Chapter 8

So they all went up to her desk to get the paper, but Jacko Kinkytail, the red boy monkey, was a little late because he couldn't get his book strap fastened. And all there was left for him was some black paper. All the pretty colored pieces had been given away.

"Never mind," said the teacher, kindly, "I'm sure Jacko will make a very good black paper chain. Now school is over. Run home."

So they all ran home. Suddenly Jumpo Kinkytail happened to think that his mamma had told him to go to the store on his way from school, and bring her a yeast cake.

"Will you come with me?" Jumpo asked his brother.

"Oh, I don't want to," answered Jacko. "But I'll wait here in the woods for you."

"All right," said Jumpo, so off he started to the store.

Well, Jacko sat down on a hollow stump, taking good care not to fall in it and get his long tail all tangled up. He had his squares of black paper with him, and also a pair of scissors and some paste which the teacher had given him.

"I think I will start to make my paper chain now," he said to himself when he had been sitting there a little while. "Then I won't have to do it at home, and Jumpo and I can go for a little ride in our auto."

So he cut the black paper into strips, and made rings of them, fastening them together, one inside the other, until he had a nice long chain.

"Ha! That is very fine!" thought the monkey boy. "I will have it all done when Jumpo comes back."

He was holding up the chain by the end, to see how long it was, when, all of a sudden he heard a noise in the bushes. At first he thought it was his brother, coming with the yeast cake, but, somehow it didn't sound like the green monkey. It was a crashing-bashing-rashing-smashing sort of a noise, and Jacko began to be afraid, thinking it might be the burglar fox.

And then, before he could stand up and sing a song about four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a rice pudding, out from the bushes came the savage skillery-scalery alligator with the double jointed tail. Oh, but that alligator was savage! And how he glared at Jacko with his mean, green eyes. Then the bad creature smacked his jaws together like an automobile running over a pair of roller skates.

"Ah, ha!" cried the alligator. "At last I have a monkey for supper. I would like two--a red one and a green one--but as long as there is only a red one I'll eat him."

"Are you really going to eat me?" asked Jacko, dropping the paper chain and the paste and the scissors. He was real scared.

"I am," said the alligator, "and if your brother was here I'd eat him also."

Then Jacko was glad his brother hadn't come back. Nearer and nearer came the alligator, with his mouth wide open. And, oh! how frightened Jacko was. He didn't know what to do.

"Please, Mr. Alligator, don't eat me!" he cried.

"Yes, I must eat you," said the unpleasant creature with the double-jointed tail. And he stood up on the end of it and waggled his head up and down and sideways and opened his mouth still wider.

Well, of course, Jacko didn't want to be eaten up, but he didn't know how to get out of it, until all of a sudden, he thought of a plan. His paper chain! It was black, and looked just like one made of strong iron. Perhaps he could fool the alligator.

All at once the red monkey boy caught up the rings of paper, all pasted together. Very quickly he threw the chain around the alligator's neck, and then he fastened both ends of the chain to the stump with strong paste. And he had the alligator fast in the paper chain.

Then Jacko jumped to one side and cried out:

"Now you can't get me, bad Mr. Alligator, for I have you chained fast to the stump! You can't get away, and you can't eat me!"

Well, that alligator looked at the paper links of the paper chain around his neck and fast to the stump. And as the paper was black, and looked like iron, the savage creature with the double-jointed tail really thought it was iron. So he didn't try to get away, for he knew he couldn't break iron, but if he had known that it was only paper he could have broken away as easily as not, just by one flip-flop of his tail, or by biting the paper with his strong teeth. But you see he didn't know.

"Now, I have you fast!" cried Jacko.

"Oh, please let me go," begged the alligator. He it was who was scared now.

"Never!" exclaimed Jacko. "I am going to run and meet my brother and we will go home. You can't catch us, for you are held fast."

So Jacko ran to meet Jumpo and told him how he had caught the alligator with a paper chain, and Jumpo was very glad. Then the monkey brothers went safely home, and the alligator stayed in the woods chained fast to the stump.

But in the night it rained, and the water melted the paste so that paper chain came all apart. Then the alligator was loose, and when he saw how he had been fooled with just paper he was as mad as anything, yes, really he was. But he couldn't catch Jacko and Jumpo.

