Chapter 5

So Jumpo was sitting on a flat stone, looking at the chestnut burr and wondering if perhaps there might not be four brown, shining nuts inside, when, all at once, he heard a rustling in the leaves beside him.

"Hark! What's that?" he cried as he leaped up and looked at the basket of jam tarts which he had set down. "Perhaps that is some of the tarts trying to jump out," he said.

Then he looked again, and what he saw frightened him very much. For there was a big, fat, crawly snake on the ground moving toward the basket of jam tarts.

"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the snake, sticking out his tongue, which was like a fork--in two parts. "I'm glad I happened to come this way." Then he wound his pointed tail around the handle of the basket, and hissed: "I am very fond of jam--especially in nice flaky tarts."

"Do you--do you happen to mean these tarts?" asked Jumpo, sort of sad-like.

"Indeed, I do," answered the snake, and then he stood upon the end of his tail on the cover of the basket and sang:

"Oh, I am happy, light and free, Jam tarts are the things for me. I eat them morning, noon and night, For jam tarts, they are my delight."

Then that snake began to lift off the cover of the basket to get at the tarts, and Jumpo cried:

"But those are for Uncle Wiggily, if you please, Mr. Snake."

"Oh, what do I care?" asked the snake, most impolitely. "I will eat these tarts, and then I will eat you."

Well, of course Jumpo felt dreadfully on hearing that, and he was wondering how Uncle Wiggily would feel not to get the tarts, when, all of a sudden, the monkey boy thought of the sticky chestnut burr he still held.

"I'll fix that snake!" he cried. And then, just as the snake was going to eat the tarts Jumpo threw the sharp burr at the wiggly, crawly creature. The prickly stickers went into his skin, next to his forty-'leven ribs and land sakes goodness me and some roast peanuts! That snake was so tickled that he laughed and he sneezed and he coughed and splittered and spluttered, and he fell over backwards off the basket of jam tarts, turning a somersault.

Then Jumpo saw his chance. He made a grab for the basket and ran off with it before the snake had finished sneezing and laughing and coughing, and so the crawly creature couldn't catch him.

Then the green monkey boy went on to Uncle Wiggily's house and gave him the tarts. The old gentleman rabbit was very glad to get them, and after thanking Jumpo gave him ten peppermint candies--five for himself and five for Jacko.

And then Uncle Wiggily sent a policeman dog back with Jumpo, so the snake wouldn't hurt him, but the crawly creature had to go to a dentist to have the chestnut burr stickers pulled out of his ribs and so he wasn't able to catch anybody that night.

And that will be all for this evening, if you don't mind. Now for the next story how about Jacko and the roast chestnuts, eh? Well, that's what it will be if the ashman doesn't take our door mat to make a pair of roller skates for the pussy cat so she can play tag with the puppy dog.

STORY XV

JACKO AND THE ROAST CHESTNUTS

"Who wants to stay in this afternoon, and help me clean the blackboards?" asked the owl lady teacher one day as it was almost time for the animal pupils to go home.

"I do!" cried Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail.

"I do!" cried Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow the puppy dog boys.

"So do I!" exclaimed Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels.

And all the other children, including the three Wibblewobbles, Dottie and Munchie Trot, Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg--all of them--said they also would be glad to help teacher.

"But I only need one," said the owl lady, "and as Jacko has been a very good boy lately I'll let him stay."

Well, of course the others were somewhat disappointed, which means sorry, but there was no help for it, and they always did as teacher told them to, except sometimes, but this was not one of those times.

So they all went out, leaving Jacko the monkey boy and the teacher in the schoolroom, with the blackboards all covered with words, and sentences, and examples, and number work and maps of different countries, including the one where cocoanuts grow.

Jacko took the erasers and a cloth and so did the teacher and they began work. The red monkey boy could hear the other animal chaps playing ball outside, and getting ready to fly their kites, and the girls were shouting and giggling and screaming like anything, and they didn't know why they did it, either, but girls most always scream, you know.

"They are having lots of fun," said the owl teacher to Jacko, "aren't you sorry you stayed in to help me?"

"No'm," said Jacko, politely, and he brushed the chalk marks off the blackboards harder than ever. Then, after a while, when there was only one more board left to clean, the teacher said:

"Well, Jacko, thank you very much. You have been a great help to me. Run along now and have a good time."

