Chapter 4

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?"

"Oh, I came out to give my dollie an airing in the woods," said the little rabbit girl, as she hurried forward to speak to the green monkey. And then, when she turned back again, to swing the hammock, lo and behold! her dollie was nowhere to be seen.

"Why--why, that's queer," said Susie. "Did you take my dollie, Jumpo?"

"No, indeed," answered the green monkey. "Perhaps she has fallen out of the hammock." So they looked under the hammock, but the doll wasn't there. Then they looked all over, and in many other places, but that dollie had disappeared, which means gone away.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Susie, beginning to cry. "She was my best dollie, and now she is dead and I'll never see her again. Oh, boo-hoo, boo-hoo! Why did I ever bring her here?"

"Don't cry," said Jumpo kindly, "I'll help you look for her." So he looked in all the places he could think of but it was of no use.

"Oh, I just know a bad giant has taken her!" cried Susie. "Or else it was an eagle."

"I didn't see anything like that," spoke Jumpo. "But maybe the burglar fox came up softly when we weren't looking and took her." Then he called out: "Say, Mr. Burglar Fox, if you don't give back Susie's doll I'll have you arrested!"

There was no answer, but a moment later there was a rustling up in an oak tree which had some brown leaves on it, and then Jumpo caught a glimpse of the doll's blue dress, and he also saw a big crawly snake, with his tail wound around a limb of the tree, and that snake was holding the doll fast in his coils. He had reached down and taken the doll when Susie wasn't looking.

"Oh, the snake has your doll!" cried Jumpo.

"And how shall I ever get her?" asked the rabbit girl.

"Leave it to me," said Jumpo.

"You'll never get this doll," hissed the snake, like a steam radiator. But Jumpo knew a good trick. He went off in the woods until he met a cow. And he asked the cow for some milk and the cow gave him a whole pailful. Then Jumpo went back and put the pail of milk where the snake could see it.

Now you know snakes like milk better than anything--better even than boys and girls like ice cream cones. So as soon as the snake in the tree saw the milk, he at once let go of the doll, uncoiled himself, and hurried down for the milk, before the cow could take it away.

"Oh, now I have my dollie back!" cried Susie in delight, and she quickly caught and hugged Clotilde Raspberry Shortcake, which was the doll's name, and then Susie and Jumpo ran away before the snake could get them, and they found Jacko, and each had a lot of chestnuts.

So that's how Jumpo helped Susie Littletail, and that's all there is to this story. But the next one will be about Jacko and the little mouse--that is, if the water pitcher doesn't turn over and go to sleep in the baby's crib and scare the gold fish.

STORY XII

JACKO AND THE LITTLE MOUSE

"Jacko, will you go to the store for me?" called Mamma Kinkytail to the little red monkey one afternoon when he had come home from school.

"Yes, mother," he said. "What do you want?"

"Well, I need a dozen cocoanuts and two pounds of sugar, and some chocolate and some flour."

"Oh, you must be going to make a cake!" cried the monkey boy, tying two hard knots in his tail.

"You have guessed it," answered his mother. "Hurry now, and the cake will be baked in time for supper."

"Oh, but I wish Jumpo was here to go with me," said Jacko, as he started off.

"Why?" asked his mother.

"Because if I carry such nice things as cocoanuts and sugar and chocolate, a burglar may take them away from me on my way home."

"Nonsense!" said his mother. "Burglars don't want such things as that. Besides, it is daylight, and burglars don't come around then."

"I was thinking of the burglar fox," went on Jacko. "However, Jumpo isn't here, as he went over to play ball with Bully No-Tail, the frog. So I'll have to go alone."

Off he started, and of course, he wasn't a bit afraid going to the store, for he had nothing with him but the money, and that was away down at the bottom of his pocket, and Jacko held his little brown paw tightly over the coins, so they couldn't jump out. Then he reached the store, and gave the money to the grocery man.

"Now don't drop the cocoanuts," said the grocery man, as he made up a package of the nice things Jacko had bought. "Can you carry all of them?"

"Oh, yes," said the monkey boy, confident like, which means sure.

"And do you think you could also carry two sticks of candy, one for yourself and one for your brother Jumpo?" asked the grocery man, sort of smiling.

"Well, I'll try--very hard," answered Jacko, and he wondered why the grocery man laughed. Then the man took from a jar two red and white striped sticks of candy. One of these sticks Jacko put safely in his pocket for his green brother, and the other he ate slowly, as he started for home. He was so interested in the stick of candy that he never even thought of the burglar fox.

