"come, mr. kinkytail," said mrs. kinkytail to her husband one morning after breakfast, "it is time for you to go to your work in the hand-organ factory."
"oh, i'm not going to work to-day," said the papa monkey, as he slowly folded the news-paper inside out so that he might read about whether it was going to rain or snow.
"why aren't you going to work?" asked the monkey mamma.
"because," answered her husband, "something is the matter with one of the music machines, and the engineer has to fix it. so the factory is closed, and i have a vacation. and, as it is saturday, i'll take the boys for a walk."
"oh, goody!" exclaimed jacko kinkytail.
"that will be fine!" shouted jumpo, and he tied his tail in such a hard knot in his excitement that his mamma almost had to cut the knot out with the scissors. but finally it was loosened with a knitting needle.
"come on, boys," said their papa. "the paper says it will be a fair day, so we will go off in the woods. and, who knows? perhaps we may have an adventure."
it was a fine, cool day, and the monkey boys and their papa hurried along. soon they came to the woods, where the ground was all covered with leaves that rustled under foot like tissue paper in a box of candy.
"oh, look there!" suddenly exclaimed jacko in a whisper. "there is a big elephant!"
"where?" asked his brother, and the red monkey pointed off through the woods. surely enough, there was something that looked like an elephant with a bushel of peanuts on his back.
"why, that's not an elephant," said mr. kinkytail, when he had looked most carefully, "that is only a stump, though i admit there is something about it that seems like an elephant's trunk. well, that was almost an adventure. come along, and after a while we may have a real one."
on they walked a little farther, and, all of a sudden jumpo stopped and grasped his brother by the paw.
"look," whispered the green monkey. "isn't that a big lion over there?"
"sure enough it is!" exclaimed jacko, as he looked toward where his brother pointed.
"nonsense!" cried mr. kinkytail, as he saw the object. "it is only a pile of yellow leaves, though it is big enough for a lion, and the same color. but soon we may have a real adventure."
so they went on some more—about as far as two oranges and half a banana—and, all at once, all three saw something moving in the bushes, and they knew that was real, for the bushes wiggled to and fro like a rabbit's ears.
"look out!" exclaimed mr. kinkytail, and the next instant they saw grandfather goosey gander come waddling out, with his shiny, tall, silk hat on his head.
"why, how do you do?" asked the old gentleman goose, as he walked toward them. "i'm real glad to see you, as i am quite lonesome. i guess i'll—"
but grandfather goosey gander didn't have time to say what he was going to guess, for at that very particular instant a big, fat cow, with two crumpled horns, stepped out from behind a tree, and with one swoop she grabbed grandfather goosey gander's tall hat in her mouth.
"why, the very idea!" exclaimed grandfather goosey. "the very idea! to take my hat! how dare you! what do you want with it?"
"i want it for a milk pail, to be sure," said the cow, as she stuck the hat on one of her horns. "i want to take some milk to a sick cousin of mine, and i need a pail in which to carry it. this tall hat will do very nicely."
"why, the very preposterous idea!" gasped the gander gentleman. "my fine silk hat to be used as a milk pail! i'll never allow it—never!"
"ah, but you see you can't help yourself," said the cow, as she hung the tall hat on the branch of a tree, and sat down under it to rest. "i'm going to walk away, directly, with your hat, and don't you dare come here and get it, for i'll jiggle you with my crumpled horns if you do," went on the cow supercilious like which means sort of proud.
"that's right, she will," whispered mr. kinkytail. "you must let her have her way, grandfather."
"but my nice, tall silk hat!" objected grandfather goosey gander. "i can't let her have it. i need it to wear to church, and also down to the bank when i go to put in my money. oh, this is terrible! i must get it."
he started toward the tree, where his hat was hanging, but the cow got up and shook her crumpled horns at him in such a savage way that he was afraid to go any farther.
"perhaps i can get it," whispered jumpo. so he crept up behind the tree, thinking he could grab the hat away, but the cow heard him, and almost snitched him with one horn. then jacko tried, by climbing up one tree, and getting ready to drop down into the other one where the hat was. but the cow heard him and she almost kerfuddled him with her left crinkly horn, so that plan failed.
"i think i know a way to get your hat," said mr. kinkytail at last.
"oh, if you only can i will be so thankful!" cried mr. gander.
"you stay here with jacko and jumpo," said the monkey boys' father, "and watch the cow so that she doesn't run away with the hat. jacko, you and your brother make some funny faces, and do some funny tricks so the cow will be interested in watching you and will stay. i'll go off and get something i need."
so the monkey boys did a lot of tricks for the cow. jumpo made a face like half a cherry pie, and jacko did the trick of standing on his two ears and making a noise like a trolley car. it was too funny for anything, and the cow was real interested.
then, all of a sudden, off in the woods there sounded the music of a hand organ. and the tune it played was one called "i'm a yellow-striped tiger and i'm very savage now, so i think i'll make a sandwich of a crinkled-crumpled cow!"
well, as soon as the cow heard that, up she jumped, crying out:
"no you don't, mr. tiger! you can't catch me!" and with that the cow with the crimpled-crumpled horns ran off in the woods, leaving grandfather goosey gander's tall hat hanging on the tree.
and then, from the other side of the woods, came mr. kinkytail, and it was he who had played the hand organ to scare the cow. he had hurried to the factory to get the music machine just especially for that.
"now your hat is safe, mr. gander," said the papa monkey, and soon jacko had scrambled up and got it, and then the goosey grandfather and the monkey boys took turns playing the hand organ until it was time to go home.
but i see it's your bedtime, so i can't tell any more stories for a while. the one on the next page will be about mrs. kinkytail and aunt[pg 94] lettie the lady goat—that is, if the dining-room table doesn't put its legs down the back of the chair and tickle it so it sneezes its seat off.
