Chapter 7

Then the boy animals hurried and pulled up Jacko and the football and he was safe, and they had a lot more fun playing the game, and every one said that Jumpo was very smart to think of the bean shooter. And the green monkey boy was so excited that he forgot all about his toothache, which was a good thing, and the next day the dentist fixed it so that it never ached again.

I hope none of you ever have the toothache.

Now, if the ketchup bottle doesn't spill itself into the pitcher of lemonade and make it look like a pink tomato, I'll tell you next about Jacko doing a trick.

STORY XXII

JACKO DOES SOME TRICKS

Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, a very queer thing happened to Jacko Kinkytail, the red monkey boy, and I'm going to tell you all about it from the beginning down to the very end, and I hope you'll like it. You see it started this way.

It was after school one day, when all the boy and girl animals were on their way home with their books in straps, or else under their paws or wings. Jacko and Jumpo were walking along, sometimes picking up things in their front paws or their feet or their long tails, when, all of a sudden Sammie Littletail, the boy rabbit, said:

"Let's have a race, and see who gets to the big black stump first."

Now this black stump was in the middle of the woods, through which the children had to go on their way to and from school. The stump looked like an elephant trying to catch his tail in his trunk, but of course it wasn't really alive; only make-believe, you know.

"I think I can run faster than anybody," said Munchie Trot, the boy pony.

"Oh, no; I'm the fastest," spoke Bully No-Tail, the frog.

"We'll see," whistled Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow.

Away they started for the big, black stump, girls and boys all together. Some of them flew and some of them hopped and some ran, just as they liked. But Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy, got to the stump first, because he could go through the air like a balloon or an airship. Then they were all out of breath from the race as they came to the stump, one after another, so they sat down to rest.

"Well, we're all ready now, let's run some more," said Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girl, after a while, as she looked to see if her neck ribbon had come off. So they all started to run again, just as you do when you come from school, only Jacko Kinkytail didn't race with the others this time.

"What's the matter?" asked his brother, looking back. "Aren't you coming with us?"

"No, I'm too tired," said the little red monkey boy. "I'm going to sit here and rest a bit. I'll be home after a while, and you and I will have an auto ride, Jumpo."

So Jacko stayed there by the big, black stump, while the others went on to race again. And the first thing Jacko knew was that he heard something moving in the bushes behind the stump.

"My goodness!" he exclaimed, jumping up. "I hope that isn't a bad fox or a wolf." So he got ready to run, but before he could jump out of the way, out came a big black bear. And, no sooner had the bear seen Jacko, than the shaggy creature rushed up to the monkey, and tied a rope around his neck.

"Now I have you!" growled the bear.

"Yes, I see you have," said Jacko, as he tried to get away, but couldn't. "Please let me go. Are you going to eat me? Oh, dear, oh, dear!" the monkey boy cried.

"No, I'm not going to eat you," said the bear. "I'll tell you that much, anyhow. And I'm not going to let you go. I am going to take you all around the country with me to do tricks."

"Do tricks?" cried Jacko, surprised like.

"Yes, you see I used to be a performing bear, but I don't want to be one any more. I used to ride a bicycle, climb up a tree, play that I was a soldier and waltz around when my master sang a funny song. But I'm tired of it, so I ran away, and now I want to make some money for myself to buy a pair of spectacles, so I can read. So I'm going to have a trick monkey of my own, and you'll have to be it.

"You and I will travel about, and you'll do the tricks, such as standing on your head, making funny faces, turning somersaults, tying knots in your tail, and swinging on a trapeze. You'll do the tricks and the people will pay me the money for watching you. Then I'll be rich. Come along now," and the bear pulled on the rope which he had fastened about Jacko's neck.

Well, the red monkey didn't want to go with the bear, but he had to. And oh! he felt dreadfully about leaving all his friends, and his brother and mamma and papa, but there was no help for it. He thought, perhaps, some of his friends might see him and make the bad bear run away, but none of them did.

Away through the woods went Jacko with the trained bear leading him. This wasn't the kind trained bear of whom I once told you. No, this was another one, a bad, savage, unpleasant creature.

Pretty soon, after they had gone through the woods for quite a distance, Jacko and the bear came to a place where there were a whole lot of animal people. There were birds and cows and horses and dogs and cats and all like that, only they were animal people, you see.

