"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 k.n.o.b, you know. Then I"ll go to an upstairs window, right over the door, and when the fox is standing there I"ll pour mola.s.ses 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 k.n.o.b.
"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 mola.s.ses 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 b.u.mps the kitty cat"s nose, I"ll tell you next about Jacko and the train of cars.
STORY XXVIII
JACKO AND THE TRAIN OF CARS
"May we go over to Sammie Littletail"s house and play this afternoon, mamma?" asked Jacko Kinkytail as he and his brother came home from school. It was about three days after the monkey boys had hidden from the fox in the doll"s house.
"What about your school lessons and home work?" asked the monkey boys"
mother.
"Oh, we both did fine to-day, and we both went to the head of the cla.s.s," said Jumpo. "First I went up and then Jacko went, and we haven"t much home work to do, only some spelling words to learn."
"Then you may go," said Mrs. Kinkytail, "but be sure to be home for supper." So they promised, and away they hopped through the woods toward the place where the Littletail rabbit family lived.
"What shall we play when we get there?" asked Jumpo, as he wound his tail around the low limb of a tree and swung himself across a little brook as nicely as you can fold your napkin.
"Oh, we"ll play tag, and hide-and-go-seek, and maybe football," spoke Jacko. "Perhaps Susie Littletail has been helping her mother bake a cake or a pie, and she might give us some. I"m not saying for sure," said Jacko, as he winked both his eyes, "but she might."
"Oh, I wish she would!" cried Jumpo. "When we go in, we"ll just sort of look hungry, and when they ask us what"s the matter we"ll say we haven"t had any pie or cake in a long, long time. For you know mamma doesn"t allow us to ask for things to eat when we go calling; but that wouldn"t be asking, would it?"
"I guess not," said Jacko, slow and thoughtful like.
Well, they were soon at the rabbit children"s house and they saw Sammie Littletail outside. He was playing with his football, and when he saw Jacko and Jumpo he cried:
"Oh, goody! Now we can have a game," and he kicked that ball away up in the air, so high that when it came down it stuck in the top of a tree.
"Now see what you did, Sammie!" cried his sister Susie, sorrowfully.
"You can"t get your ball," and there she stood in the door, with an ap.r.o.n on, and that ap.r.o.n 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 ap.r.o.n. 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."