uncle wiggily longears, the old gentleman rabbit, couldn't go to the owl teacher's school and tell the children about his travels on the day he had promised to do so. it was because his rheumatism was very bad, so the pupils, including jacko and jumpo kinkytail, the red and green monkeys, were allowed to play a game instead of hearing a story.
"perhaps uncle wiggily will come tomorrow," said the teacher. and that is what the rabbit did, and he told how he had traveled many miles, and had had dozens and dozens of adventures, of which i have told you in the stories before this one. he also told how jacko kinkytail had been with him part of the time.
"oh, my, i wish i had been along," said sammie littletail to jacko after school was over.
"yes, indeed, so do i," said billy no-tail, the frog, as he looked at his grandfather's tall hat which he was wearing, to see if it had any holes in the top; but it hadn't.
"oh, i had lots of fun," said jacko, the red monkey, "but i would have had more if my brother jumpo, or some of you boys, had been with me. uncle wiggily was very nice."
"come on, let's have a game of ball," suggested jumpo, the green monkey. so the boy animals put their books on the grass, and they had a little ball game on their way home from school.
it was a fine game, too. once when billie wagtail, the goat boy, knocked the ball away up in the air with his horns, jumpo kinkytail climbed up a tree, and, hanging to the top branch only by his tail, he reached up and caught the ball before it got to the ground.
"fine! fine!" cried all the other animal players as jumpo came down.
well, after the game was over, the boy animals started for home, and on the way a bad fox jumped out of the bushes and tried to grab the red monkey. but jumpo, his green brother, made such a funny face, like an orange and a lemon twisted into an apple pie, with a stick of peppermint candy stuck through the middle, that the fox had to laugh, and of course when he laughed he couldn't chase the red and green monkeys, so they got safely home.
"you must be careful after this," said their mamma when jacko and jumpo had told her of the fox. "i will have your father speak to the policeman about it when he comes home from the hand organ factory where he works. and now you monkey boys please go out and cut some wood for me, for i must get supper. then you can study your lessons. hurry now, jacko and jumpo."
"what are we going to have for supper, mamma?" asked jumpo.
"well, for one thing, i am going to make a cocoanut cake," said the mamma monkey.
"oh, goody!" cried jacko and jumpo as they danced around in the kitchen and hugged each other with their long tails. "that will be fine!"
"come, now, get in the wood for the fire!" cried their mamma, so down the tall tree they scrambled, and soon they were gathering up sticks in their four paws and their tails also.
"i guess i've got my share," said jumpo at last. "i'm going in and study my lessons." so into the house he went, while jacko went looking for hickory nuts. but jumpo couldn't do much studying. he was thinking too much about the cocoanut cake that was to be for supper.
"i guess i'll just go into the kitchen and take a look at the cocoanut, to make sure it's there," said the little green monkey after a while. so, laying aside his spelling-book, jumpo went to the kitchen. mrs. kinkytail wasn't there just then, having gone down cellar after some butter. but the cocoanut was on the table in its brown shell, all ready to be broken open and the white meat inside put in the cake.
"oh, what an exceedingly large and fine cocoanut!" exclaimed jumpo, speaking very correctly as he had been taught in school. "i will just lift it to see how heavy it is."
now, jumpo's mamma had told him never to meddle with the things in the kitchen, when she was baking, for once he had mixed the sugar and salt, and everything tasted dreadfully. but you see he forgot what his mamma had said, and almost before he knew what he was doing he had picked up the cocoanut.
"i'll just shake it, to see if there is any milk inside," he said, and he held it up to his ear, and wiggled it to and fro. surely enough there was plenty of the milky white juice inside, and jumpo could hear it splashing around.
"oh, this is fine!" he cried as he shook the cocoanut harder than before, and then—alas and alack-a-day! the first thing he knew the cocoanut had slipped from his paws.
down upon the floor it fell, away it rolled, and before jumpo could stop it that cocoanut had fallen out of the kitchen door of the little house in the tree, right down to the ground below.
"oh, i must get it before mamma comes back!" exclaimed the green monkey. quickly he scrambled down the tree, winding his tail around the lowest branch and leaping to the ground. but the cocoanut was nowhere to be seen.
"i wonder if jacko could have taken it to play a joke on me?" thought jumpo. then he looked over toward the bushes, and he saw something moving, and there was the cocoanut rolling along, faster than ever.
"my! it must be going down hill!" cried jumpo, as he sprang after it. well, the cocoanut kept on going. once jumpo almost had it in his left paw, but the cocoanut hit a stone and bounded away from him. then he almost had it in his right foot, but the cocoanut went splash into a little brook of water and the green monkey couldn't see it. then it rolled out and he managed to get his tail around the nut, but it was so slippery that it got away from him—the cocoanut got away, not jumpo's tail, you understand. no, that stayed fast on the monkey boy.
"oh, i guess we won't have any cocoanut cake for supper to-night," thought the little green fellow. "i wish i had stayed out of the kitchen, as mamma told me. but i'm not going to give up yet. i'll get that cocoanut if it's possible!" so he ran on, faster than ever, but the cocoanut rolled quicker and quicker. it was now getting late, and jumpo didn't know what to do. he could still see the cocoanut ahead of him, but he couldn't catch up to it.
"oh, whatever shall i do?" he cried. and just then he saw something like a big red hole, with rows of sharp white teeth in it. at first he thought it was his red brother jacko, but when he looked again he saw that it was the skillery-scalery alligator.
"oh, i'm just waiting for you," said the 'gator with his mouth open real wide.
"oh, dear!" cried jumpo, "this comes of not minding one's mother. the cocoanut is gone and i'll soon be gone, too," for he surely thought the alligator would get him.
in fact the alligator was just going to eat up the little green monkey when the skillery-scalery creature gave his tail a big flop. then something round and brown sailed up into the air, came down ker-bunk, right on the end of the 'gator's nose, and bounded off.
"oh, my! some one is shooting cannon balls at me!" cried the 'gator. "i never can stand cannon balls." so away he went, as fast as he could, taking his double-jointed tail with him. and listen, as the telephone girl says, it wasn't a cannon ball at all, that had hit the 'gator, it was the lost cocoanut.
jumpo caught it as it came down, after the 'gator had accidentally tossed it into the air with his tail, and then the green monkey hurried home with it as fast as he could hurry, and so he had cocoanut cake for supper after all.
of course, jumpo's mamma scolded him a little for what he had done, and he said he was sorry, so she forgave him. and the monkeys had more adventures. i'll tell you of one soon, and the next story will be about the kinkytails making a pudding—that is, if the elephant in the picture-book doesn't take the baby's rattle-box and beat the drum with it.[pg 23]