But all of a sudden Jacko looked around in surprise, and he found that he had taken the wrong path home. It was one that led through the woods, and right past the house of the burglar fox.

"But there is no use now in going back around the other way," thought the red monkey; "it will take too long, and mamma won't get the cake baked for supper. I'll keep on this way, and I'll run past the burglar fox's house so fast that he can't see me. I guess it will be all right."

So, taking tight hold of his bundle of cocoanuts and sugar and chocolate and flour, and holding fast to the candy stick, Jacko went on. Pretty soon he came to the house where the fox lived, and then the monkey boy got ready to run as fast as he could.

But, all of a sudden, when he was right in front of the house, he heard a voice crying:

"Help! Help! Oh, will some one please help me?"

"Hark! I wonder who that can be?" thought Jacko. "It doesn't sound like the voice of the fox, and yet he may be calling to play a trick and get me in there so he can eat me. I guess I'd better run on."

So he started to run, but he heard the voice again, a sad, squeaky sort of voice, and it cried:

"Oh, do please some one help me!"

"That isn't the fox," said Jacko bravely. "I'm going in to help whoever it is. Perhaps it is one of the Bushytail brothers."

Into the house he went, and he saw no signs of the fox. Then Jacko, standing in the front hall, called out:

"Who are you and what is the trouble?"

"Oh, I'm a poor little mouse," was the answer, "and I'm caught in a trap in this fox's house. Please help me out."

"Is the fox home?" asked Jacko.

"No, he has gone out to get a friend of his, and then they are coming back to eat me. Hurry and you can get me out before they come back, and then we'll run away together."

"I will," said Jacko bravely, so he ran to where he could hear the mousie scurrying around in the trap, which was in a room upstairs in the house of the fox.

Well, it didn't take Jacko long, with his nimble fingers and toes, and his long tail, to get the little mouse out of the trap. Then, when she walked over toward a window, the monkey said:

"Why, I do believe you are little Squeaky-Eeky, the cousin mouse of Jollie and Jillie Longtail."

"That's just who I am," said the mouse. "You see, I was going past this house, and I smelled cheese. I didn't know the fox lived here, so I came in, and then I was caught in the trap."

"But now you're free," said Jacko. "Come on, and we will hurry away before the fox and his friend get back."

They started down the stairs, but just then there was a noise outside, and Squeaky-Eeky, looking from the window, cried:

"Too late! Here come the two foxes."

Then Jacko heard a voice saying:

"Walk right upstairs, Mr. Robber Fox; I have a fine meal waiting for you in my trap."

"Oh, what shall we do?" whispered Squeaky-Eeky.

"Leave it to me," spoke Jacko in a whisper. Then he quickly opened the bag and took out two cocoanuts. He peered over the edge of the stairs until he saw the two foxes coming up and then the brave monkey rolled the cocoanuts down. Bumpity-bump-bump! they went, rolling right down the stairs, and they hit the foxes and knocked them over backward.

"Oh, it's thundering, and the thunder is in the house!" cried the burglar fox. "Come on, quick!" Then, as the burglar fox and the robber fox ran away Jacko threw some flour and sugar after them. "Oh, it's snowing and hailing!" cried the robber fox, as he jumped out of the front door. "We'll freeze to death! Hurry! Hurry!"

Then Jacko tossed some brown chocolate at the bad foxes, out of the window.

"Oh, it's raining mud!" they both cried, and away they ran faster than ever, and then Jacko and Squeaky-Eeky could come safely down stairs, Jacko picking up the two cocoanuts on the way.

So that's how Jacko saved the little mousie girl, and there were still plenty of things left with which to make the cake. And Mamma Kinkytail gave Squeaky-Eeky some, and Jumpo gave her some of his candy. So everything came out all right, you see.

And if the lead pencil doesn't dance the fox trot on the bread board and mark it all over with black ink I'll tell you next about Papa Kinkytail and Grandpa Goosey Gander.

STORY XIII

PAPA KINKYTAIL AND GOOSEY GANDER

"Come, Mr. Kinkytail," said Mrs. Kinkytail to her husband one morning after breakfast, "it is time for you to go to your work in the hand-organ factory."

"Oh, I'm not going to work to-day," said the papa monkey, as he slowly folded the news-paper inside out so that he might read about whether it was going to rain or snow.

"Why aren't you going to work?" asked the monkey mamma.

"Because," answered her husband, "something is the matter with one of the music machines, and the engineer has to fix it. So the factory is closed, and I have a vacation. And, as it is Saturday, I'll take the boys for a walk."

"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Jacko Kinkytail.

"That will be fine!" shouted Jumpo, and he tied his tail in such a hard knot in his excitement that his mamma almost had to cut the knot out with the scissors. But finally it was loosened with a knitting needle.

"Come on, boys," said their papa. "The paper says it will be a fair day, so we will go off in the woods. And, who knows? Perhaps we may have an adventure."

It was a fine, cool day, and the monkey boys and their papa hurried along. Soon they came to the woods, where the ground was all covered with leaves that rustled under foot like tissue paper in a box of candy.

"Oh, look there!" suddenly exclaimed Jacko in a whisper. "There is a big elephant!"

"Where?" asked his brother, and the red monkey pointed off through the woods. Surely enough, there was something that looked like an elephant with a bushel of peanuts on his back.

"Why, that's not an elephant," said Mr. Kinkytail, when he had looked most carefully, "that is only a stump, though I admit there is something about it that seems like an elephant's trunk. Well, that was almost an adventure. Come along, and after a while we may have a real one."

On they walked a little farther, and, all of a sudden Jumpo stopped and grasped his brother by the paw.

"Look," whispered the green monkey. "Isn't that a big lion over there?"

"Sure enough it is!" exclaimed Jacko, as he looked toward where his brother pointed.

"Nonsense!" cried Mr. Kinkytail, as he saw the object. "It is only a pile of yellow leaves, though it is big enough for a lion, and the same color. But soon we may have a real adventure."

So they went on some more--about as far as two oranges and half a banana--and, all at once, all three saw something moving in the bushes, and they knew that was real, for the bushes wiggled to and fro like a rabbit's ears.

"Look out!" exclaimed Mr. Kinkytail, and the next instant they saw Grandfather Goosey Gander come waddling out, with his shiny, tall, silk hat on his head.

"Why, how do you do?" asked the old gentleman goose, as he walked toward them. "I'm real glad to see you, as I am quite lonesome. I guess I'll--"

But Grandfather Goosey Gander didn't have time to say what he was going to guess, for at that very particular instant a big, fat cow, with two crumpled horns, stepped out from behind a tree, and with one swoop she grabbed Grandfather Goosey Gander's tall hat in her mouth.

"Why, the very idea!" exclaimed Grandfather Goosey. "The very idea! To take my hat! How dare you! What do you want with it?"

"I want it for a milk pail, to be sure," said the cow, as she stuck the hat on one of her horns. "I want to take some milk to a sick cousin of mine, and I need a pail in which to carry it. This tall hat will do very nicely."

"Why, the very preposterous idea!" gasped the gander gentleman. "My fine silk hat to be used as a milk pail! I'll never allow it--never!"

"Ah, but you see you can't help yourself," said the cow, as she hung the tall hat on the branch of a tree, and sat down under it to rest. "I'm going to walk away, directly, with your hat, and don't you dare come here and get it, for I'll jiggle you with my crumpled horns if you do," went on the cow supercilious like which means sort of proud.

"That's right, she will," whispered Mr. Kinkytail. "You must let her have her way, grandfather."

"But my nice, tall silk hat!" objected Grandfather Goosey Gander. "I can't let her have it. I need it to wear to church, and also down to the bank when I go to put in my money. Oh, this is terrible! I must get it."

He started toward the tree, where his hat was hanging, but the cow got up and shook her crumpled horns at him in such a savage way that he was afraid to go any farther.

"Perhaps I can get it," whispered Jumpo. So he crept up behind the tree, thinking he could grab the hat away, but the cow heard him, and almost snitched him with one horn. Then Jacko tried, by climbing up one tree, and getting ready to drop down into the other one where the hat was. But the cow heard him and she almost kerfuddled him with her left crinkly horn, so that plan failed.

"I think I know a way to get your hat," said Mr. Kinkytail at last.

"Oh, if you only can I will be so thankful!" cried Mr. Gander.

"You stay here with Jacko and Jumpo," said the monkey boys' father, "and watch the cow so that she doesn't run away with the hat. Jacko, you and your brother make some funny faces, and do some funny tricks so the cow will be interested in watching you and will stay. I'll go off and get something I need."

So the monkey boys did a lot of tricks for the cow. Jumpo made a face like half a cherry pie, and Jacko did the trick of standing on his two ears and making a noise like a trolley car. It was too funny for anything, and the cow was real interested.

