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

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

"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

"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

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."

So he twisted some of the shiny things on the steering wheel, and he tickled the thing-a-ma-bob and pushed the tittle-cum-tattle-cum and the auto went slower. But even then it was going pretty fast.

"Say, if a burglar fox chased us now, he couldn't catch us, could he?" said Jacko.

"Never in the world," answered his brother.

And just then a big, black bear stuck his nose out of the bushes and growled:

"Hold on there, I haven't had any dinner yet."

"Well, you can't eat us!" shouted Jumpo, so he turned the what-you-may-call-it around backward and away they went faster than ever and the bear couldn't catch them, not even if he had put on roller skates to slide with.

Well, after a while, not so very long, all of a sudden, as the monkey boys were riding along through the woods, all of a sudden, I say, their auto stopped. It wouldn't go a bit farther.

"What's the matter?" asked Jacko.

"I don't know," said Jumpo, looking all around.

"Maybe the squee-gee is on crooked," said the red monkey.

"No, that's all straight," answered the green monkey, as he looked at it to make sure.

"Then perhaps the busticated-what's-his-name needs oiling," suggested Jacko.

So Jumpo put some oil on the busticated-what's-his-name, but still that auto wouldn't go any more than a clock will if it isn't wound up.

"Maybe all the wheels are off," spoke Jacko.

So they got out to look, but the wheels were on all right and tight, and the big tires were full of wind like a bologna sausage. Well, these monkey boys didn't know what to do, and they were beginning to be frightened, for they were in the deep woods, where there might be wolves. They began to wish they hadn't come so far, or else that they knew more about autos.

All of a sudden they heard a rustling in the bushes, and they looked around, fearing they might see the burglar fox, perhaps, but whom do you suppose it was? Why, no one else than Grandfather Goosey Gander.

"Oh, our auto is stuck!" cried Jacko.

"Yes, it won't go," said Jumpo.

Grandfather Goosey took one look at the machine, then he sniffed the air and said:

"Why, of course, it won't go, you have no more gasoline. I know, for I once had a motor-boat and the same thing happened to me. You need gasoline, just as I did. Go buy some gasoline."

"Where can we get it; here in the woods?" asked Jacko.

Grandfather Goosey Gander sniffed the air again.

"I smell gasoline," he said, "and it's over this way. Come with me." So he led the monkey boys through the woods toward a big stump, and there, right behind it, was Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat. And what do you s'pose she was doing? Why, she was cleaning the spots off the trousers of Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, with gasoline. She had a big can full, for you know gasoline cleans spots off things very nicely.

"Oh, will you please give us some of your gasoline to make our auto go?" asked Jacko politely of the old lady goat.

"Mercy sakes alive, child! Of course I will," said Aunt Lettie.

So she gave the monkey boys some, and Grandfather Goosey Gander showed them how to pour it in the tank of their car. Then Jumpo twisted the tinkerum-tankerum and away the auto went, whizz-whazz! and the boys had a fine ride.

They went through the woods and up one hill and down another, and when they were almost home a big savage wolf chased them, but he couldn't catch up to that auto; no, sir, no matter how he tried, and he couldn't bite any holes in the tires, either.

So Jacko and Jumpo got safely home, just in time for dinner, and they had huckleberry pie and chocolate drops on it with their milk.

So that's all now, if you please, but in case the spoonholder doesn't squeeze the salt-shaker and make the pepper box sneeze, I'll tell you on the next page about Jumpo and the roast marshmallow candy.

STORY XIX

So she gave some of the pupils examples to do, and to others she gave spelling, and to still others writing, while the bigger children, like Sammie Littletail or Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, had geography to study. And the little kindergarten children had to cut things out of paper—horses and cows and houses and trees, and things like that.

"Now you may all go," said the teacher, "and bring your lessons in with you to-morrow morning."

Well, the animal children marched out, but they weren't very happy. They didn't think they ought to have to study at home, but it has to be done, sometimes, you know. And really it isn't so hard if you don't think so.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Jacko to his brother, when they were outside the school. "We can't go for an auto ride if we have to study our examples."

