"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

"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

"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!"

"No! No! Never! Never!" shouted Jacko.

"Then I'll stop it!" said the bad fox. So he took a stone and put it in front of the engine but do you s'pose the engine minded that?

Not a bit of it! Why, with the cow-catcher the engine just pushed the stone out of the way so that it fell over and pinched the fox on the tail, and then the engine went on faster than ever.

And pretty soon they were back again at Sammie's house. Out jumped the doctor, out of his valise he took the bottle of nose-bleed medicine.

"Smell of that!" he said to Sammie. And smell of it Sammie did, and in a second and a half his nose stopped bleeding and he was all better.

So that's how Jacko went for the doctor in an engine and part of a toy train of cars, and that's all to this story, if you please, for then it was time for Jacko and Jumpo to go home to supper, and now it's time for you to go to bed.

But the next story, in case the wallpaper doesn't fall down and get tangled up in pussy cat's oatmeal dish, will be about Jumpo and his airship.

STORY XXIX

"No, Jacko has gone off in the automobile to give Grandfather Goosey Gander a ride," said Jumpo.

"That is very kind of Jacko," spoke Mr. Kinkytail, "but I hope he doesn't upset and spill out the old gentleman duck. But you be careful not to fall out of your airship, Jumpo."

So Jumpo said he would, and he went right on making it. I suppose you know what an airship is? It's something like two tablecloths fastened over some sticks, and one end is a thing like the tail of a goose, and on the other end is something like the tail of a bird, and in the middle there is a thing like a pinwheel, which goes around buzzity-buzz, and there's an engine to make the buzzity-buzz thing go. Then there are wheels like on a baby carriage, only they are blown up with air like a big bologna sausage, and that's an airship.

And that is what Jumpo was making. He had two old umbrellas, and he had fastened them together, one over the other, with some strings. He had a big palm leaf fan for one tail and another fan for the other tail, and four wheels he took off an old pair of roller skates. Then he had a little toy locomotive, and he used that for the engine, and it was very good, for it went whizzing around very fast when he wound up the spring. And for the buzzity-buzz thing he had a green paper pinwheel.

"Do you think your airship will sail, Jumpo?" asked Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, as he came along just then.

"I'm sure it will," said the green monkey boy. "You see I get in it and sit on this seat. It's made from an old washboard that mamma didn't want. Then I start the engine and I will go rolling along over the ground. Pretty soon I will get going so fast that I'll sail up in the air, and then I'll be like a bird. Don't you want to sail with me?"

"Are you going up pretty soon?" asked Jimmie, "because my dinner is nearly ready and I don't want to miss it."

"Oh, I'm going up very shortly," said Jumpo. "All I've got to do is to fasten some court plaster on the wheels so they won't drop off when we're up in the air, and then I've got to take along a piece of string to tie the engine fast with, and then we'll go up. I'll bring you back in time for dinner, all right."

"Then I'll go," said Jimmie. "I never have been up in an airship, and it must be fun."

"I'll be glad to have you along," spoke Jumpo, "because if anything happens, you can fly down to the ground with me on your back and neither of us will get hurt."

"Why, do you think anything may happen?" asked Jimmie, sort of scared like.

"Well, you never can tell," answered Jumpo, as he fastened the roller skate wheels on with sticking plaster. "Airships sometimes do fall," and he whistled a funny little tune.

"Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! Wow!" exclaimed Jimmie. "I guess my mamma is calling me. I'll see you again, Jumpo. Goodbye!"

"Oh, don't go. I guess nothing will happen," called the green monkey, and then Jimmie came back.

Well, pretty soon the airship was finished. Oh! I wish you could have seen it, but of course you can't on account of what happened to it. I'll tell you all about it, however.

"Come on, get aboard, Jimmie!" called Jumpo. "There's room for you beside me on the washboard," and he got up and so did the duck boy, and then they were ready to start. Jumpo had placed the airship on a smooth place where the roller skate wheels could go around very easily. The two umbrellas were hoisted to catch the air and the pinwheel buzzer was all ready to go bizz-buzz.

"Here we go!" called Jumpo, and he started the engine.

My! How the pinwheel buzzer did whirl around! Faster and faster it went until you could hardly see it. But alas and alack a-day! The airship didn't go up.

"What's the matter?" asked Jimmie anxious like.

"Oh, I see!" cried Jumpo, looking over the side. "I put too much court plaster on the roller skate wheels, and they're all stuck up. I'll soon fix it."