But it was getting late then, and the other animal boys and girls had gone home. So Jacko, putting his books in a loop in his kinky tail, also started for his house.

He had to go through rather a dark piece of woods, but he didn't mind that, for he made up his mind to run as fast as he could, so the burglar fox, or the wolf, wouldn't get him.

And pretty soon he came to the woods, so, holding his books tighter than ever in his tail, away he started. And, just as he got to a hollow stump a voice called to him:

"Hold on there, Jacko Kinkytail! Wait a minute!"

"Indeed, I will not!" cried Jacko, thinking it was the burglar fox, but he happened to look back, and he saw that it was a kind old gentleman squirrel, who was perched on the stump, eating a butternut.

"I just thought you might be hungry, and would like some chestnuts," went on the squirrel. "I have more than I need. Help yourself to a handful."

"Thank you, I will," said Jacko, so he took some chestnuts for himself, and some for his brother Jumpo. Then Jacko hurried on, as it was getting darker, and on the way he ate some of the chestnuts. And, whether it was because he was frightened, or because he was so busy eating the chestnuts and throwing away the shells, I can't say for sure--at any rate poor Jacko was soon lost in the woods, with night coming on, and he couldn't find the right path.

It wasn't because Jacko didn't look for the path home that he couldn't find it; no, indeed, for he searched as hard as ever a monkey boy could. But that path stayed lost.

"Oh, dear! What shall I do?" said the red monkey finally. "I'm afraid I'll have to stay in these woods forever, and never see my mamma or papa or brother Jumpo again! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"

Then he put his hand in his pocket, and he happened to feel a box of matches. Finding them gave him an idea.

"I'll just make a little camp fire," he said. "Then, if I have to stay in the woods all night I'll be warm. And perhaps my papa and brother will come to search for me, and they can tell where I am by the light of the fire. I'll build one."

It didn't take the monkey boy long to gather up some sticks and make a fire, and soon it was blazing merrily, while he sat down in front of it, on a flat stone, and looked at the flames. Then he thought of something else.

"Roast chestnuts! Why not?" he exclaimed. "I'm hungry and they will be just the thing for my supper."

So he took some of the chestnuts the squirrel had given him, and put them in the hot ashes to roast. Well, the nuts were almost ready to eat, after they had cooled a bit, when, all of a sudden, something reached around Jacko's neck from the darkness behind him, and a voice cried out:

"Ah, ha! This time I've got you sure! I thought I'd find something for my supper if I came out, and I have!"

Jacko turned around and saw that the savage wolf had hold of him.

"Oh, please let me go!" cried the poor monkey boy. He struggled to get loose, but couldn't.

"Indeed I'll not let you go!" snarled the wolf. "I'm going to sit down by your fire, and get warm, and then I'll carry you off to my den." Well, Jacko felt dreadfully on hearing that. But just you wait and see what happens, if you please.

All of a sudden, just as the wolf was getting ready to carry the monkey boy off to his den, the chestnuts in the fire began bursting and popping from the heat.

"Bang-bang!" they went, like fire-crackers. My! what a noise they made as they exploded.

"Oh, I'm shot! I'm hit! Some one is shooting guns at me! Oh, please, don't kill me! I'll be good! I won't eat Jacko! I was only fooling!" cried the wolf, in a great fright.

"Bang-bang!" went more chestnuts, and some of them hit the wolf in the eye. Then he gave three and a half howls, let go of Jacko and ran off in the woods as fast as he could go.

Then Jacko heard a great shouting, and up rushed his papa and his brother Jumpo, who had been looking all over for him. They heard the bursting chestnuts and they hurried toward the sound, finding the lost monkey boy just in time. They soon showed him the way home, and so the wolf didn't have any supper that night, and everybody said Jacko was a very brave little monkey chap, and I think so myself; don't you?

Now in case a little pig with a curly tail doesn't take my red necktie to wear to the picnic and make the angle worm laugh and turn a somersault, I'll tell you next about the Kinkytails making money.

STORY XVI

THE KINKYTAILS MAKE MONEY

"Mamma, would you please buy us an automobile?" asked Jacko Kinkytail of his mother one Saturday morning when there wasn't any school.

"An automobile? Why, my dear boy, what would you do with an automobile?" asked Mrs. Kinkytail.

"Oh, yes; please do get us one, mother!" begged Jumpo.