"Here will be a good place to show off some of your tricks," growled the bear. "We will have time before supper, so you will do them now and I will take up the collection. Lively! Dance and make funny faces. Stand on your tail."

Then the bear pulled hard on the string about Jacko's neck and the poor monkey had to do all sorts of tricks. He made believe he was a soldier and marched around. He jumped over a stick of wood, pretended to beat a drum and ring a bell, and then he turned two somersaults, one after the other, as quick as a stick of lemon candy.

"You are doing very well," whispered the bear in Jacko's ear, after he had taken up a collection. "Keep on and I will soon be rich. Now we will go a long distance and do more tricks."

Well, Jacko didn't like that, and he didn't want to go so far away from home, especially when it was getting dark. And he wondered how he could get away. But he didn't see any chance, as the bear had tight hold of the string around Jacko's neck.

Then Jacko thought of a plan. If he could only make some of the animal people understand that he didn't want to go with the bear, but, instead, wanted to go home, he felt sure they would help him. But he didn't quite know how he could tell them, for he knew if he spoke to them the bear might hear him and scratch him before he was half through telling every one that he wanted to get away.

By this time there was quite a crowd watching the bear make the monkey do tricks, when, all of a sudden, Jacko looked over the heads of the audience and saw Uncle Wiggily Longears, the brave rabbit gentleman, standing there with his crutch.

"Oh, if I could only make him see me and make him know who I am, he would save me!" thought Jacko. So, without the bear telling him what to do, the red monkey suddenly began to make believe he was an automobile. He twisted the pinkum-pankum, tooted the horn, cranked the front part and turned on the gasoline. For he knew Uncle Wiggily would be interested in that sort of a trick and would help him.

And, surely enough, just as Jacko was pretending to turn around a curve in a make-believe auto and run over a milk bottle, and the crowd was laughing and clapping and yelling like anything, Uncle Wiggily saw the monkey and cried out:

"Why, if there isn't Jacko Kinkytail! I wonder what that bear is doing with him? I think he must have kidnapped him."

Then the old gentleman rabbit cried: "Hey! You let my friend Jacko go!"

And Uncle Wiggily rushed forward with his crutch and banged it on a stone, making a noise like a gun, and he looked so angry that the bear let go of the rope and quickly sneaked away where no one could find him. So Jacko was free, and didn't have to do any tricks unless he wished to. Then Uncle Wiggily took him home, and they arrived just as Mrs. Kinkytail was sending out old dog Percival to look for her son and tell him to come to supper.

So that's how Jacko escaped from the bad bear. And on the next page, in case the stove lifter doesn't pull out the carpet tacks and feed them to the gold fish, I'll tell you about Jumpo and the paper cup.

STORY XXIII

JUMPO AND THE PAPER CUP

One day, when Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail, the red and green monkey boys, were coming home from school, Jacko said to Jumpo:

"I have five cents, that I have been saving up for a long while. Now I'm going to buy a bag of hot roast peanuts, and I'll give you some."

"Oh, fine!" cried Jumpo. "But where can you buy any peanuts in these woods?" for you see at that time the monkey boys were going home through a place where the trees grew thick and tall, almost up to the sky, it seemed.

"Oh, perhaps we will meet some one with a hot peanut wagon, or we may come to a store where they sell them," said the red monkey. "You look on that side of the path, Jumpo, and I'll look on this side."

So they did this, looking as hard as they could look, for they were quite hungry for peanuts, but all they could see were the brown leaves being blown about in the wind.

"I guess there are no peanuts here," said Jacko at length. "We will have to wait until we get home."

"No!" exclaimed Jumpo, as he tied his tail in three hard knots and untied it as quickly as you can watch the baby shake his rattlebox. "I'll tell you what we'll do," said Jumpo. "You let me take the five cents, and I'll go look for a peanut wagon in the woods. Then you stay here and watch for one to come along. If one does come you kindly ask the man to wait here until I get back with the money, for, of course, I may not find anybody with peanuts."

"But how can I tell you to come back with the money, when you are away off in the woods?" Jacko wanted to know.

"Why, you take two stones, and hit them together as hard as you can," explained the green monkey, "and it will sound like a drum. Then I'll come back running, but if I should happen to find a peanut wagon before you do, I'll come back anyhow."