Well, it didn't take him long, and once more he started the engine. Faster and faster went the buzzer. The airship began to shiver and to shake, and then all of a sudden it began rolling over the ground.

"Oh, we're moving! We're moving!" cried Jimmie.

"Of course we are," said Jumpo proudly. "I told you we'd fly like a bird."

And then, would you believe me, that queer airship did go in the air a little distance because the wind got under the umbrellas and lifted them up. Up and up it went, with Jimmie and Jumpo in it.

"Wow! Isn't this great?" cried Jumpo.

"Yes, we're right over our duck pond," said Jimmie. "I hope we don't fall."

But alas! Just as he said that, something happened. The engine went so fast that the spring flew out of it. One umbrella turned inside out and the other outside in. The sticking plaster fell off, and the roller skate wheels dropped into the pond with a splash. Then the whole airship began falling into the pond.

"Oh, save me! Save me!" cried Jumpo.

"I will!" cried Jimmie. "Get on my back."

So Jumpo did this and Jimmie spread out his strong wings and flew safely to the ground with Jumpo, while the airship fell into the duck pond with a big splash—splash—splash—and it was drowned, I believe, for no one ever saw it again.

"Well," said Jumpo, as he got off Jimmie's back when they had landed, "I guess I don't know how to make airships. But I'm much obliged to you. I'm glad you came along."

"I don't know whether I am glad or not," answered Jimmie, as he looked at a place where a stone had bruised his foot. "But anyhow I'm sure you don't know how to build airships that will fly. I'll stick to my own wings after this." And he did!

Now, next in case the man who cleans our windows doesn't put the soap in the sugar bowl and make the gold fish sing like a canary bird, I'll tell you about Jumpo and the talcum powder.

STORY XXX

"All right, and I'll take good care of the house," said Jumpo. And he felt quite pleased to think that he was old enough to take care of a whole big house all by himself.

"I wonder what I can do to make the time pass quickly until Jacko comes home from school," thought Jumpo as he looked out of the window. "It's a bit lonesome, so I guess I'll dust some of the furniture for mamma."

He took a dust rag in each of his two front paws, and also one in his kinkytail, making three in all, and he went about the rooms knocking the dust off the furniture on to the floor, where no one would see it.

When Jumpo got tired of that he read a story book. He read about a big giant with a blue nose and how one day a yellow dwarf saw the giant asleep and painted his nose green and the birds used to think the nose was grass and they would nestle down on the giant and tickle him so that he sneezed like thunder booming in the sky.

"Well, it will be an hour yet before mamma or Jacko comes home," said Jumpo, as he looked at the clock after finishing the story. "What can I do next?" So he looked around but he couldn't see anything, and he was just going to knock some more dust off the furniture, when he heard some one crying out-of-doors.

"My! I wonder who that can be?" he thought. So he looked down from the front porch, and there on the ground at the foot of the tree was Buddy Pigg, the little guinea pig boy. And he was crying very hard.

"What's the matter?" asked Jumpo.

"Oh, a big mosquito has bitten me!" said Buddy, "and my leg is all swelling up from it, so that I can hardly walk."

"Oh, that's too bad," said Jumpo. "Come up here and I will put some stuff on to make it better."

"I can't climb that high tree," said Buddy, sad like.

"No more you can!" exclaimed Jumpo. "Wait a minute."

So Jumpo let down a basket fastened to a string and Buddy got in it—I mean he got in the basket, not the string, you understand, of course. Then Jumpo pulled him up.

"Now let's see where that mosquito bite is," said the monkey boy, and Buddy showed him. "I should say it was a big one!" cried Jumpo. "That needs some witch hazel on it right away."

Well, Jumpo put a lot of witch hazel on the bite, but that only seemed to make it worse.

"I know what's good for it," said Buddy. "It's some stuff my mamma uses."

"What is it?" asked Jumpo.

"Talcum powder," replied the guinea pig. "It's a white, smooth powder, and it comes in a tin box and smells nice."

"What smells, the powder or the box?" asked Jumpo.

"The powder smells, of course," said Buddy. "Have you any?"

"Yes, I guess so," answered Jumpo. "Let's look in the bathroom. Mother isn't home to-day," so into the bathroom those two animal boys went, and they hunted all over for the talcum powder.

"There it is, up on that shelf!" said Buddy at last. "I can tell by the cover of the box. You just get it down and smell of it."

So Jumpo curled up his tail, reached it up and wound it around the box just as an elephant in the circus winds his trunk around a peanut, and the monkey boy lifted down the talcum powder box.

"How does it smell?" asked Buddy.