"No; isn't it mean?" exclaimed his brother. "But perhaps if we run along quickly we'll have time for just a little ride before we have to do our home work."

So they hurried as fast as they could and they soon reached home. Then their mamma said they might ride around the block a couple of times in their auto before doing any study.

"And then, after your lessons are done, you may ride some more," she said; "that is if it isn't too dark."

Well, Jacko and Jumpo took their little ride, and they gave rides to as many of their friends as they could. Then they went in the house to study.

But alas and alack-a-day! You know how it happens sometimes. Jacko got his example all twisted up, and the answer wouldn't come right. And Jumpo's numbers got all snarled up, until the figure six looked like a nine and the figure eight like a brown cruller which his mamma sometimes made in the lard kettle.

"Oh, dear!" cried both the monkey boys. "We'll never get done in time to go auto riding before dark."

"Never mind," spoke their mamma, "I'll help you." And she did; but even then it was dark before they were finished, and quite too late to go out in the auto, for they might have hit a lamp post and bent the rubber tires into a figure forty-'leven.

"What can we do to have some fun?" asked Jumpo, as he untied two hard knots in his tail.

"How would you like to roast some marshmallow candies?" asked his mother, looking over the top of the piano.

"How do you do it?" inquired Jacko, who was still studying.

"You build a little fire," said his mamma, "only you must be very careful not to get too near it. Then you take a stick and sharpen the end. Then you fasten a soft marshmallow candy on the pointed stick, and hold it near the fire, but not too close, and pretty soon the marshmallow candy puffs up and gets nice and brown and you eat it—only you must wait until it is cool, or you might burn your tongue. Do you want to do that?"

"Burn my tongue? No, indeed!" cried Jumpo, making a funny face and wriggling his tail up and down like a fan.

"Oh, I didn't mean burn your tongue, you funny boy," spoke his mamma with a laugh. "I meant do you want to build a fire and roast marshmallows?"

"Surely," said Jumpo politely. "Don't you, Jacko?"

"No, I guess not," said the red monkey boy. "I think I'll read a little after my lessons are done and then go to bed. To-morrow we may not have to study at home, and we can take a longer auto ride."

So Jumpo went out alone in front of his house to roast the marshmallows. His mamma gave him some of the candies in a tin box, and he sharpened his own stick, and built a nice little fire, being careful not to make it too large. And he was also careful not to get burned.

By this time it was quite dark, and the fire looked very pretty, blazing just on the edge of the woods near where the monkey's tree-house was built. When there were some nice, glowing, hot coals in the blaze Jumpo got ready to roast the marshmallow candies. He stuck one on the sharp stick, and held it close to the fire.

But, oh, dear me, hum suz dud! Jumpo held the candy too close, and the first thing you know it caught fire and melted and fell off the stick down into the blaze and was burned up! Wasn't that too bad?

"I'll not hold the next one so close," he said, and he was careful; so the second candy turned a nice golden brown and puffed up nearly twice as big as it had been before.

"Oh, I know what I'll do!" suddenly exclaimed Jumpo. "I'll toast a lot of them and take them in the house for mamma and papa and Jacko."

So he roasted the candies as fast as he could until he had quite a pile of them in a box. As they were very hot he pushed them off the end on the pointed stick, using a piece of bark for a pusher.

Jumpo was so busy that he didn't look behind him. If he had done so he would have been very much frightened. For there, creeping out of the bushes, was the burglar fox, with his big tail and sharp teeth. And he was creeping, creeping up toward Jumpo to eat him. But Jumpo didn't know a thing about it. He was so busy roasting marshmallow candies.

All of a sudden the fox accidentally stepped on a stick, and it broke in two pieces and made a loud noise. Jumpo heard it and turned around. Then, by the light of the fire, he saw the fox coming toward him.

"Ah, ha! Now I have you!" cried the bad creature, and he made a spring to catch the monkey boy. Jumpo didn't wait to be caught, you may be sure of that. He jumped, too, and the green monkey happened to tip over the box of toasted marshmallow candies as he leaped to one side. He upset them all over the ground, and then what do you s'pose happened?