Well, Jacko thought that was a good plan, so he gave his brother the five-cent piece, and then he sat down on a stone under a tree to wait while Jumpo went off in the woods. Then Jacko began to study his spelling lesson. And he learned to spell cat, and rat, and dog, and boy, and words like that.

But now we needn't think of Jacko for a little time, as I am going to tell you what happened to Jumpo. On and on the green monkey boy went through the woods, looking for a hot peanut wagon. Of course, I don't mean that the wagon would be hot, no, indeed. I mean the peanuts would be nice and warm after being roasted.

"Well, I guess I'm not going to find the peanut man," thought Jumpo, as he looked all over, and in several other places. Then he listened to see if he could hear the whistle of the hot peanut wagon, but he couldn't, and he was just getting ready to turn around and go back where his brother was, for it was getting late, and would soon be dark.

Then, all of a sudden, Jumpo heard a queer sound. It was like some one talking, and the words were these:

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I'll never get a drink, I'm afraid. And I'm so thirsty, and I can't walk home. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What shall I do?"

"Ha! I wonder who that can be?" thought the green monkey boy. "Perhaps it is the peanut man, and he has eaten so many of his peanuts that he needs a drink. I guess I had better help him."

So Jumpo started through the woods toward where he heard the voice talking. Then, all at once he thought of something.

"That may be a bear, or a burglar fox talking that way just to catch me," he whispered to himself. "I had better go slowly. I'll just peek through the bushes, before I go any closer, and see who it is."

Then Jumpo looked through the bushes. And whom do you s'pose he saw, sitting on a stump near a little spring of water? Well, I don't believe you'd ever guess, so I'm going to tell you. It was Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily was looking at the spring of water and saying: "Oh, dear!" so many times that Jumpo couldn't count them.

"Ha! There is no danger for me now!" exclaimed the green monkey boy. "I must go and help him. Why, what is the matter, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Jumpo as he walked toward him.

"Oh, it is you; is it, Jumpo?" spoke the rabbit. "Well, I am very glad to see you. But, oh dear! how thirsty I am. I ate some salted muskmelon with pepper cabbage sauce on it for dinner, and I am so thirsty that I don't know what to do."

"But why don't you drink, when you are so close to a spring of water?" asked Jumpo.

"Ah, why indeed?" said Uncle Wiggily. "Well, the truth of the matter is that I have no drinking cup; so how can I get a drink?"

"That is easy," said Jumpo. "Do as we boys do. Lie down flat on your face, and sip up the water. Here, I'll show you," and Jumpo stretched out on the ground, and took a long drink from the spring.

"Very fine--for you," said Uncle Wiggily. "I tried that way, but every time I began to sip up the water it squirted up my nose, and that tickles me, and I have to sneeze, and when I sneeze I can't drink. No one could. You just try it. Sneeze, please."

So Jumpo did, and surely enough he couldn't drink and sneeze at the same time.

"Did you try to dip up some in the top of your hat?" asked Jumpo.

"Yes," said Uncle Wiggily, "but my hat is a tall silk one, with holes in to let out the hot air, and the water all runs out before I can drink it."

"I'll try my cap," said the monkey boy, and he did but all the water ran out of that as soon as it was dipped up.

"Oh, what shall I do?" said Uncle Wiggily. "I am afraid I shall die of thirst, for my rheumatism hurts so that I can't walk very fast and it will take me a week to get home."

Then Jumpo thought real hard, and he suddenly exclaimed:

"Oh, I know the very thing! I will make you a paper cup."

"A paper cup!" spoke the rabbit. "One cannot drink out of a paper cup."

"I will prove it to you," said Jumpo. "Our teacher showed us how to make paper cups that would last long enough to get a good drink from."

Then the monkey boy took a piece of paper from his pad that was strapped in with his schoolbooks and he folded it and creased it and folded it again, doubling it over until he had a cute little paper cup. Then he opened it out and dipped it into the water and held it up for Uncle Wiggily to drink.

"Well, I do declare!" exclaimed the rabbit, as he drank the water. "That's fine." Then he drank some more until he had enough, and by leaning on Jumpo's shoulder he managed to walk along toward home.