"Fine!" said Jumpo. "Have a smell yourself. It's talcum powder, all right."

So they decided that it was, but when Jumpo tried to get some powder out none would come. There were little holes in the top of the box, but they were stopped up somehow or other, and there poor Buddy was suffering from the mosquito bite, and they couldn't get powder to put on it.

"I know what I'll do!" exclaimed Jumpo. "I'll just take off the whole cover and then the powder will come out fine."

So he sat down on the bathroom floor beside Buddy, and they both tried to get the cover off the box. But it was on very tight, and at last Jumpo said:

"I'm going to knock it off with the hair brush!"

So he pounded on the top of the tin talcum powder box. Once, twice, three times he pounded and then, all of a sudden—

"Piff! Paff! Poof!" The air was full of a fine, white powder just like snow. It drifted and sifted all over the bathroom, and scattered itself all over Buddy and Jumpo. Into their fur it went, all over Jumpo's fuzzy little face, and even down to his hairy paws. And Buddy was just as bad. You see the cover came off the box so quickly that they didn't either of them have time to get out of the way.

But, oh, goodness! You should have seen that bathroom.

There was a pile of talcum powder on the floor, and some in the bathtub, and some in the wash basin, and some on the towel rack, and even on the hair brush, just as if it had been painted white; what do you think of that?

"Oh, just look at yourself!" cried Buddy to Jumpo. "You look like a snow man!"

"And look at yourself!" said Jumpo. "You look like a fuzzy, white, woolly dog."

"But it smells good!" cried Buddy, "and my mosquito bite is all better."

"And I guess we'd better try to scoop up some of this powder before my mother comes home," said Jumpo. So he and Buddy were brushing it up off the floor when, all at once, the front door opened, and in came Mrs. Kinkytail. She saw the two white, powder-covered little animal boys and she screamed:

"Oh my! What has happened! Fire! Police! Burglars! Who are those two queer white things in my bathroom? Where is my little boy Jumpo? Has some one taken him?"

"Here I am!" cried Jumpo, with a laugh, for his mamma really didn't know him, all white as he was. And she didn't know Buddy, either.

"Are you sure it's you, Jumpo, and not a white rabbit?" she asked, after a while.

"Oh, yes, mamma," he said, "I was putting some talcum powder on Buddy's mosquito bite and—and—and the cover came off all at once."

"Off the box, not off my bite," said Buddy, careful-like.

"Oh, I see!" exclaimed Mrs. Kinkytail with a laugh. "Well, I hope the bite is better? And now I must get the whisk broom, and dust the powder off you boys! Oh, what sights you are!"

But they were soon clean and they smelled like perfume for a long time after that, and the next time Jumpo wanted talcum powder he asked his mamma for it, and he didn't try to open the box himself.

Now, if the bottle of perfume doesn't spill itself into the bathtub and make a smell like a pocket handkerchief, I'll tell you next about Jacko washing the dishes.

STORY XXXI

Then he smelled the coffee being made, and pretty soon he saw his papa going upstairs with a hot cup of coffee in his hand.

"What is the matter, papa?" asked Jacko.

"Your mother has a headache," answered the monkey gentleman, "so I got up to make her some coffee and get the breakfast. And you may help if you like."

"Oh, I'm so sorry mamma has a headache," spoke Jacko, "but I am glad I can help you get the breakfast." So Jacko and his papa had a pretty good meal; of course, not as nice as when Mrs. Kinkytail got it, but pretty nice, only Mr. Kinkytail put salt on the table instead of sugar, and he put on the molasses pitcher instead of the cream jug. But still they got along pretty well, though coffee with molasses and salt in it isn't very good.

"Now Jacko," said Mr. Kinkytail, as he got ready to go down to the hand organ factory, where he worked, "your mamma will not be able to get up to-day, so I want you to stay home from school and help about the house all you can."

"I will!" exclaimed Jacko, "and I'll even wash the dishes." Then he went up very, very softly to the room were his mamma was lying down with a headache, and he crept in, oh, so gently, so as not to make it ache any worse, and he whispered: "I love you, mamma, and I'm going to wash the dishes."

"You are a dear, good monkey boy," she said, as she kissed him. Then he went out softly and closed the door.

"Now to wash the dishes!" exclaimed the red monkey, as he got the soap and hot water and a pan and a rag, and—well, whatever else you have to have to wash dishes. It's been a long time since I washed any, but I used to do it when I was a little boy and my mamma was sick, so I know boys can do it.

Well, now, all of a sudden, as Jacko was washing away at the dishes, and, maybe, splashing a little sudsy water on the floor (mind I'm not saying that last part for sure, but maybe), all of a sudden, I say, he heard some one down on the ground calling at him:

"Sissy boy! Sissy boy! Has to wash the dishes! Girly boy! Has to wear an apron! Oh, what do I know about you!"

And, looking out of a window, Jacko saw Mugsie Smugsie, another monkey boy, peeking in at him. Mugsie Smugsie was a bad sort of a monkey boy. He didn't mean to be bad, but he just couldn't help it, and very often he called the other animal children names, and threw stones at them and did such like things.

"Sissy boy! Sissy boy!" cried Mugsie Smugsie again, and he made a face at Jacko. Jacko was just going to call something back at Mugsie Smugsie, when all at once along came Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl. She heard what Mugsie Smugsie was saying.

"Shame on you!" cried Susie, pointing her paw at Mugsie Smugsie. "Shame on you to make fun of Jacko. Jacko is a good boy and he stayed home from school today to wash the dishes for his mamma because she had a headache. I know, for I met Mr. Kinkytail as he was on his way to work, and he told me. So I asked my mamma if I couldn't come over to help Mrs. Kinkytail do the work. Shame on you for making fun of Jacko. Some day you may have to wash the dishes yourself."

Say, I just wish you could have seen Mugsie Smugsie when Susie got through talking to him. His fuzzy face flushed all red and he dug his paw down in the dirt bashful like and then he felt very much ashamed for having made fun of Jacko when his mamma was sick.

"I—I didn't know all that," stammered Mugsie Smugsie. "I'd like to help you wash those dishes myself, Jacko, if you'll let me."

So this shows that Mugsie wasn't bad all the way through, you see. Nobody is, I guess; there are good spots in everybody, only some folks have more spots than others.

"Sure I'll let you help me wash the dishes," said Jacko. "It's lots of fun, and it makes your hands real clean. Come on up." So he let down the basket on a rope and pulled Mugsie Smugsie up to the house on top of the pole.

"Can't I come up, too?" asked Susie.

"Sure!" cried Jacko, and then he and Mugsie pulled up the rabbit girl.

"Now we all three can help wash the dishes," said Susie. And, surely enough, those three animal children began to wash the dishes. But Jacko and Mugsie Smugsie splashed the sudsy water about so that Susie said:

"Oh, you had better let me finish, boys, and you can set the house to rights and dust and sweep." Now, of course, girls can wash dishes better than can boys, I know that very well, and Susie had them all washed and dried while Jacko and Mugsie were sweeping and dusting the dining-room. And very nicely they did it, too.

And then, all of a sudden, there was a noise out in the kitchen. Susie screamed and cried:

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! He'll get me! He'll get me!"

"Run quick!" cried Jacko to Mugsie Smugsie. So they ran out, and there was the burglar fox getting ready to jump at Susie. Somehow or other the fox had managed to pull himself up the tree in the basket, the rope of which Jacko had forgotten to take in after Susie was raised up by it.

"Now I'm going to have a good dinner!" cried the fox, smacking his lips.

"No, you're not, either!" yelled Jacko, and then and there he caught up the big dishpan full of water and threw it at the fox—threw the water, not the dishpan, you understand. And that fox in an instant was as wet as if he'd fallen into a mill pond, and he was so scared and frightened and alarmed and astonished and ker-slostered that he slid down the rope so fast that he burned his tongue.

Then the fox ran away, taking his tail with him, and that's how he didn't hurt Susie, and I think Jacko and Mugsie Smugsie were very brave to drive him away.

And pretty soon all the housework was done and the children could go down and play, and in a little while Mrs. Kinkytail's headache was all better, and she got up.

Mrs. Kinkytail was very thankful to Jacko when she found what he had done, and this teaches us that monkey boys are sometimes as good as girls about doing housework. Mr. Kinkytail, too, was proud of his little son, and he said he would take the whole family to the moving pictures as a treat.

"Oh, that will be jolly!" cried Jacko, and Jumpo said the same thing.

Then they all went to the show, and in the next story, if the—. Oh! there I go again! I forgot that I have in this book all the stories it will hold, so if I make any more I'll have to put them in another.

And the next Bed Time book will be called "Curley and Floppy Twistytail," and the stories will be about some cute little pigs. Curley is the name of one and Floppy of the other. And they did the funniest things you ever heard about!

So just please wait for that book, which will be ready for you before very long. I hope you will like it. And now I'll say good-bye for a time.

 
 
THE END.

Transcriber's Notes