So that's all now, but if the pretty little girl on our street doesn't sweep the dried leaves up in a pile and cover up the pussy cat, so it can't go to the moving pictures, I'll tell you next about the Kinkytails and the chirping cricket.

STORY XXVI

THE KINKYTAILS AND THE CRICKET

One day, as Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail were coming home from school they happened to go past a pile of stones in the woods. And just as they got near to the stones they saw something black on top.

"Oh!" exclaimed Jacko, "perhaps that is one of the rings from my black paper chain that I fastened the alligator with."

"Maybe it is," agreed Jumpo. "And if it is, why the alligator may be around here. We had better be careful. Let's run home."

Well, they were just going to run, not knowing the alligator had gone away as I told you in the previous story, when the black thing on the pile of stones gave a jump and disappeared down in a crack between two rocks.

"Ha! That is very funny!" said Jacko. "I didn't know that pieces of paper could jump."

"Me either," said Jumpo. "Let's go up and take a look. Maybe it isn't a piece of your paper chain after all; and the alligator may not be there."

So they went closer to the pile of stones, and all at once, and as quickly as you can eat a dish of ice cream on a hot day, they heard a little voice singing. And this was the song, which goes to the tune of "Rinky-tinky diddily-dum,"

"Let's be jolly, don't be sad, Let's be good and not be bad. If you fall and hurt your nose, Dance upon your tippy-toes.

"Always try to sing or play, Laughter drives dull care away. Whistle with a happy shout, Music turns the world about."

"My, you must be a jolly fellow, whoever you are!" said Jacko.

"Oh, no; I am the most miserable creature in all the world," was the sorrowful answer from beneath the pile of stones.

"Then why do you sing about happiness; and who are you?" asked Jumpo.

"I am a chirping black cricket," was the answer. "I was sitting on this stone pile when I happened to see you coming. I thought you were two bears, so I jumped down in here and now I cannot get out again, for every time I try to jump out I bump my nose. Are you really bears?"

"No, indeed; we're two monkey boys," spoke Jacko. "But we will help you out of the stone pile. Come, Jumpo, let's toss the stones away, one by one, and the cricket can get out."

So they did this, and pretty soon the little black creature could crawl out.

"Well, are you happy now?" asked Jacko.

"Oh, no; I am very sad, for I know winter will soon be here and I will freeze to death," said the cricket. "But still I sing my joyous song as I want other people to be happy. I am much obliged for helping me out, but I will soon be dead."

"Oh, nonsensicalness! Don't talk so!" exclaimed Jumpo. "Winter isn't at all bad. Think of the skating, and the snow, and riding down hill on your sled, and making forts and snow men and--"

"Yes, that's all right for any one who can keep warm, but I can't," said the black cricket. "Oh, I am so miserable," and then he began to sing again about always being happy and not sad.

"I think we can easily fix this," said Jacko. "We will take you home with us, Mr. Cricket, and you can stay in the warm fireplace all winter. Then you will keep warm until summer comes again, and you can sing to us as we study our lessons, for some of them are so hard that they make us sad."

"That will be lovely," spoke the cricket. "I'll come with you gladly. But first throw away the rest of the pile of stones so no one else will fall down among them as I did."

So the monkey boys did this, and just as Jacko tossed away the last stone the big black bear popped out of the bushes most unexpectedly, and the stone hit him on the nose.

"Oh! I'll eat you up for that," he cried, and he made a jump for the monkey boys.

"Run! Run!" called the cricket, "and I'll bump into his eyes and blind him so he can't see you."

So the monkey boys ran as fast as they could, and the black cricket gave a big hop and hopped right up against the bear's eyes and for a minute he couldn't see. That gave Jacko and Jumpo a chance to get away, and they ran on and on and pretty soon the cricket caught up to them, hopping away from the bear, and they all went home to the monkeys' house.

Mrs. Kinkytail was very glad to see the cricket, who would have been frozen if he had had to sleep outdoors many more cold nights. She made him a warm bed near the fireplace by putting some cotton inside her sewing thimble.

"Oh, this is most delightful," said the cricket as he snuggled down inside the thimble under the warm cotton. "This is the nicest place I ever slept in." Then he sang his jolly song again, and Jacko and Jumpo did their lessons and soon the cricket sang himself to sleep and it was time for everybody to go to bed.