"Oh, my! I never heard of such a thing!" cried the monkeys' mamma, as she trimmed the dough off the edge of an apple pie and put it in the oven to bake. "What could you possibly do with it--you two little boys?"

"Why, we could soon learn to run it," said Jacko. "Then we could go to school in it, and come home and take papa to the hand organ factory, and take you to the store, and we could even take out parties on excursion trips and make money that way."

"What would you do when your auto wouldn't go?" asked Mrs. Kinkytail, as she got ready to bake a chocolate cocoanut cake with cherries on the top.

"Oh, we could take turns pulling it then," spoke Jumpo. "Uncle Wiggily has one, so why can't we?"

"Uncle Wiggily is rich, since he found his fortune," said Mrs. Kinkytail, "but your papa and I haven't money enough to buy even a set of tires for an auto. Still, if you boys could earn the money yourselves you might get one," she said. Of course, she was only joking, for she never thought the boys would take her in earnest. But they did.

"All right, then, we'll earn the money," said Jacko. "Come on, Jumpo."

"Don't stay away too long," cautioned their mamma, and she smiled as the two little monkey boys slid down the tree in which the house was built, and hurried away.

"How are we going to make money?" asked Jumpo, as he followed after his brother. "Are you going to gather up old rags, bones and bottles, and sell them?"

"Come on, I'll show you," spoke Jacko, as he tied his tail in a bow knot to keep it from dragging in the dust. "I'm going to the hand organ factory, where papa works, and I'm going to ask him to lend us an old organ. Then you and I will go around and play music and people will give us pennies. We'll soon have enough to buy an automobile."

"The very thing!" cried Jumpo in delight. "You can play the organ and I'll climb up to the windows where the children are and get the pennies. Then this afternoon we'll buy the auto, and go for a ride. Won't mamma be surprised?"

"I guess so," answered Jacko. "I hope we get enough money today. How much do you s'pose an auto costs, Jumpo?"

"Oh, I guess twenty-six or twenty-seven cents. I know they're very expensive. But we can easily earn the money, for if the children give single pennies to a man playing the organ, who has a monkey with him, they'll probably give us double five-cent pieces to see two monkeys, and we'll soon have the twenty-seven cents, or, maybe, even thirty--who knows."

Mr. Kinkytail was very busy in the factory when his two boys came in to see him, and he said they could have a second-hand hand organ that played sort of wheezy-eezy tunes. He was so busy that he didn't even ask them what they wanted it for and they didn't tell him. They just took the organ and started off with it.

"Now we must play the very best tunes, and you must do some of your finest tricks," said Jacko, as they walked along until they came to a row of brick houses. "This will be a good place to begin," said the red monkey boy. "Rich people must live here."

Well, I just wish you could have heard Jacko play that hand organ. Really, he did as well as you could, turning the handle sometimes with his left paw, and sometimes with his right and sometimes with his tail.

"Oh, mamma!" cried a little girl at one window. "Come quick and see two monkeys with a hand organ! And one of them is coming up here. Oh, give me five cents for him!"

"Two monkeys!" exclaimed her mamma. "You must be mistaken. You mean a man with a monkey."

"No, really, mamma!" cried the little girl. "Come and see."

"Sure enough!" spoke her mamma. "Two monkeys. Two monkeys. How very odd. Here is ten cents for them. Aren't they cute?"

By this time Jumpo was climbing up the porch to where the little girl was holding out the money for him and Jacko was grinding the handle of the organ and playing a tune called: "If You Have Your Umbrella You Will Never Mind the Rain."

When the little girl handed Jumpo the money he took off his pink cap, made a low bow, and, then standing on the roof of the porch, he turned a somersault, stood on his tail and made a queer face like an ice cream cone inside of a watermelon.

"Oh, what a funny monkey!" cried the little girl in delight. "I wish I could keep him!"

"I guess it's time for me to be going," thought Jumpo. "She might want to keep me forever and then Jacko and I couldn't get the auto."

So he went on to the next house where there was a little boy, and Jumpo climbed up, and did some more tricks and Jacko kept on playing. By this time all the children in the block had heard about the two monkeys with the hand organ, and the boys and girls came with so many pennies that Jumpo's cap was hardly large enough to hold them.

"Oh, Jacko, we've got as much as fifty cents!" he cried as they went on to the next block, and there they got more money until they had over a dollar. And then a big dog chased them, and the two monkey boys hurried back home.

"But we've got enough to buy our auto," said Jacko, "so it's all right. Oh, won't we have fun in it!"

"Indeed, we will!" cried Jumpo, as he wiggled both his ears and on the next page, in case the feather in the hat of the little girl next door doesn't tickle my puppy dog and make him sneeze, I'll tell you how the Kinkytails spent their money.

STORY XVII

THE KINKYTAILS SPEND MONEY

"Well, I must say I never thought you two monkey boys would go off and earn money that way," said Mamma Kinkytail, as Jacko and Jumpo came in with the second-hand hand organ, after having gone around and played tunes, as I told you about in the story ahead of this.

"Neither did I know what they were up to," said their father, as he sat reading the evening paper, after supper. "Why, when you boys came down to the factory, and asked me to let you take a second-hand hand organ I had no idea that you were going to do what you did."

"But you don't mind; do you?" asked Jumpo.

"Because we thought it was all right," spoke Jacko.

"Oh, bless you, no," said their mamma. "It _was_ all right." And then Jacko told her how he and his brother had played the music and done the tricks, and how the little girl had given them ten cents and the other children pennies and five-cent pieces, and how delighted all the children were to see them.

"It was clever of you," said Mrs. Kinkytail.

"How much money did you make?" asked their papa, laughing behind his paper.

"We took in one dollar and seventeen cents," said Jacko, as he counted it, "and we would have had eighteen cents, only I dropped one penny down a crack in the board walk of a house. But maybe we can get it some day."

"And now may we go down town and buy our auto?" asked Jumpo eagerly. "It's early yet and the stores will be open for some time. Please may we, mother?"

"You can't get an automobile for a dollar and seventeen cents," said their papa.

"Well, we can try, can't we?" asked Jacko.

"Oh, let them go," whispered their mamma to Mr. Kinkytail. "It will do no harm, and they will very soon find out their mistake."

"I guess so," agreed their papa, as he looked in the paper to see if it was going to be nice weather Sunday.

So Jacko and Jumpo having carefully wrapped their money in a piece of paper, started down town. And on their way they met Sammie Littletail, the boy rabbit, who wanted to know where they were going. So they told him.

"Ha, ha! Ho, ho!" laughed Sammie. "You can't get an auto for that money. Why an automobile costs as much as three dollars and fifteen cents, and then there's the gasoline to make it go--that costs money, too."

"Don't mind him," spoke Jacko, pulling his brother by the sleeve. "We'll get that auto anyhow."

So they kept on down town, and pretty soon they could see the lights in the stores, and they hurried faster than ever, for they were very anxious to get their auto.

"Have you got the money safe?" asked Jumpo.

"Yes," said Jacko, and just then, as they turned around a corner they saw a poor little mousie girl. Oh, she was such a poor little girl, and she had on such a ragged dress, and her shoes were so full of holes that there was hardly room for her tiny feet in them. And she was crying and shivering with the cold.

"Why, what is the matter?" asked Jacko, kindly.

"Oh, I'm so cold and miserable and hungry," said the mousie girl, wiping away her tears.

"Then why don't you go home and get warm and have something to eat," said Jumpo. "That's what we do when we're cold and hungry, don't we, Jacko?"

"Yes, but there is no fire in my house," said the poor little mousie girl, "and there is nothing to eat."

"Why not?" asked Jacko, surprised like, and he felt in his pockets once more, to see if he had his money safe.

"Because we are too poor," answered the mousie girl. "My papa is sick with the epizootic, and my mamma has the rheumatism so bad that she can't take in washing, and we are so cold and miserable! My little brother sells papers, telling the mouse people about cheese and crackers, and how to keep out of traps, but his toes got so cold, because he had no shoes, that he can't sell papers any more.

"So I started out to sell matches, but I dropped them in a barrel of water, and no one wants to buy wet matches, you know. Oh, hoo, boo! Boo, hoo! How cold and miserable and hungry I am!" and she cried, oh so sadly.

Jacko and Jumpo thought for a minute. Then Jacko pulled his brother to one side.

"Look here," said Jacko, blinking his eyes, "we've got to do something for that mousie girl."

"That's right," said Jumpo, sniffing his nose.

"I--I don't care much about an automobile, anyhow, do you?" asked Jacko.