Then, all of a sudden, a big black bear jumped out of the woods crying:

"I'm going to eat you both!" But what did Jumpo do? Why, he scooped up a paper cupful of water and threw it in the bear's eyes and made him sneeze, and the bear was so scared that he cried out, "Wow! Wow! Wow!" three times and ran away.

Then Uncle Wiggily and Jumpo went to where Jacko was waiting for them, and a hot peanut wagon came along and the old gentleman rabbit bought each of the monkey boys a bag full, and they went home, helping Uncle Wiggily all the way.

Now, that's all to-night, if you please; but the next story I'll tell you will be about the Kinkytails blowing bubbles--that is, if the soapdish doesn't jump up and bite the bathroom towel and make it cry.

STORY XXIV

THE KINKYTAILS BLOW BUBBLES

"Oh, dear, I wonder what we can do to-day?" exclaimed Jacko Kinkytail, as he got up one Saturday morning and saw that it was raining quite hard.

"Yes, isn't it too bad," said his brother, the green monkey. "Here it is Saturday, when there is no school, and we can't go out and play. Oh, dear!"

"Oh, my!" cried Mamma Kinkytail, as she came in to see if her boys were ready for breakfast. "Why are you so sad?"

"I guess you'd be sad if you couldn't go out and play," answered Jacko, as he parted his hair on the left side and took the kinky spots out of his tail where he had slept on it in the night.

"We'll see if we can't have some fun in the house," his mamma said. "Just you get your breakfasts and then you boys can help me dust a bit. Then I'll think up some way so you may have some fun, even if it rains."

"Oh, goody!" cried Jacko and Jumpo together, and they jumped up and down, and Jacko climbed on Jumpo's back and tried to touch the ceiling, only Jumpo toppled over and they both fell right down on top of the bed, so they weren't hurt.

"Now, if you'd only jump around, and help me dust, it would be better than jumping on the bed," said their mamma with a laugh. So they got some old rags, and soon all the furniture was polished so shiny that you could see yourself standing upside down in it.

"Now for the fun!" said Mrs. Kinkytail. "Jacko, you get me some bowls with warm water in them, and, Jumpo, you shave up some of that nice smelling soap in the bathroom."

"Are you going to wash us, ma?" asked Jumpo, scared like.

"No, indeed. You will have your baths tonight. This is a little trick I am going to do for you. While you are getting the soap and water and bowls I will go to the telephone. But you mustn't listen to what I say."

Well, of course, the monkey boys promised, and they got the things their mamma told them to, while she was telephoning. Then she showed them how to mix up the soap and water in the bowls. Just as this was finished the door bell rang.

"I wonder who that can be?" said Jacko, surprised like.

"Suppose you go and see," answered his mother with a smile.

Jacko went to the front door and looked down toward the ground, for you know the monkeys' house was up in a high tree. In the rain he saw three duck children standing there.

"Oh, it's Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble!" cried Jacko in delight. "Oh, how did you happen to come in all the rain?"

"Why, your mamma telephoned for us," said Jimmie, as he wiggled his wings to toss off some of the water, for you know the ducks didn't need umbrellas.

"Oh, come right up!" cried Jumpo, who had also run to the door. "We're going to have fun. Come up."

"But how can we, when there are no stairs?" asked Lulu.

"Wait, I'll let down the basket," spoke Jacko, and soon he lowered a basket, fastened to a rope. This was always kept for visitors, but the monkeys could climb up without it.

Into the basket Alice and Lulu and Jimmie stepped, and Jacko and Jumpo pulled them up, for monkeys are very strong.

"Come right in, Jimmie, and your sisters, too," invited Mrs. Kinkytail. "Did you bring the pipes, Jimmie?"

"Yes, ma'am," said the boy duck.

"What pipes?" Jumpo wanted to know.

"Some nice, new, clean clay pipes, that you are going to blow bubbles with," explained his mamma. "That is the good time I have made for you. You are going to have a soap-bubble party. Now, children, come right out in the kitchen and the party will begin."

"Oh, how lovely!" cried Alice Wibblewobble, as she looked in a glass to see if her hair ribbon was on straight. "I love soap bubbles."

"So do I," said Lulu, whistling just like a boy.

Out in the kitchen a soft cloth had been spread on the floor for the bubbles to fall on, so they wouldn't get hurt. And Jimmie put the new pipes on the table beside the bowls of soap and water.

