Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail (The Funny Monkey Boys)

Then Jacko looked and he saw a little hole in the tree. He went close up to it and said:

"Are you there in that hole, Mrs. Bee?"

"Yes," was the answer, "but please go away, little boy, as I am very busy, I have to make enough honey to last all winter."

Well, Jacko was just going away when he saw a snake sneaking along on the ground. And that bad snake took up some soft mud on the end of his tail, and he plastered it over the hole in the tree where the bee was making honey, so she couldn't get out when she wanted to.

"Now, when that bee is dead I'll come and get the honey," hissed the snake, just like a steam radiator.

"No you won't!" cried Jacko, and then he blew the big auto horn so loudly that the snake was frightened and crawled away as fast as he could. Then the red monkey took a stick, and knocked the mud away from the bee's hole so she could come out when she wanted to.

"Oh, thank you, so much!" buzzed the bee. "I'll give you some honey for being kind to me." So she gave Jacko some, and also some for his brother, and by that time Jumpo came back from the store with the groceries and he was glad to find that Jacko had fixed the auto, though he was a little frightened when he heard about the snake.

The two brothers were just going to ride home in their car, but before they could get it started all of a sudden along came the savage wolf. He was just going to grab Jumpo, and maybe Jacko also, for all I know, when the busy bee just buzzed up and stung the wolf on the tip of his soft and tender black nose so that he ran howling away to put some mud on the sting. And so he didn't eat either of the monkey boys, and the bee was glad she had helped them.

Then they hurried home in their automobile and their mamma made some molasses cookies and they had them for supper with honey on, and Oh! how delicious they were. And after supper Jacko and Jumpo played tag with Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, until it was time to go to bed. So now, good night, if you please.

And in the next story I'll tell you about the Kinkytails and the grape vine—that is if the basket of peaches doesn't fall down the chimney and scare the fire shovel so that it hides in the ash can.

STORY XXI

Well, Jacko started off alone, and he felt quite sorry that his brother wasn't with him. Pretty soon Jacko met Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck. And Jimmie had a new football that his papa had given him.

"Let's see who can kick it the farthest," said the duck boy.

So he tried, and he kicked it about as far as from a stick of peppermint candy to the place where the ice cream cones grew on the cocoanut tree. Then it was Jacko's turn.

The red monkey put the football down on the ground. Then he took a little run and he pushed the ball as hard as he could with one foot and also with his tail. Away it sailed as far as from the ice cream soda fountain store down to the place where the man sells hot peanuts at five cents a bag.

"That was a fine kick!" cried Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, who came along just then. "A most dandy kick."

"Yes, but Jacko used his tail besides his foot to kick with, and I can't do that," said Jimmie, sort of sad-like.

"Perhaps what I did wasn't just fair," admitted Jacko. "Never mind, after school we'll have a good football game. We'll go down by our house and play, so that my brother, who is sick with the toothache, can look out of the window and watch us. Then he won't think so much of his pain."

Well, the boy animals thought this was a good plan, so when school was out they hurried with Jacko to the monkey-house. Then they began to play football. They kicked the ball all around, up one side, down the other, through the middle, and sometimes even sideways. And the ball never said a word, nor so much as winked its eyes.

"Now, for a big, long kick!" suddenly cried Jacko, when he got a chance. "I believe I can almost kick that ball to the end of the rainbow." Of course, there wasn't any rainbow there at the time, but Jacko just said that for fun.

Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, suddenly rushed at Jacko, trying to kick the ball before the monkey boy could do so, but Jacko was too quick for Johnnie, and kicked it first. Away sailed the ball, farther than ever, and then something happened. The football went right over a high, steep, straight-up-and-down hill, and fell into a big hole on the other side.

"Oh, there goes my ball!" cried Jimmie Wibblewobble, and he tried not to cry, though he felt very much like it.

"Never mind, we can get it again," said Billie Bushytail. "You oughtn't to kick so strong, Jacko."

"I s'pose I ought not to," agreed the monkey boy, sort of sad-like. "But I will go down and get the ball. Then we can play another game."

And all this while Jumpo was watching the boys from out of the window. And his tooth didn't ache quite so badly when he saw what fun they were having. He wished he was with them.

"What's the matter?" Jumpo asked, when he saw the ball bounce out of sight over the hill.

"It's fallen down in a big hole, and I'm going after it," said Jacko.

So the red monkey and his friends went to the edge of the hill and looked over. Oh! it was a very steep, dark place, and when Jacko saw how far down he'd have to go he was a bit afraid.

"I don't believe I can go down there," he said, wriggling his tail. "But I will try, because it was my fault that the ball went over. I'll climb down."

"No, don't do that," spoke Sammie Littletail. "You might fall and be hurt. See, here is a long wild grapevine. The vine is just like a rope. We can tie one end around you while we hold on the other end. Then we can lower you down into the hole, just like on an elevator, and you can get the football. Then we'll pull you up again."

Every one thought that was a good plan, so they took a long piece of grapevine and tied it around Jacko.

"Careful now!" called Jacko, as they began lowering him over the edge of the hill, down into the hole where the football was. "Don't let me fall!"

They all had tight hold of the grapevine rope, and they promised they wouldn't let go. And they lowered Jacko down, down, down; very slowly and carefully, until he could pick up the lost football in his paws. Then they began to pull him up.

But they didn't know that a savage hawk-bird had her nest in the side of that hill. And Jacko was lowered right past where she lived. When he went down the bird was asleep, but when his friends began pulling him up the bad bird awakened. She looked out, and she saw Jacko, the red monkey, swinging on the end of the grapevine near her nest of eggs.

"Now is my chance to pick his eyes out!" cried the hawk-bird. Right at Jacko she flew, beating her big wings and gnashing her beak, and wiggling her sharp claws. Jacko saw her coming, but he had the football in one paw and he had to hold on the rope with the other, so he couldn't do much except with his feet.

"Here's where I bite you!" cried the savage hawk, and really it did seem as if she would. For the boy animals couldn't pull Jacko up fast enough to get him out the way of the hawk. And there he was, dangling on the end of the grapevine rope like an apple on a string.

Then Jumpo, sitting up in the window, saw what was happening. He wanted to help his brother, so he cried:

"Some of you fellows come and get my bean shooter, and shoot the hawk until she lets Jacko alone. Hurry and get my shooter."

So Sammie Littletail ran and got the shooter, and a lot of hard beans. Then he leaned over the edge of the steep hill, and he blew beans at the hawk that was flying around trying to pick out Jacko's eyes.

The beans hit the bird all over; on her tail and on her feathers and on her claws and beak, and soon she was glad enough to fly back into her nest and let the monkey boy alone, for she couldn't see Sammie blowing the beans, as he was hidden behind a bush.

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

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

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

"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

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."

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

"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,"