes in the top of the box, but they
were stopped up somehow or other, and there poor Buddy was suffering
from the mosquito bite, and they couldn't get powder to put on it.
"I know what I'll do!" exclaimed Jumpo. "I'll just take off the whole
cover and then the powder will come out fine."
So he sat down on the bathroom floor beside Buddy, and they both tried
to get the cover off the box. But it was on very tight, and at last
Jumpo said:
"I'm going to knock it off with the hair brush!"
So he pounded on the top of the tin talcum powder box. Once, twice,
three times he pounded and then, all of a sudden--
"Piff! Paff! Poof!" The air was full of a fine, white powder just like
snow. It drifted and sifted all over the bathroom, and scattered itself
all over Buddy and Jumpo. Into their fur it went, all over Jumpo's fuzzy
little face, and even down to his hairy paws. And Buddy was just as bad.
You see the cover came off the box so quickly that they didn't either of
them have time to get out of the way.
But, oh, goodness! You should have seen that bathroom.
There was a pile of talcum powder on the floor, and some in the bathtub,
and some in the wash basin, and some on the towel rack, and even on the
hair brush, just as if it had been painted white; what do you think of
that?
"Oh, just look at yourself!" cried Buddy to Jumpo. "You look like a snow
man!"
"And look at yourself!" said Jumpo. "You look like a fuzzy, white,
woolly dog."
"But it smells good!" cried Buddy, "and my mosquito bite is all better."
"And I guess we'd better try to scoop up some of this powder before my
mother comes home," said Jumpo. So he and Buddy were brushing it up off
the floor when, all at once, the front door opened, and in came Mrs.
Kinkytail. She saw the two white, powder-covered little animal boys and
she screamed:
"Oh my! What has happened! Fire! Police! Burglars! Who are those two
queer white things in my bathroom? Where is my little boy Jumpo? Has
some one taken him?"
"Here I am!" cried Jumpo, with a laugh, for his mamma really didn't know
him, all white as he was. And she didn't know Buddy, either.
"Are you sure it's you, Jumpo, and not a white rabbit?" she asked, after
a while.
"Oh, yes, mamma," he said, "I was putting some talcum powder on Buddy's
mosquito bite and--and--and the cover came off all at once."
"Off the box, not off my bite," said Buddy, careful-like.
"Oh, I see!" exclaimed Mrs. Kinkytail with a laugh. "Well, I hope the
bite is better? And now I must get the whisk broom, and dust the powder
off you boys! Oh, what sights you are!"
But they were soon clean and they smelled like perfume for a long time
after that, and the next time Jumpo wanted talcum powder he asked his
mamma for it, and he didn't try to open the box himself.
Now, if the bottle of perfume doesn't spill itself into the bathtub and
make a smell like a pocket handkerchief, I'll tell you next about Jacko
washing the dishes.
STORY XXXI
HOW JACKO WASHED THE DISHES
One morning, when Jacko Kinkytail, the red monkey boy, woke up, he heard
his papa rattling the pots and pans and dishes out in the kitchen.
"Ha! That's queer," said Jacko. "I wonder what papa is doing out there,
and I wonder why mother isn't up?" Then he looked over in the bed where
Jumpo slept, and Jumpo wasn't there.
"Why, where's Jumpo?" thought Jacko, and then he happened to remember
that Jumpo had gone on a visit to Buddy Pigg, and had stayed there all
night. So that's why he wasn't home. "But still I wonder what papa is
doing in the kitchen?" said Jacko to himself. "I guess I'll get up and
find out."
Then he smelled the coffee being made, and pretty soon he saw his papa
going upstairs with a hot cup of coffee in his hand.
"What is the matter, papa?" asked Jacko.
"Your mother has a headache," answered the monkey gentleman, "so I got
up to make her some coffee and get the breakfast. And you may help if
you like."
"Oh, I'm so sorry mamma has a headache," spoke Jacko, "but I am glad I
can help you get the breakfast." So Jacko and his papa had a pretty good
meal; of course, not as nice as when Mrs. Kinkytail got it, but pretty
nice, only Mr. Kinkytail put salt on the table instead of sugar, and he
put on the molasses pitcher instead of the cream jug. But still they got
along pretty well, though coffee with molasses and salt in it isn't very
good.
"Now Jacko," said Mr. Kinkytail, as he got ready to go down to the hand
organ factory, where he worked, "your mamma will not be able to get up
to-day, so I want you to stay home from school and help about the house
all you can."
"I will!" exclaimed Jacko, "and I'll even wash the dishes." Then he went
up very, very softly to the room were his mamma was lying down with a
headache, and he crept in, oh, so gently, so as not to make it ache any
worse, and he whispered: "I love you, mamma, and I'm going to wash the
dishes."
[Illustration]
"You are a dear, good monkey boy," she said, as she kissed him. Then he
went out softly and closed the door.
"Now to wash the dishes!" exclaimed the red monkey, as he got the soap
and hot water and a pan and a rag, and--well, whatever else you have to
have to wash dishes. It's been a long time since I washed any, but I
used to do it when I was a little boy and my mamma was sick, so I know
boys can do it.
Well, now, all of a sudden, as Jacko was washing away at the dishes,
and, maybe, splashing a little sudsy water on the floor (mind I'm not
saying that last part for sure, but maybe), all of a sudden, I say, he
heard some one down on the ground calling at him:
"Sissy boy! Sissy boy! Has to wash the dishes! Girly boy! Has to wear an
apron! Oh, what do I know about you!"
