said Jacko, after a while. So, with his strong, white teeth he cracked the sh.e.l.l of one peanut and ate it--that is, he ate the peanut, not the sh.e.l.l. Of course, you understand and I suppose I needn"t have mentioned it. But, anyhow, I did.
"Oh, my! Oh, dear! Oh, hum suz dud!" exclaimed Jacko, when he had eaten the peanut. "This will never do at all. The peanuts are damp, and wet, and not nice and brown and crisp as they ought to be." For you know there is nothing more unpleasant than half-roasted and soft peanuts--even onions aren"t much worse, I think.
"I must build a fire and roast them nice and hot and fresh," said Jacko.
"Then they will be good for sick Jumpo." So then and there Jacko built a little fire in the woods, and set to work to roast the peanuts over again, first taking his books out of his tail and putting them safely on a stump where they wouldn"t burn.
When the fire was nice and hot, Jacko took a tin can, put the peanuts in it, and set the can on the hot coals. Then he stirred the peanuts with a long stick so they wouldn"t burn.
He was doing this, and thinking how pleased his brother would be, when, all of a sudden there was a noise up in a tree over Jacko"s head, and down climbed the black bear. He landed right near the red monkey and that bear cried out:
"Oh, ho! Things are nice and warm and comfortable here. I have come just in time. Now I will have a good supper. I was afraid I wasn"t going to have any."
"Were you--that is, were you thinking of eating the peanuts?" asked Jacko. "Because if you were, they are my brother"s."
"No. I wasn"t thinking of eating the peanuts," growled the bear. "I was thinking of eating you. And now I am done thinking, and I am going to get busy. Here I come!"
Then, with a growl, he made a grab for Jacko, but the monkey jumped back. He was thinking very hard, for he didn"t want to be eaten up. Then he said very quickly:
"Will you grant me one favor before you eat me, Mr. Bear?"
"What is it?" growled the s.h.a.ggy creature.
"Please let me take the peanuts off the fire so they won"t burn," spoke Jacko.
"Go ahead," growled the bear. "That will be the last thing you do."
"We"ll see about that," thought Jacko, as he tied a hard knot in his tail. Then, taking a lot of damp leaves in his paws so he wouldn"t get burned, he lifted off the fire the can of hot peanuts. And then and there, while the bear was still growling, the red monkey threw the hot pan, hot peanuts and all, right on top of the bear"s soft and tender nose.
"Wow, Oh, wow! My! Oh, my!" howled the bear, and he felt so badly about it that he ran off through the woods to find a spring of water where he could cool his nose.
But Jacko didn"t wait for the bear to come back. Instead, the red monkey gathered up the hot peanuts from where they had fallen. Into his school bag he packed them as fast as he could and then he set out for home on the jump, and got there safely.
And oh! how glad Jumpo was to get the hot roasted peanuts. In fact they made him well the next day. And he said Jacko was a brave monkey boy to think of such a trick to play on the bear. And so did Mr. and Mrs.
Kinkytail. But you are sleepy now, so you must go to bed. Good night.
And the next story will be about Jumpo and the ice cream--that is, if the bathroom looking-gla.s.s doesn"t see the p.u.s.s.y cat standing on its head under the stove and get so frightened it can"t clean its teeth.
STORY V
JUMPO AND THE ICE CREAM
It was a few days after Jumpo Kinkytail, the little green monkey boy, had been taken ill with the sniffle-snuffles, and now he was all better, for the hot peanuts had made him well. He and his brother Jacko, the red monkey, were hurrying along the road together to get to school before the last bell rang.
"For we must not be late," said Jumpo.
"No, indeed," agreed Jacko. "Shall I carry your books for you, Jumpo?
You are not yet strong from having been ill."
"Thank you, I"ll be glad to have you carry them," said Jumpo politely, so Jacko put his brother"s books in the loop of his tail together with his own, and they got to school just as the doors were being closed.
"Now the cla.s.s in number work will recite," said the owl teacher, as she took a piece of blue chalk and went to the blackboard. "If I had two apples, and Jacko Kinkytail gave me three more, how many would I have?"
asked the teacher, and she wrote a big figure 2 on the blackboard, and under it a big 3. "You may answer, Jumpo," she said.
Jumpo thought for a few seconds.
"Well, can"t you tell?" asked the owl kindly.
"If you please," said Jumpo, after a bit, "it can"t be apples that Jacko would give you, because it"s pears that Jacko has in his pocket. Three pears--I saw Mamma give them to him for recess. I can"t add pears and apples together."
Well, the whole cla.s.s laughed at that, and the teacher said:
"I was only making believe, Jumpo, just as when Uncle Wiggily Longears pretends as he tells you a story. However, we will say two pears and three pears, if that will suit you better. You may come to the board and add up this sum for me."
So Jumpo went to the board, and he took the piece of blue chalk in his left paw. And then he couldn"t seem to help doing a funny trick. When the teacher wasn"t looking he reached over, and with his tail he took an eraser and erased the numbers from another part of the board where Jennie Chipmunk was doing a sum in arithmetic, so Jennie didn"t have any numbers to add up, and she cried out:
"Oh, dear!"
"What"s the matter?" asked the teacher quickly, and then, turning around, she saw the mischief Jumpo had done.
"You may go to your seat," she said to the green monkey, sad like, "and you must stay in after school. Sammie Littletail, you may finish the sum on which Jumpo started. He is too playful today."
At first Jumpo thought it was fun to have rubbed out Jennie Chipmunk"s numbers with his tail, and then he felt sorry. He was more sorry as his brother and all the other pupils went out when school was done, and he had to stay in the room. He could hear the boys having a ball game, and the girls were playing tag, and Jumpo wished he hadn"t been bad. But that"s the way it is sometimes in this world.
After a bit the teacher said:
"You may go now, Jumpo. Tomorrow please try a little harder to be good.
I know you can if you will."
"Yes"m," was all Jumpo said.
It was quite late when he got out, and all the boys and girls had gone home. Jumpo thought he might as well go home, too, but as it was getting dark he didn"t go through the woods. Instead he went around by way of Grandfather Goosey Gander"s home.
Now, not far from where the old gentleman gander lived there was a bad fox who had built himself a bungalow. And he was a very rich fox, having ice cream for supper nearly every night. Still he was never satisfied.
He wanted a goose, or a rabbit, or a squirrel, or a monkey, or something like that. So when he looked out of his bungalow window, and saw Jumpo Kinkytail coming along, this fox said to himself:
"Ah, ha! Perhaps I can have a monkey supper tonight. I must catch that little green chap." Still the sly fox knew better than to rush out and try to grab the monkey. "I must play a trick on him," he said to himself. "What shall I do?"
Now, outside the fox"s bungalow was a freezer full of ice cream ready for his supper. Quickly taking out the can with the ice cream in it, the fox left nothing there but the wooden tub filled with freezing ice and salt. On this he put a sign which read: "Help yourself to ice cream."
Well, of course, when Jumpo saw that sign he thought he would take some cream.
"I"ll eat a bit," he said, "and bring some home to my mamma and papa and Jacko. Oh, some one was very kind to leave this here for me." You see, he didn"t know the trick the fox had made up to catch him.
Into the freezing mixture of ice and salt poor Jumpo plunged his paw, and in an instant it was frozen fast there, and he couldn"t get it out, as the late afternoon was cold. Pull and pull as he did, the little green monkey was held fast, just as if he was in a trap.