But listen! Something happened in the middle of the night. That bad bear was so mad that along about 12 o'clock, when all was still and quiet in the monkeys' house, he sneaked up and climbed the tree until he was at the front door.

"Now I will go in and eat them all up," thought the bear, smacking his lips and gnashing his sharp teeth. So with his long toenails he unlocked the door and went softly into the house, where Jacko and Jumpo and their papa and mamma were fast asleep. No one heard the bear come in--that is, no one but the little black cricket in the thimble near the fireplace. He heard the shaggy, savage creature, and all at once that cricket chirped and cried out:

"Wake up! Wake up, everybody! You'll all be eaten!" And the cricket sang his happy song so loudly that Jacko and Jumpo and Mr. and Mrs. Kinkytail awakened at once, just as though they had heard an alarm clock.

Then Mr. Kinkytail took a club and began beating on the bottom of the dishpan, and the bear heard it and he thought it was the fire engines coming after him, so he jumped out of the front door to get away. And he jumped so hard that he fell to the ground and broke two of its toenails, and it served him right, I think.

So that's how the cricket saved the Kinkytails from being robbed and eaten up, and they were very thankful to him. And he stayed with them all winter, and sometimes he had cherry pie for supper.

Now next I'm going to tell you about the Kinkytails and the doll's house--that is, if the alarm clock will stop making figures all over my paper so I can write the story, and if the coffee pot doesn't step on the rolling pin's toes.

STORY XXVII

THE KINKYTAILS AND THE DOLL'S HOUSE

"Now, boys," said Mrs. Kinkytail to her two monkey sons one morning, "this is Saturday, and there isn't any school, so I wish you would go on an errand for me."

"Where is it, mamma?" asked Jacko. "Do you want us to go to the store to get some molasses, so we can make candy?"

"No, indeed, I do not!" she exclaimed. "I have plenty of molasses in the house, and I can't let you make candy today, though I may some other time."

"Then do you want us to get some corn so we can pop it, and make popcorn balls?" asked Jumpo, trying to stand up on the end of his tail. But he couldn't do it very well, so he wound his tail around the gas fixture in the ceiling and hung head downward.

"Don't do that," said his mother. "All the blood may run to your head and there won't be any in your feet, and you may get the epizootic. But I don't want any popcorn from the store. What I want you to do is to go over to Grandfather Goosey Gander's house and borrow the chopper machine he grinds up things in. I am going to make some cabbage chow-chow and some chew-chew and some tomato pickles and I want to grind up all the things in the food chopper.

"So hurry off, and when you come back you may take turns grinding up the things in the chopper, and here is a penny for each of you."

"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Jacko. "You are very kind, mother."

"She certainly is," agreed Jumpo. "And maybe Grandfather Goosey Gander will give us some peppermint candies. Oh, I'm glad it's Saturday, and I'm glad we're going after the chipper-chopper."

So they started off over the fields and through the woods together, hopping and skipping and jumping. Sometimes they held each other's paws, and sometimes they twined their tails together and went along that way.

Pretty soon they came to where Grandfather Goosey Gander lived. The old gentleman was very glad to see them, and, after he had given them the food chipper-chopper, which he used to grind up his corn in to make cornmeal, the goose grandfather said:

"I wonder if you two chaps know anyone who likes peppermint candy?"

"Yes, sir!" exclaimed Jacko and Jumpo at once, very quickly.

"Where are such boys to be found?" asked Grandfather Goosey Gander, and he made-believe look all around over the top of his spectacles.

"Right here!" exclaimed Jacko and Jumpo more quickly.

"Bless my gizzard!" cried the old goosey gentleman. "I never thought you liked such things." But he gave them some, just the same, and they started back home with the chipper-chopper.

But on the way something dreadful happened. Just as those two boys were going through a dark place in the woods there was a rustling in the bushes and out jumped the burglar fox.

"Ah, ha! Now I have you!" he cried. But he spoke too soon, for, just as he made a grab for Jacko and Jumpo, they darted away and ran as fast as anything, if not faster.

The foxy fox ran also, and as foxes are good runners, he was soon almost up to Jacko and Jumpo.

"We never can get away from him," said Jacko.

"Never," agreed Jumpo, "and we haven't even one roller skate between us now. Oh, what shall we do?"

Well, they didn't know, and that fox was coming closer and closer, and he almost had them, when, just as the monkey boys turned around a hollow stump corner they saw a little house. Oh, it was the cutest little house, just about large enough for them to get in, and not much more.

