Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail Part 14

"So I started out to sell matches, but I dropped them in a barrel of water, and no one wants to buy wet matches, you know. Oh, hoo, boo! Boo, hoo! How cold and miserable and hungry I am!" and she cried, oh so sadly.

Jacko and Jumpo thought for a minute. Then Jacko pulled his brother to one side.

"Look here," said Jacko, blinking his eyes, "we've got to do something for that mousie girl."

"That's right," said Jumpo, sniffing his nose.

"I--I don't care much about an automobile, anyhow, do you?" asked Jacko.

"N--no--no--not--much," spoke Jumpo, slowly.

"They're always getting stuck, and won't go, and then you have to get out and walk, and besides they use so much gasoline, and--and gasoline smells so--so funny! Say, we don't need an auto. Let's give the mousie girl this money."

"All right," said Jumpo, so Jacko handed the poor little girl the $1.17.

"There," said Jacko, "take it home and get some coal and something to eat. We don't want an auto, anyway."

"Oh, thank you so much!" exclaimed the mousie girl, as she hurried away.

"Well, I--I guess we might as well go back home," said Jacko, sadly, after a bit.

"Yes," agreed Jumpo, and they started off together. Well, they hadn't gone very far before they heard a bangity-bang noise down the street, and, running up, they saw Uncle Wiggily standing in front of his auto.

It was standing still and smoking and making a terrible racket and a policeman dog was saying:

"Come, now, Mr. Wiggily, you'll have to move along."

"Move along! I only wish I could," cried the old gentleman rabbit. "I never saw such a pesky automobile! It's always stopping. I've jiggled and joggled and tickled everything from the whoop-de-doodle-do down to the slam-bangity-what-is-it, but it won't go. I'm done with it. Whoever wants it can have it!"

"Oh, may we have it?" cried Jacko, as Uncle Wiggily started toward the sidewalk, leaving the auto in the street.

"To be sure you may, and I'll buy a gallon of gasoline into the bargain!" cried Uncle Wiggily.

"Come on, we'll pull it home, and then we'll fix it so that it will go!"

cried Jacko; so he and Jumpo pulled the auto home, and that's how they got one after all, without any money. And the little mousie girl wasn't cold or hungry any more.

And in case the ice box doesn't catch cold in the rice pudding and freeze the potato salad so it can't go to moving pictures, I'll tell you next about Jacko and Jumpo in their auto.

STORY XVIII

JUMPO AND JACKO IN THE AUTO

"Aren't you glad it's Sat.u.r.day, when we don't have to go to school?"

asked Jacko Kinkytail of his brother Jumpo, the green monkey, when he awoke one morning.

"Of course I'm glad," answered Jumpo. "But what are we going to do today--go fis.h.i.+ng?"

"No, indeed! Why, have you forgotten about the little automobile which Uncle Wiggily gave us? It's down in the yard."

"Oh, of course! And we can go for a ride in it. Oh, how glad I am!"

And, would you believe me, Jumpo was so happy that he jumped out of bed and hung by his tail from the back of the rocking chair.

And Jacko took up a ball and caught it, first in one foot and then in the other, until it happened to slip away from him, striking Jumpo on the nose.

"Ouch!" cried Jumpo, and he uncurled his tail from the chair and rubbed his nose.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" exclaimed Jacko. "I didn't mean to do that. Wait.

I'll help you rub your nose."

Well, he started to rub poor Jumpo's sore nose, but Jacko made a little mistake. He took up a piece of sticky fly paper instead of a handkerchief, and the fly paper stuck to the nose of the green monkey so that he could hardly breathe, and his mamma had to come running in the bedroom to see what was the matter.

"Oh, you funny boys!" she exclaimed. "You are always up to some tricks.

You had better get dressed at once and go out to play. It is a fine day."

"Of course we will!" cried Jacko. "Come on, Jumpo. We'll go for a long automobile ride."

So after Mrs. Kinkytail had taken the fly paper off Jumpo's nose, the monkey boys had breakfast and they got ready to go out. The automobile which Uncle Wiggily had given the monkey boys, because it wouldn't go for him, had been fixed by Mr. Kinkytail, so it was now as good as ever.

The tires were pumped full of wind and then Jumpo climbed up on the seat and took hold of the steering wheel. Jacko twisted the crank in front, and he did it very well, too, for, you know, he had plenty of practise in twisting the cranks of hand-organs, so he knew just how to do it.

And then the auto started off. Whizz! Whazz! Whuzz! it went, down the street, faster and faster, until it was out on a nice country road.

"My! Isn't this just fine!" cried Jumpo.

"It certainly is as delicious as two ice cream cones and part of another one," replied his brother.

And they laughed and looked at each other and they nearly ran over a rooster, and the rooster crowed as loud as he could and said:

"You monkey boys had better look out where you are going! You have me all ruffled up."

"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Jumpo most politely. "We will go more slowly."

So he twisted some of the s.h.i.+ny things on the steering wheel, and he tickled the thing-a-ma-bob and pushed the t.i.ttle-c.u.m-tattle-c.u.m and the auto went slower. But even then it was going pretty fast.

"Say, if a burglar fox chased us now, he couldn't catch us, could he?"

said Jacko.

"Never in the world," answered his brother.

And just then a big, black bear stuck his nose out of the bushes and growled:

"Hold on there, I haven't had any dinner yet."

"Well, you can't eat us!" shouted Jumpo, so he turned the what-you-may-call-it around backward and away they went faster than ever and the bear couldn't catch them, not even if he had put on roller skates to slide with.