Then, all of a sudden, off in the woods there sounded the music of a hand organ. And the tune it played was one called "I'm a Yellow-striped Tiger and I'm Very Savage Now, So I Think I'll Make a Sandwich of a Crinkled-crumpled Cow!"

Well, as soon as the cow heard that, up she jumped, crying out:

"No you don't, Mr. Tiger! You can't catch me!" And with that the cow with the crimpled-crumpled horns ran off in the woods, leaving Grandfather Goosey Gander's tall hat hanging on the tree.

And then, from the other side of the woods, came Mr. Kinkytail, and it was he who had played the hand organ to scare the cow. He had hurried to the factory to get the music machine just especially for that.

"Now your hat is safe, Mr. Gander," said the papa monkey, and soon Jacko had scrambled up and got it, and then the goosey grandfather and the monkey boys took turns playing the hand organ until it was time to go home.

But I see it's your bedtime, so I can't tell any more stories for a while. The one on the next page will be about Mrs. Kinkytail and Aunt Lettie the lady goat--that is, if the dining-room table doesn't put its legs down the back of the chair and tickle it so it sneezes its seat off.

STORY XIV

JUMPO AND THE CHESTNUT BURR

"Who wants to do something for me?" called Mamma Kinkytail to her two monkey boys as they came home from school one afternoon.

"I do!" chattered Jacko, the red chap.

"So do I," exclaimed Jumpo, the green chap.

"That's what I love to hear," said their mamma, real pleased like. "Well, now, I have two things I want done. Some one has to go to the store for a pound of butter, and the other one I would like to have take some jam tarts over to Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman. He is not feeling so very well, and I thought the tarts would make him better."

"Oh, I'll go to Uncle Wiggily's," cried both boys at once.

The reason for this was that the old gentleman rabbit always gave his animal boy or girl visitors some chocolate peppermints, or marshmallow candies, or something like that, and of course Jacko and Jumpo were always glad to go to his house. That's why they both spoke at once.

"Now, that's too bad!" exclaimed Mamma Kinkytail. "Only one of you can take the jam tarts over, because there won't be time, after you come back, to go to the store for the pound of butter. So I guess you will have to draw straws to see who goes to Uncle Wiggily's."

"Draw straws! What's that?" asked Jumpo, curious like.

"It's this way," his mamma explained. "I will hold two straws in my paw so that you can only see the tip ends of them. One straw will be short, and the other long. Then, Jumpo, you can draw one straw out of my paw, and Jacko can take the other. Of course, you can't see which is the long or which is the short one, and that will be perfectly fair, as the tip ends look just alike. Then, whoever pulls out the long straw can take the jam tarts to Uncle Wiggily."

Well, the monkey boys thought that would be nice, so they drew the straws, one after the other, and Jumpo got the long one.

"Oh, goody!" he cried. "I'm to go to Uncle Wiggily's."

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Jacko, and he felt a bit badly at having to go to the store. But then he soon became pleasant again, and said: "Never mind, it will be my turn next time."

"Of course," agreed Jumpo, "and if Uncle Wiggily gives me anything, I'll save you half, Jacko."

So off the two brothers started, one going one way to the grocery and the other in a different direction to the house of the old gentleman rabbit. And Jumpo carried the tarts very carefully, so as not to spill out a bit of the jam.

It didn't take Jacko long to get to the store and buy the butter. And on his way home a big wolf chased after him. But what do you s'pose the monkey boy did? Why, he just spread a little of the butter on the path behind him, and made it so slippery that the wolf slid all over as he ran, and so he couldn't catch Jacko.

But I must tell you what happened to Jumpo. The little monkey walked on and on through the woods, and he was thinking of how nice it was under the trees. Every once in a while he would pick up a chestnut to eat, and this took him so long that soon he noticed it was getting dark.

"Oh, I must hurry faster than this," he said, and then, holding the basket of jam tarts under his paw, he fairly ran on. And then, all of a sudden, he saw a big chestnut burr on the ground in front of him. The burr wasn't open yet, and it had a stem, like a handle to pick it up by, so the stickers wouldn't stick you.

"Oh, there must be at least three big chestnuts in that burr," thought Jumpo. "I'll pick that up, and then I won't stop a bit more." So he picked up the chestnut burr, and on he hurried to Uncle Wiggily's house. But he got a bit tired just as he was almost out of the woods, and he thought he'd sit down to rest for only a few seconds.