"Quick!" cried Jacko. "Into that house with you, Jumpo, and we'll lock the door."

"Whose house is it?" asked the green monkey.

"Never mind. Don't stop to ask questions. Skip in," cried Jacko. So in Jumpo skipped and his brother was right after him, and they were only just in time, for as they shut and locked the door the fox ran slam-bang up against it, if you will pardon me saying so at such an exciting time.

"Come out of there!" called the fox, banging on the door with his paws.

"Indeed, we will not!" answered Jacko and Jumpo most politely, holding tightly to the food chopper. And just then they heard some one walking upstairs in the little house and a voice called down:

"Who is there? Who is knocking at my door?"

"Goodness me, sakes alive, and a sweet potato!" cried Jacko. "Some one lives in this little bit of a house! Think of it!"

"It does seem so," spoke Jumpo. "I wonder who it can be?"

And just then some one came down stairs and into the front room, where the monkey boys were hiding, and who should it be but a doll--yes, a wonderfully nice lady doll in a blue dress--and when she was wound up by a spring in her back she could walk and talk; and she was wound up now.

"Well, of all things!" exclaimed the doll, speaking in a squeaky sort of voice. "What are you monkey boys doing here?"

"We are hiding from the fox," said Jacko. "He chased us on our way home from Grandfather Goosey Gander's house and we ran in here. I hope you are not angry."

"Indeed, I am not," said the doll, kindly. "Where is the fox now?"

And just then the bad fox banged on the door of the doll's house again and cried out:

"Hey! I want you monkey boys!"

"Oh, the savage creature!" exclaimed the doll. "He'll be wanting to eat me next. You see, I'm out here for my health. I belong to a little girl, but she had my house brought out here so I could get the woodland air. And I'm much stronger now. But I'll fix that fox."

"How?" asked Jacko.

"Why, you go close to the front door," said the doll, "and pretend that you are coming out. Rattle the knob, you know. Then I'll go to an upstairs window, right over the door, and when the fox is standing there I'll pour molasses on him and he'll be so sticky that he can't even eat a toothpick."

"Fine!" cried Jacko, so he and his brother rattled the door knob.

"Ah! Here comes my monkey dinner!" said the fox, smacking his lips hungry like.

And just then that brave doll in the blue dress opened the window over the fox's head and poured a whole dish pan of molasses on him.

"Wow! Oh, wow! Bow-wow!" cried that fox.

Oh, I wish you could have seen him. He was so stuck up from the tip of his toes to the tip of his nose that he was all kerflumixed and kerflimixed and he ran off in the woods taking his tail with him. So he didn't eat Jacko or Jumpo, and soon they came out, and after thanking the brave doll in the blue dress they went safely home and helped make chow-chow-chew-chew pickles in the chipper-chopper.

Now, in case the tomato can doesn't roll over in bed and fall out on the floor so it bumps the kitty cat's nose, I'll tell you next about Jacko and the train of cars.

STORY XXVIII

JACKO AND THE TRAIN OF CARS

"May we go over to Sammie Littletail's house and play this afternoon, mamma?" asked Jacko Kinkytail as he and his brother came home from school. It was about three days after the monkey boys had hidden from the fox in the doll's house.

"What about your school lessons and home work?" asked the monkey boys' mother.

"Oh, we both did fine to-day, and we both went to the head of the class," said Jumpo. "First I went up and then Jacko went, and we haven't much home work to do, only some spelling words to learn."

"Then you may go," said Mrs. Kinkytail, "but be sure to be home for supper." So they promised, and away they hopped through the woods toward the place where the Littletail rabbit family lived.

"What shall we play when we get there?" asked Jumpo, as he wound his tail around the low limb of a tree and swung himself across a little brook as nicely as you can fold your napkin.

"Oh, we'll play tag, and hide-and-go-seek, and maybe football," spoke Jacko. "Perhaps Susie Littletail has been helping her mother bake a cake or a pie, and she might give us some. I'm not saying for sure," said Jacko, as he winked both his eyes, "but she might."

"Oh, I wish she would!" cried Jumpo. "When we go in, we'll just sort of look hungry, and when they ask us what's the matter we'll say we haven't had any pie or cake in a long, long time. For you know mamma doesn't allow us to ask for things to eat when we go calling; but that wouldn't be asking, would it?"

