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 talc.u.m 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 talc.u.m 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 talc.u.m 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 talc.u.m 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 x.x.xI
HOW JACKO WASHED THE DISHES
One morning, when Jacko Kinkytail, the red monkey boy, woke up, he heard his papa rattling the pots and pans and dishes out in the kitchen.
"Ha! That"s queer," said Jacko. "I wonder what papa is doing out there, and I wonder why mother isn"t up?" Then he looked over in the bed where Jumpo slept, and Jumpo wasn"t there.
"Why, where"s Jumpo?" thought Jacko, and then he happened to remember that Jumpo had gone on a visit to Buddy Pigg, and had stayed there all night. So that"s why he wasn"t home. "But still I wonder what papa is doing in the kitchen?" said Jacko to himself. "I guess I"ll get up and find out."
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 mola.s.ses pitcher instead of the cream jug. But still they got along pretty well, though coffee with mola.s.ses 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."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"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 ap.r.o.n! 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.
n.o.body 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.