"well, what shall we do today?" asked jumpo of his brother, as the two monkey boys slid down out of the tree-house one saturday morning.
"we don't have to go to school," spoke jacko, "and i'm glad of it. suppose we play soldier. i'll let you shoot me, if you don't do it too hard."
"all right. oh, i tell you what let's do!" and jumpo was so excited that he tied his tail in three hard knots and he could hardly get them out again.
"what shall we do?" asked his brother, as he kindly helped untie the knots in jumpo's tail.
"we'll get a lot of the fellows, and have a regular battle," proposed jumpo. "we'll get sammy littletail and the two bushytail brothers, and buddy pigg, and peetie and jackie bow wow, and jimmy wibblewobble and billie wagtail, the goat, and all the others, including munchie trot, and we'll choose sides and have a big fight. one side can be indians, and the other white men."
"fine! fine!" cried jacko. "you go get the fellows, and i'll whittle out the make-believe wooden guns."
off jumpo started, and it wasn't long before he had met a lot of his boy friends. of course they thought it was great fun to play soldier, and they hurried back with him. by this time jacko had a lot of guns made, and then the boys divided into two parties.
jacko was captain of one side, and he and his friends were to pretend to be white soldiers, and the others, of which jumpo was captain, were to be the indians.
"now, we'll go off in the woods," said jumpo, "and we indians will wait until you white fellows have built a cabin. then we'll come in the night—make-believe night, you know—and we'll shoot at you, and burn the cabin down, and take you prisoners."
"no fair throwing stones!" cried buddy pigg, looking to see if any tail had grown on him yet, but none had.
"no, there must be no stones," declared jacko. "now fellows, get to work building our cabin. billie wagtail, you get some long sticks, and, buddy, you get some small ones." buddy and billie were on jacko's side, and sammie littletail was one of the indians, and so was johnny bushytail and munchie trot, the pony. in fact there were about seven boys on each side.
well, pretty soon the white soldiers had their cabin built, and then it was time for the indians to come and fight them. jacko hollered when they were ready, and then he and his friends went inside the little cabin and made believe go to sleep.
"and, mind you," said jacko, "when the indians come you fellows must shoot off your guns as hard as anything."
"sure," said billie wagtail, shaking his horns.
pretty soon there was a rustling in the bushes, and along crept the make-believe indians, softly and silently. then, when they saw the cabin, jumpo cried:
"fire! fire! shoot 'em! bang! bang! capture 'em!"
up jumped jacko and his men.
"bangity-bang-bang!" cried jacko. "shoot 'em fellows! fire like anything! don't let 'em take us!"
well, i just wish you could have heard that racket! no, on second thought perhaps it's just as well you didn't, for it might have made you deaf to hear so many guns going off at once. oh, it was a fierce fight! if you will excuse me saying so. and after a while the indians won, and into the cabin they rushed.
"escape! get away fellows," cried brave monkey boy jacko. "i'll keep them back until you get away."
"that's not fair!" shouted sammie littletail. "yes it is," said billie wagtail. well, billie and the other white soldiers ran out the back door, while jacko was shooting at the indians at the front door, and so all the white soldiers got away except little red monkey, and he was caught.
"now, we'll tie him to a tree, and we'll go off and try to catch the others," said jumpo. so, in fun, they tied jacko fast to a tree, and left him there in the woods by the make-believe cabin all alone, while they ran off shouting.
"my! that was jolly sport," thought jacko, and he was glad to rest for a while. then he began to feel a bit lonesome. "i wish i could get away," he said, and he found that he could wiggle his arms out of the ropes. "but it wouldn't be fair to run off when they have captured me," he went on. "though i know what i can do. i'll play a trick on them when they come back."
in his coat pocket he found an empty paper bag. this he blew up full of wind, and he twisted the neck of it so the wind wouldn't get out.
"when they come back i'll crack the bag and make it burst. they will think it's a cannon," he said with a laugh. then he waited.
but all of a sudden, before he could count forty-'leven, along came the skillery-scalery alligator. the creature with the double-jointed tail saw the little red monkey tied fast to the tree with ropes.
"ah, ha! now i have you!" cried the 'gator, licking his chops. "you can't get away from me this time."
and it didn't seem as if jacko could. he tugged and strained at the ropes, but they were too tight. it looked as if he were going to be eaten up.
nearer and nearer came the alligator. he opened his big mouth, full of sharp, shining white teeth to bite jacko, when, all of a sudden the monkey boy thought of the blown-up paper bag.
"that's the thing," cried jacko, and with that he clapped his paw down hard on the bag.
"bang!" it went, just like a cannon. my! how loud!
"oh, i'm shot! i'm killed! my double-jointed tail is blown off!" cried the alligator, and then, half frightened to death, he scurried off through the woods, taking his tail with him, for of course it wasn't blown off at all.
so that's how the paper bag saved jacko, and pretty soon his brother and the other indians came back with their prisoners and the game was over. then they untied jacko and they all went to the home of the red and green monkeys, and mrs. kinkytail gave them all some bread and jam. she spread thirty-three loaves of bread and used up seventeen pots of jam before they had enough, and the alligator didn't have a smitch, i'm glad to say.
and the next story will be about jumpo and the green parrot—that is, if the window pane doesn't get the toothache in the night and cry like a baby so it wakes up the pussy cat.