"I guess not," said Jacko, slow and thoughtful like.

Well, they were soon at the rabbit children's house and they saw Sammie Littletail outside. He was playing with his football, and when he saw Jacko and Jumpo he cried:

"Oh, goody! Now we can have a game," and he kicked that ball away up in the air, so high that when it came down it stuck in the top of a tree.

"Now see what you did, Sammie!" cried his sister Susie, sorrowfully. "You can't get your ball," and there she stood in the door, with an apron on, and that apron was covered with flour dust, yes, really it was.

"Hey! What did I tell you?" whispered Jumpo to Jacko. "They're baking cake, all right. See the flour on Susie's apron. I'm going to look hungry."

"And I'm going to get the football," said Jacko. "Maybe that will surprise Susie, and she'll offer us some cake without us looking hungry. Here I go."

"Good!" cried Jumpo, and before he could say anything more up the tree scrambled the red monkey to where the football was caught on a crooked branch.

"Look out! Here it comes down!" cried Jacko, in about a minute, and, surely enough, down came the football bouncing up and down like a bowl full of jelly on Christmas morning.

"Oh, fine!" cried Sammie. "I thought I would never get it back again. Isn't there something I can give you and your brother, Jacko?"

"Well," said Jacko, slow and hungry like, "we might have--"

"I know the very thing!" cried Susie. "I have just baked some cherry pies for Uncle Wiggily Longears and I know he'd want you to have some. Come in and I'll cut one."

"Oh, if this isn't the best luck!" exclaimed Jacko. "We didn't have to ask, so it's all right; eh, Jumpo?"

"Sure," said Jumpo in a whisper.

I just wish _you_ could have had some of that cherry pie, but of course you couldn't, for there wasn't any left. Then pretty soon the monkey boys and Sammie went outside to play football again. And, all of a sudden, as Jumpo kicked the ball, it bounced on Sammie's nose and made it bleed.

Oh, how that poor rabbit boy's nose did bleed. He cried and cried again, and Susie and his mamma, the muskrat lady housekeeper, Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, came running out. They did all they could for him, such as putting a cold key down his back and making him chew paper, and they even put some paper under his upper lip, but it did no good, for the nose still bled.

"We must send for Dr. Possum at once," said Mrs. Littletail. "He will have to come in a hurry to stop the bleeding."

"Oh, if we only had our automobile, we could go very quickly," said Jacko, but they didn't have it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry; it was my fault," exclaimed Jumpo. "I will run for Dr. Possum."

"You never can run fast enough," exclaimed Mrs. Littletail. "Why, even an airship wouldn't be quick enough. Oh! What shall I do? Sammie may bleed to death."

"Wait, I have an idea," cried Susie. "Why can't Jacko go for the doctor in Sammie's toy train of cars?"

"In a toy train of cars?" exclaimed Jacko.

"Yes, the engine is very big and strong, and it runs very fast. Just hitch one car to it and go for Dr. Possum."

"But doesn't that engine have to run on a track?" asked Jumpo.

"No, if you wind the spring up real tight it will run right over the ground without any track," said Susie, for Sammie couldn't talk on account of the nose bleed. "Hurry off, Jacko. You can ride in the cab and be the engineer and Dr. Possum can ride in the passenger coach."

Quickly Mrs. Littletail wheeled out the toy engine and one car. It was quite large, plenty big enough for Jacko to get in. He and Jumpo wound up the spring real tight and then Jacko got in the engine cab.

"Toot! Toot!" he blew the whistle and with a whizz and a rattle, away the engine went right along a smooth path in the woods toward Dr. Possum's house. Faster and faster rode Jacko, ringing the bell every once in a while. Faster and faster he went until he came to Dr. Possum's house.

"Oh, doctor, come quick!" he cried, stopping the engine by pulling on a handle. "Sammie Littletail has the nose bleed very bad!"

"I'll be with you at once," said Dr. Possum. So he took a big bottle of nose bleed medicine and into the coach he sprang. Jacko rolled the engine around and turned on the spring. Away it went back through the woods, pulling him and Dr. Possum as nicely as a stick of molasses candy.

All of a sudden out from the bushes sprang the burglar fox.

"Hi! Stop that train!" he cried. "I want to get on!"