Chapter 3

"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:

"Ha! ha!! That's the time I fooled you, Mr. Wolf. It was I talking, and 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