"N--no--no--not--much," spoke Jumpo, slowly.

"They're always getting stuck, and won't go, and then you have to get out and walk, and besides they use so much gasoline, and--and gasoline smells so--so funny! Say, we don't need an auto. Let's give the mousie girl this money."

"All right," said Jumpo, so Jacko handed the poor little girl the $1.17.

"There," said Jacko, "take it home and get some coal and something to eat. We don't want an auto, anyway."

"Oh, thank you so much!" exclaimed the mousie girl, as she hurried away.

"Well, I--I guess we might as well go back home," said Jacko, sadly, after a bit.

"Yes," agreed Jumpo, and they started off together. Well, they hadn't gone very far before they heard a bangity-bang noise down the street, and, running up, they saw Uncle Wiggily standing in front of his auto. It was standing still and smoking and making a terrible racket and a policeman dog was saying:

"Come, now, Mr. Wiggily, you'll have to move along."

"Move along! I only wish I could," cried the old gentleman rabbit. "I never saw such a pesky automobile! It's always stopping. I've jiggled and joggled and tickled everything from the whoop-de-doodle-do down to the slam-bangity-what-is-it, but it won't go. I'm done with it. Whoever wants it can have it!"

"Oh, may we have it?" cried Jacko, as Uncle Wiggily started toward the sidewalk, leaving the auto in the street.

"To be sure you may, and I'll buy a gallon of gasoline into the bargain!" cried Uncle Wiggily.

"Come on, we'll pull it home, and then we'll fix it so that it will go!" cried Jacko; so he and Jumpo pulled the auto home, and that's how they got one after all, without any money. And the little mousie girl wasn't cold or hungry any more.

And in case the ice box doesn't catch cold in the rice pudding and freeze the potato salad so it can't go to moving pictures, I'll tell you next about Jacko and Jumpo in their auto.

STORY XVIII

JUMPO AND JACKO IN THE AUTO

"Aren't you glad it's Saturday, when we don't have to go to school?" asked Jacko Kinkytail of his brother Jumpo, the green monkey, when he awoke one morning.

"Of course I'm glad," answered Jumpo. "But what are we going to do today--go fishing?"

"No, indeed! Why, have you forgotten about the little automobile which Uncle Wiggily gave us? It's down in the yard."

"Oh, of course! And we can go for a ride in it. Oh, how glad I am!"

And, would you believe me, Jumpo was so happy that he jumped out of bed and hung by his tail from the back of the rocking chair.

And Jacko took up a ball and caught it, first in one foot and then in the other, until it happened to slip away from him, striking Jumpo on the nose.

"Ouch!" cried Jumpo, and he uncurled his tail from the chair and rubbed his nose.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" exclaimed Jacko. "I didn't mean to do that. Wait. I'll help you rub your nose."

Well, he started to rub poor Jumpo's sore nose, but Jacko made a little mistake. He took up a piece of sticky fly paper instead of a handkerchief, and the fly paper stuck to the nose of the green monkey so that he could hardly breathe, and his mamma had to come running in the bedroom to see what was the matter.

"Oh, you funny boys!" she exclaimed. "You are always up to some tricks. You had better get dressed at once and go out to play. It is a fine day."

"Of course we will!" cried Jacko. "Come on, Jumpo. We'll go for a long automobile ride."

So after Mrs. Kinkytail had taken the fly paper off Jumpo's nose, the monkey boys had breakfast and they got ready to go out. The automobile which Uncle Wiggily had given the monkey boys, because it wouldn't go for him, had been fixed by Mr. Kinkytail, so it was now as good as ever. The tires were pumped full of wind and then Jumpo climbed up on the seat and took hold of the steering wheel. Jacko twisted the crank in front, and he did it very well, too, for, you know, he had plenty of practise in twisting the cranks of hand-organs, so he knew just how to do it.

And then the auto started off. Whizz! Whazz! Whuzz! it went, down the street, faster and faster, until it was out on a nice country road.

"My! Isn't this just fine!" cried Jumpo.

"It certainly is as delicious as two ice cream cones and part of another one," replied his brother.

And they laughed and looked at each other and they nearly ran over a rooster, and the rooster crowed as loud as he could and said:

"You monkey boys had better look out where you are going! You have me all ruffled up."

"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Jumpo most politely. "We will go more slowly."