"Now, begin," said Mamma Kinkytail. So each one dipped a pipe into the soapy water and began to blow. Oh, what fine bubbles they made! Some were white, and some blue, and some green, and some red--just like the rainbow colors.

Lulu blew a very big bubble, almost as big as the moon looks, and all of a sudden it burst, making her sneeze like the time when Uncle Wiggily got the water up his nose.

Then Jacko blew a bubble and bounced it on the soft cloth until it looked like a football rolling along.

"Oh, see mine!" cried Alice, as she shook one off her pipe. It floated about the room. "It's on Jumpo's head!" said Alice. And, surely enough, it was, only it didn't stay there very long, as it burst. And Jimmie Wibblewobble blew one that almost reached the ceiling. Then Jumpo blew two at once, like twins, and they stayed on the cloth a long time.

Oh! They were having such fun that they didn't even think of the rain. They blew hundreds of bubbles, and laughed and shouted until you would have thought there were a dozen children at the party. And then, all of a sudden, something happened.

All at once there was a noise at the window, and a great big black bear poked his head in. He gave a growl and cried:

"Ah, ha! Now I'll have plenty for my supper. I am very fond of monkeys and ducks. I'm glad I climbed up the tree to get you. All ready now, I'm coming in!"

"You get right out of here, you bad bear!" cried Lulu.

"No, I will not," said the bear, savage like.

"I'll go tell my mamma if you don't," said Jacko, for Mrs. Kinkytail wasn't in the kitchen just then.

"I'm not afraid!" growled the bear. "Here I come in after you."

Well, he was just getting in through the window, when Lulu Wibblewobble cried:

"Oh, let's blow a whole lot of bubbles at him and scare him!"

And that's what those brave animal children did. They dipped their pipes in the soap and water and blew forty-'leven-sixteen-twenty-one bubbles and shook them at the bear. And my! how frightened he was. He'd never seen soap bubbles before, and he thought they were red and green and yellow and blue cannon balls going to hit him on his nose and toes.

Quickly he turned around and crawled out of the window and down the pole before any of the bubbles could burst and make him sneeze, and he ran off to the woods, and so that's how he didn't eat anybody that night.

Then Mrs. Kinkytail came in and heard what happened, and she said Lulu was a very bright little duck girl to think of it. Then the mamma monkey called:

"Come into the dining-room now and have ice cream and cake." And, oh! wasn't it good!

Then they blew more bubbles and soon the party was over, and Jacko and Jumpo were glad it had rained. Now on the next page, if the boy who lives in the corner house doesn't lose his roller skates down our chimney and make it sneeze, you may read about Jacko and the paper chain.

STORY XXV

JACKO AND THE PAPER CHAIN

"Now sit up nice and straight, children," said the owl school teacher one day, "and pay close attention. I am going to show you how to make paper chains, so you can decorate the Christmas trees with them when the time comes. I have shown you how to make paper cups, and this time it will be paper chains."

"And the paper cup was very useful," thought Jumpo, as he remembered the time he had given Uncle Wiggily a drink from it.

"I don't see how you can make chains out of paper," said Jacko in a whisper to his brother.

"Oh, you must not talk in school!" exclaimed the teacher quickly, "for it takes your minds off your lessons. Now look at me and do as I do."

But even when the teacher took out some squares of prettily colored paper and began cutting them in strips with her scissors, Jacko couldn't understand how she was going to make a chain that way.

"For chains are made of iron or steel or silver or gold, and not paper," he thought. "But I'll wait and see."

The teacher took a narrow strip of red paper, and she pasted the two ends together, making a little ring. Then she slipped another narrow strip of paper, colored green, inside the first red ring and she fastened the ends of the second strip together, making a second ring, right inside the first, like a watch chain. And so she went on until she had about forty-sixteen rings all fastened together, and that was a paper chain.

"Now you try to make one," said the owl teacher, and all the animal children did. Susie Littletail, the rabbit, made a very fine chain of the most beautiful colors, and her brother Sammie made two paper chains, while the Bushytail squirrel brothers made some yellow chains that looked like gold.

"You may each take some paper with you," spoke the teacher when school was nearly over, "and make some chains at home."