And, looking out of a window, Jacko saw Mugsie Smugsie, another monkey
boy, peeking in at him. Mugsie Smugsie was a bad sort of a monkey boy.
He didn't mean to be bad, but he just couldn't help it, and very often
he called the other animal children names, and threw stones at them and
did such like things.
"Sissy boy! Sissy boy!" cried Mugsie Smugsie again, and he made a face
at Jacko. Jacko was just going to call something back at Mugsie
Smugsie, when all at once along came Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl.
She heard what Mugsie Smugsie was saying.
"Shame on you!" cried Susie, pointing her paw at Mugsie Smugsie. "Shame
on you to make fun of Jacko. Jacko is a good boy and he stayed home from
school today to wash the dishes for his mamma because she had a
headache. I know, for I met Mr. Kinkytail as he was on his way to work,
and he told me. So I asked my mamma if I couldn't come over to help Mrs.
Kinkytail do the work. Shame on you for making fun of Jacko. Some day
you may have to wash the dishes yourself."
Say, I just wish you could have seen Mugsie Smugsie when Susie got
through talking to him. His fuzzy face flushed all red and he dug his
paw down in the dirt bashful like and then he felt very much ashamed for
having made fun of Jacko when his mamma was sick.
"I--I didn't know all that," stammered Mugsie Smugsie. "I'd like to help
you wash those dishes myself, Jacko, if you'll let me."
So this shows that Mugsie wasn't bad all the way through, you see.
Nobody is, I guess; there are good spots in everybody, only some folks
have more spots than others.
"Sure I'll let you help me wash the dishes," said Jacko. "It's lots of
fun, and it makes your hands real clean. Come on up." So he let down the
basket on a rope and pulled Mugsie Smugsie up to the house on top of the
pole.
"Can't I come up, too?" asked Susie.
"Sure!" cried Jacko, and then he and Mugsie pulled up the rabbit girl.
"Now we all three can help wash the dishes," said Susie. And, surely
enough, those three animal children began to wash the dishes. But Jacko
and Mugsie Smugsie splashed the sudsy water about so that Susie said:
"Oh, you had better let me finish, boys, and you can set the house to
rights and dust and sweep." Now, of course, girls can wash dishes better
than can boys, I know that very well, and Susie had them all washed and
dried while Jacko and Mugsie were sweeping and dusting the dining-room.
And very nicely they did it, too.
And then, all of a sudden, there was a noise out in the kitchen. Susie
screamed and cried:
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! He'll get me! He'll get me!"
"Run quick!" cried Jacko to Mugsie Smugsie. So they ran out, and there
was the burglar fox getting ready to jump at Susie. Somehow or other
the fox had managed to pull himself up the tree in the basket, the rope
of which Jacko had forgotten to take in after Susie was raised up by it.
"Now I'm going to have a good dinner!" cried the fox, smacking his lips.
"No, you're not, either!" yelled Jacko, and then and there he caught up
the big dishpan full of water and threw it at the fox--threw the water,
not the dishpan, you understand. And that fox in an instant was as wet
as if he'd fallen into a mill pond, and he was so scared and frightened
and alarmed and astonished and ker-slostered that he slid down the rope
so fast that he burned his tongue.
Then the fox ran away, taking his tail with him, and that's how he
didn't hurt Susie, and I think Jacko and Mugsie Smugsie were very brave
to drive him away.
And pretty soon all the housework was done and the children could go
down and play, and in a little while Mrs. Kinkytail's headache was all
better, and she got up.
Mrs. Kinkytail was very thankful to Jacko when she found what he had
done, and this teaches us that monkey boys are sometimes as good as
girls about doing housework. Mr. Kinkytail, too, was proud of his little
son, and he said he would take the whole family to the moving pictures
as a treat.
"Oh, that will be jolly!" cried Jacko, and Jumpo said the same thing.
Then they all went to the show, and in the next story, if the--. Oh!
there I go again! I forgot that I have in this book all the stories it
will hold, so if I make any more I'll have to put them in another.
And the next Bed Time book will be called "Curley and Floppy
Twistytail," and the stories will be about some cute little pigs. Curley
is the name of one and Floppy of the other. And they did the funniest
things you ever heard about!
So just please wait for that book, which will be ready for you before
very long. I hope you will like it. And now I'll say good-bye for a
time.
THE END.
Transcriber's Notes
page 9 corrected age to ago in "not so many years ago"
page 33 corrected wan't to wasn't in "I wasn't thinking of eating"
page 96 full stop added after "asked Jumpo, curious like"
page 110 comma added after "easily earn the money"
page 110 ' moved from 'spose to s'pose in "How much do you s'pose an auto
costs,"
page 125 question mark changed to full stop after "asked Jacko politely
of the lady goat"
page 143 corrected birl to bird in "that a savage hawk-bird had her nest"
page 144 full stop added after "apple on a string"
page 158 missing closing " added after "That's fine."
page 172 changed comma to fullstop after "and we will go home"
page 177 corrected anl to and in "bump into his eyes and blind him"
page 185 poor changed to pour in "I'll pour mollases on him"
Page 190 Added comma after you couldn't, in you couldn't, for there
wasn't any left.
page 197 changed Goodby to Goodbye "I'll see you again, Jumpo. Goodbye!"
page 207 " inserted after "said Jacko" before "I wonder"
page 210 corrected Muggsie to Mugsie in "call something back at Muggsie
Smugsie"
typographical inconsistencies retained
End of Project Gutenberg's Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail, by Howard R. Garis