Why, that bad fox landed right in the midst of the hot, soft candies, and they got all over his feet, like sticky flypaper, and they burned him. Oh, how he howled! The more he tried to get the candies off, the tighter they stuck. The fox turned a somersault, and then the candies got all over his fur, until he looked like a marshmallow fox. And, of course, he couldn't catch Jumpo then, for he was so stuck up.

The monkey boy ran in the house and told his papa about the fox, and Mr. Kinkytail came out with his gun. But by that time the fox had run off to find a puddle of water so that he could wash the candy out of his fur, and he wasn't in sight for Papa Kinkytail to shoot.

"Oh, my poor marshmallows!" cried Jumpo, when he saw that they were all spoiled by the fox rolling in them. "Oh, dear!"

"Never mind, I have another boxful," said his mother, kindly.

"And this time I'll help you roast them," said Jacko. So he did, and there were enough candies for the whole family. Then they all went to bed and the fox didn't bother them for a long time after that.

Now, if the egg beater doesn't knock all the dust out of the piano cover when it dresses up like a rag doll, I'll tell you next about Jacko and the busy bee.

STORY XX

So their mamma gave them the money for the yeast cake, the flour and molasses and away they started off in the auto, blowing the horn, to kindly ask every one to look out so they wouldn't get run over.

Jacko was steering, and Jumpo was sitting beside him. They hadn't gone very far before they met Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit who had given them the auto.

"Hello, Uncle Wiggily!" called Jacko, "don't you want a ride?"

"I believe I will get in," spoke the gentleman rabbit. "As my rheumatism hurts me to-day, I can't walk very well."

"Aren't you sorry you gave away this nice auto? Don't you want it back?" asked Jumpo, though he hoped he and his brother could keep it.

"No," answered the old gentleman rabbit, shaking his head. "I never had any luck with that auto. It wouldn't go for me, and I can't understand how it goes for you. I'm afraid if I ride with you that you'll have bad luck."

But the boys didn't think so, and the rabbit gentleman got in the back seat. Away they went once more. Uncle Wiggily was just thinking what a nice ride he was having, and he was wishing he could run the auto like that, when, all of a sudden, there was a bangity-bang noise and the auto stopped.

"There!" cried the rabbit. "What did I tell you? I knew I'd give you bad luck. Let me get out and walk. Then it will go again," and before Jacko and Jumpo could stop him, Uncle Wiggily hopped out.

"Wait, we'll soon get it fixed," said Jacko. "Then you can ride some more."

"No, indeed!" answered Uncle Wiggily. "That auto will never go again. I'm going to walk, I'm in a hurry."

So away he hopped through the woods, and Jacko and Jumpo tried to see what was the matter with their car. But though they pushed and pulled and twisted and turned everything they could see or think of, the auto stood still just like a tree growing in the woods.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Jumpo, "we may have to stay here all night, and the grocery store will close before we can get to it, and we can't have any molasses cookies."

"I'll tell you what we'll do," spoke Jacko. "You skip off through the woods to the store, and get the things, and I'll stay here and see if I can fix the auto. By the time you get back with the yeast cake and flour and molasses, I may have it running."

Well, Jumpo thought that was good advice, so he ran on through the woods to the grocery store. And Jacko tried once more to make the auto go. He shoved and he twisted and he turned, and he even put some fresh air in the hollow tires, but the auto wouldn't move.

"I know what I'll do," he exclaimed, "I'll take out the toodle-oodle-um and put it where the diddle-daddle-um belongs and I'll put the snicky-snackum in the place of the mickie-mackie-um. That may be the trouble."

So he did that and then he climbed up on the seat and sure enough the auto went off as nicely as a piece of cherry pie, with the fizzle-fozzle going flippity-flop.

"Oh, joy!" cried Jacko, when he saw that the car was all right. "Now when Jumpo comes back with the groceries we can ride home and have some fun." So he got out of the auto, after stopping it, of course, to wait for his brother.

Jacko walked around in the woods and pretty soon he came up to a tree. Inside of it he heard a funny buzzing sound, and then he heard a voice singing this little song: