"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 p.u.s.s.y cat, so it can"t go to the moving pictures, I"ll tell you next about the Kinkytails and the chirping cricket.
STORY XXVI
THE KINKYTAILS AND THE CRICKET
One day, as Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail were coming home from school they happened to go past a pile of stones in the woods. And just as they got near to the stones they saw something black on top.
"Oh!" exclaimed Jacko, "perhaps that is one of the rings from my black paper chain that I fastened the alligator with."
"Maybe it is," agreed Jumpo. "And if it is, why the alligator may be around here. We had better be careful. Let"s run home."
Well, they were just going to run, not knowing the alligator had gone away as I told you in the previous story, when the black thing on the pile of stones gave a jump and disappeared down in a crack between two rocks.
"Ha! That is very funny!" said Jacko. "I didn"t know that pieces of paper could jump."
"Me either," said Jumpo. "Let"s go up and take a look. Maybe it isn"t a piece of your paper chain after all; and the alligator may not be there."
So they went closer to the pile of stones, and all at once, and as quickly as you can eat a dish of ice cream on a hot day, they heard a little voice singing. And this was the song, which goes to the tune of "Rinky-tinky diddily-dum,"
"Let"s be jolly, don"t be sad, Let"s be good and not be bad.
If you fall and hurt your nose, Dance upon your tippy-toes.
"Always try to sing or play, Laughter drives dull care away.
Whistle with a happy shout, Music turns the world about."
"My, you must be a jolly fellow, whoever you are!" said Jacko.
"Oh, no; I am the most miserable creature in all the world," was the sorrowful answer from beneath the pile of stones.
"Then why do you sing about happiness; and who are you?" asked Jumpo.
"I am a chirping black cricket," was the answer. "I was sitting on this stone pile when I happened to see you coming. I thought you were two bears, so I jumped down in here and now I cannot get out again, for every time I try to jump out I b.u.mp 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."