"Oh, the snake has your doll!" cried Jumpo.
"And how shall I ever get her?" asked the rabbit girl.
"Leave it to me," said Jumpo.
"You"ll never get this doll," hissed the snake, like a steam radiator.
But Jumpo knew a good trick. He went off in the woods until he met a cow. And he asked the cow for some milk and the cow gave him a whole pailful. Then Jumpo went back and put the pail of milk where the snake could see it.
Now you know snakes like milk better than anything--better even than boys and girls like ice cream cones. So as soon as the snake in the tree saw the milk, he at once let go of the doll, uncoiled himself, and hurried down for the milk, before the cow could take it away.
"Oh, now I have my dollie back!" cried Susie in delight, and she quickly caught and hugged Clotilde Raspberry Shortcake, which was the doll"s name, and then Susie and Jumpo ran away before the snake could get them, and they found Jacko, and each had a lot of chestnuts.
So that"s how Jumpo helped Susie Littletail, and that"s all there is to this story. But the next one will be about Jacko and the little mouse--that is, if the water pitcher doesn"t turn over and go to sleep in the baby"s crib and scare the gold fish.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
STORY XII
JACKO AND THE LITTLE MOUSE
"Jacko, will you go to the store for me?" called Mamma Kinkytail to the little red monkey one afternoon when he had come home from school.
"Yes, mother," he said. "What do you want?"
"Well, I need a dozen cocoanuts and two pounds of sugar, and some chocolate and some flour."
"Oh, you must be going to make a cake!" cried the monkey boy, tying two hard knots in his tail.
"You have guessed it," answered his mother. "Hurry now, and the cake will be baked in time for supper."
"Oh, but I wish Jumpo was here to go with me," said Jacko, as he started off.
"Why?" asked his mother.
"Because if I carry such nice things as cocoanuts and sugar and chocolate, a burglar may take them away from me on my way home."
"Nonsense!" said his mother. "Burglars don"t want such things as that.
Besides, it is daylight, and burglars don"t come around then."
"I was thinking of the burglar fox," went on Jacko. "However, Jumpo isn"t here, as he went over to play ball with Bully No-Tail, the frog.
So I"ll have to go alone."
Off he started, and of course, he wasn"t a bit afraid going to the store, for he had nothing with him but the money, and that was away down at the bottom of his pocket, and Jacko held his little brown paw tightly over the coins, so they couldn"t jump out. Then he reached the store, and gave the money to the grocery man.
"Now don"t drop the cocoanuts," said the grocery man, as he made up a package of the nice things Jacko had bought. "Can you carry all of them?"
"Oh, yes," said the monkey boy, confident like, which means sure.
"And do you think you could also carry two sticks of candy, one for yourself and one for your brother Jumpo?" asked the grocery man, sort of smiling.
"Well, I"ll try--very hard," answered Jacko, and he wondered why the grocery man laughed. Then the man took from a jar two red and white striped sticks of candy. One of these sticks Jacko put safely in his pocket for his green brother, and the other he ate slowly, as he started for home. He was so interested in the stick of candy that he never even thought of the burglar fox.
But all of a sudden Jacko looked around in surprise, and he found that he had taken the wrong path home. It was one that led through the woods, and right past the house of the burglar fox.
"But there is no use now in going back around the other way," thought the red monkey; "it will take too long, and mamma won"t get the cake baked for supper. I"ll keep on this way, and I"ll run past the burglar fox"s house so fast that he can"t see me. I guess it will be all right."
So, taking tight hold of his bundle of cocoanuts and sugar and chocolate and flour, and holding fast to the candy stick, Jacko went on. Pretty soon he came to the house where the fox lived, and then the monkey boy got ready to run as fast as he could.
But, all of a sudden, when he was right in front of the house, he heard a voice crying:
"Help! Help! Oh, will some one please help me?"
"Hark! I wonder who that can be?" thought Jacko. "It doesn"t sound like the voice of the fox, and yet he may be calling to play a trick and get me in there so he can eat me. I guess I"d better run on."
So he started to run, but he heard the voice again, a sad, squeaky sort of voice, and it cried:
"Oh, do please some one help me!"
"That isn"t the fox," said Jacko bravely. "I"m going in to help whoever it is. Perhaps it is one of the Bushytail brothers."
Into the house he went, and he saw no signs of the fox. Then Jacko, standing in the front hall, called out:
"Who are you and what is the trouble?"
"Oh, I"m a poor little mouse," was the answer, "and I"m caught in a trap in this fox"s house. Please help me out."
"Is the fox home?" asked Jacko.
"No, he has gone out to get a friend of his, and then they are coming back to eat me. Hurry and you can get me out before they come back, and then we"ll run away together."
"I will," said Jacko bravely, so he ran to where he could hear the mousie scurrying around in the trap, which was in a room upstairs in the house of the fox.
Well, it didn"t take Jacko long, with his nimble fingers and toes, and his long tail, to get the little mouse out of the trap. Then, when she walked over toward a window, the monkey said:
"Why, I do believe you are little Squeaky-Eeky, the cousin mouse of Jollie and Jillie Longtail."
"That"s just who I am," said the mouse. "You see, I was going past this house, and I smelled cheese. I didn"t know the fox lived here, so I came in, and then I was caught in the trap."
"But now you"re free," said Jacko. "Come on, and we will hurry away before the fox and his friend get back."
They started down the stairs, but just then there was a noise outside, and Squeaky-Eeky, looking from the window, cried:
"Too late! Here come the two foxes."
Then Jacko heard a voice saying: