"No you won"t!" cried Jacko, and then he blew the big auto horn so loudly that the snake was frightened and crawled away as fast as he could. Then the red monkey took a stick, and knocked the mud away from the bee"s hole so she could come out when she wanted to.
"Oh, thank you, so much!" buzzed the bee. "I"ll give you some honey for being kind to me." So she gave Jacko some, and also some for his brother, and by that time Jumpo came back from the store with the groceries and he was glad to find that Jacko had fixed the auto, though he was a little frightened when he heard about the snake.
The two brothers were just going to ride home in their car, but before they could get it started all of a sudden along came the savage wolf. He was just going to grab Jumpo, and maybe Jacko also, for all I know, when the busy bee just buzzed up and stung the wolf on the tip of his soft and tender black nose so that he ran howling away to put some mud on the sting. And so he didn"t eat either of the monkey boys, and the bee was glad she had helped them.
Then they hurried home in their automobile and their mamma made some mola.s.ses cookies and they had them for supper with honey on, and Oh! how delicious they were. And after supper Jacko and Jumpo played tag with Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, until it was time to go to bed. So now, good night, if you please.
And in the next story I"ll tell you about the Kinkytails and the grape vine--that is if the basket of peaches doesn"t fall down the chimney and scare the fire shovel so that it hides in the ash can.
STORY XXI
JACKO AND THE GRAPE VINE
Jacko Kinkytail had to go alone to school one day, and the reason for it was because Jumpo had the toothache and could not go with his brother.
Oh, how poor Jumpo did suffer. His mamma did everything she could for him, putting cloves on his tooth and bags of hot salt outside of his funny, little, fuzzy, hairy face, but the tooth still ached.
"Oh, I never can recite my lessons today," said Jumpo, as he tied his tail in two hard knots, thinking that would make him forget the pain.
"Then you needn"t go to school," said his mother. "And pretty soon we"ll go down to the dentist"s and have the tooth fixed."
Well, Jacko started off alone, and he felt quite sorry that his brother wasn"t with him. Pretty soon Jacko met Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck. And Jimmie had a new football that his papa had given him.
"Let"s see who can kick it the farthest," said the duck boy.
So he tried, and he kicked it about as far as from a stick of peppermint candy to the place where the ice cream cones grew on the cocoanut tree.
Then it was Jacko"s turn.
The red monkey put the football down on the ground. Then he took a little run and he pushed the ball as hard as he could with one foot and also with his tail. Away it sailed as far as from the ice cream soda fountain store down to the place where the man sells hot peanuts at five cents a bag.
"That was a fine kick!" cried Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, who came along just then. "A most dandy kick."
"Yes, but Jacko used his tail besides his foot to kick with, and I can"t do that," said Jimmie, sort of sad-like.
"Perhaps what I did wasn"t just fair," admitted Jacko. "Never mind, after school we"ll have a good football game. We"ll go down by our house and play, so that my brother, who is sick with the toothache, can look out of the window and watch us. Then he won"t think so much of his pain."
Well, the boy animals thought this was a good plan, so when school was out they hurried with Jacko to the monkey-house. Then they began to play football. They kicked the ball all around, up one side, down the other, through the middle, and sometimes even sideways. And the ball never said a word, nor so much as winked its eyes.
"Now, for a big, long kick!" suddenly cried Jacko, when he got a chance.
"I believe I can almost kick that ball to the end of the rainbow." Of course, there wasn"t any rainbow there at the time, but Jacko just said that for fun.
Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, suddenly rushed at Jacko, trying to kick the ball before the monkey boy could do so, but Jacko was too quick for Johnnie, and kicked it first. Away sailed the ball, farther than ever, and then something happened. The football went right over a high, steep, straight-up-and-down hill, and fell into a big hole on the other side.
"Oh, there goes my ball!" cried Jimmie Wibblewobble, and he tried not to cry, though he felt very much like it.
"Never mind, we can get it again," said Billie Bushytail. "You oughtn"t to kick so strong, Jacko."
"I s"pose I ought not to," agreed the monkey boy, sort of sad-like. "But I will go down and get the ball. Then we can play another game."
And all this while Jumpo was watching the boys from out of the window.
And his tooth didn"t ache quite so badly when he saw what fun they were having. He wished he was with them.
"What"s the matter?" Jumpo asked, when he saw the ball bounce out of sight over the hill.
"It"s fallen down in a big hole, and I"m going after it," said Jacko.
So the red monkey and his friends went to the edge of the hill and looked over. Oh! it was a very steep, dark place, and when Jacko saw how far down he"d have to go he was a bit afraid.
"I don"t believe I can go down there," he said, wriggling his tail. "But I will try, because it was my fault that the ball went over. I"ll climb down."
"No, don"t do that," spoke Sammie Littletail. "You might fall and be hurt. See, here is a long wild grapevine. The vine is just like a rope.
We can tie one end around you while we hold on the other end. Then we can lower you down into the hole, just like on an elevator, and you can get the football. Then we"ll pull you up again."
Every one thought that was a good plan, so they took a long piece of grapevine and tied it around Jacko.
"Careful now!" called Jacko, as they began lowering him over the edge of the hill, down into the hole where the football was. "Don"t let me fall!"
They all had tight hold of the grapevine rope, and they promised they wouldn"t let go. And they lowered Jacko down, down, down; very slowly and carefully, until he could pick up the lost football in his paws.
Then they began to pull him up.
But they didn"t know that a savage hawk-bird had her nest in the side of that hill. And Jacko was lowered right past where she lived. When he went down the bird was asleep, but when his friends began pulling him up the bad bird awakened. She looked out, and she saw Jacko, the red monkey, swinging on the end of the grapevine near her nest of eggs.
"Now is my chance to pick his eyes out!" cried the hawk-bird. Right at Jacko she flew, beating her big wings and gnashing her beak, and wiggling her sharp claws. Jacko saw her coming, but he had the football in one paw and he had to hold on the rope with the other, so he couldn"t do much except with his feet.
"Here"s where I bite you!" cried the savage hawk, and really it did seem as if she would. For the boy animals couldn"t pull Jacko up fast enough to get him out the way of the hawk. And there he was, dangling on the end of the grapevine rope like an apple on a string.
Then Jumpo, sitting up in the window, saw what was happening. He wanted to help his brother, so he cried:
"Some of you fellows come and get my bean shooter, and shoot the hawk until she lets Jacko alone. Hurry and get my shooter."
So Sammie Littletail ran and got the shooter, and a lot of hard beans.
Then he leaned over the edge of the steep hill, and he blew beans at the hawk that was flying around trying to pick out Jacko"s eyes.
The beans. .h.i.t the bird all over; on her tail and on her feathers and on her claws and beak, and soon she was glad enough to fly back into her nest and let the monkey boy alone, for she couldn"t see Sammie blowing the beans, as he was hidden behind a bush.
Then the boy animals hurried and pulled up Jacko and the football and he was safe, and they had a lot more fun playing the game, and every one said that Jumpo was very smart to think of the bean shooter. And the green monkey boy was so excited that he forgot all about his toothache, which was a good thing, and the next day the dentist fixed it so that it never ached again.
I hope none of you ever have the toothache.
Now, if the ketchup bottle doesn"t spill itself into the pitcher of lemonade and make it look like a pink tomato, I"ll tell you next about Jacko doing a trick.
STORY XXII