it happened, once upon a time, that jacko and jumpo kinkytail, the red and green monkey boys, didn't have to go to school. this was because it was saturday, when there was no school; so now i've told you the true reason.
"what shall we do?" asked jumpo of his brother, as he wound the end of his long tail around a tree branch and swung head downward while he ate an apple as easily as you can shell a peanut.
"do you want to play indian and let me shoot you with my make-believe gun?" asked jacko, the red monkey.
"no, indeed! thank you just the same," replied his green brother as he unhooked his tail from the tree and stood on his head, getting ready to turn a somersault. "the last time you shot at me while we were playing indian, you didn't remember that you had a cork in your pop-gun, and it hit me on the end of the nose. i haven't forgotten that."
"i'm very sorry," spoke jacko. "then i'll tell you what let's do. we'll go off in the woods, and maybe we can find the old monkey who has five hand organs, one of which he plays with his tail. perhaps he'll let us play one."
"fine!" cried jumpo, so off they started for the woods.
well, they looked and they looked some more, but they couldn't find the monkey who had five hand organs, and pretty soon those two boys went back home.
but when jacko and jumpo got to the little house in the tree, their mamma wasn't there. instead she had left a note on a plate of bread and jam for them. the note said:
"dear jacko and jumpo. i have gone to call on aunt lettie, the old lady goat. i will be back in time to get your supper."
"well!" said jumpo, winding his tail around the leg of a chair, before he sat down in it. "i hope she does come back in time for supper, for i am hungry. however, she left some bread and jam for us. let's eat that."
"she is the best mamma in all the world," said jacko, as he took some of the bread and jam, "and i think we ought to do something for her."
"what could we do?" asked jumpo.
"why, we could get something ready for supper, so she won't have to work so hard when she comes in. let's make a cake."
"no, let's make a pudding," suggested jumpo. "a pudding is ever so much easier, and besides it will be done quicker, and we can taste it to see if it's good."
"fine!" cried jacko, "we'll make a pudding. but how do you do it?"
"it is easy," said his brother. "you take some milk and some sugar and some eggs and cocoanut, and things like that, and mix them up in a pan. then you bake it in the oven."
"what, the pan or the pudding?" jacko wanted to know.
"both, i guess," answered jumpo. "anyhow i know mamma puts the pudding in the pan, and then she puts both of them in the oven, so she must bake both."
"then we'll do it that way," decided jacko. "now here are some eggs, and we can get the milk and sugar and other things. but, hold on, jumpo; do you put the eggs in just as they are, with the shells on, or do you break them?"
"i don't know," spoke the green monkey, as he looked at his tail to see if it had any hard knots in it, but it hadn't.
"then we can't make a pudding if you don't know," said jacko, disappointed like.
"oh, yes, we can, easily," went on his brother. "we can put in some eggs without the shells, and some with the shells on."
"the very thing," cried jacko. "i never would have thought of that. you are very clever, jumpo." so the two monkey boys took a pan, and into it they broke some eggs, throwing the shells away, and into the pan they also put some whole eggs with the shells on.
"now for the milk," said jumpo.
"should we use sweet milk or sour milk?" asked his brother.
"there you go again!" exclaimed jumpo. "you are always asking questions to puzzle me. what do you think—sweet or sour milk?"
"both!" cried jacko, "then we'll be sure to be right."
"of course!" agreed jumpo; so into the pan they put some sweet and also some sour milk.
"now for some sugar and some raisins and grated cocoanut and the pudding will be done!" called jacko. so they put those things in the pan and stirred them up with a big spoon.
"now, should we bake this pudding in the oven or on top of the stove in a frying pan?" asked jacko.
"oh, there you go again!" cried jumpo. "asking more puzzling questions! let's do both."
"we can't," decided his brother.
"well, then, we'll fry this pudding in a pan on top of the stove, as mamma does an omelet," said jumpo. "it looks like an omelet, anyhow." so into the frying pan they poured their pudding, set it on the stove, and soon it began to cook.
"now when it's brown on one side, i'll turn it over with the pancake turner," said jumpo, "and cook the other side."
"good!" cried his brother. so they carefully watched the pudding, waiting for it to be cooked on one side. and, just as jumpo got ready to turn it, there was a knocking on the door of the little house, and a voice cried:
"i'm coming in to eat you monkeys up!" and with that in came a savage wolf. oh, how frightened jacko and jumpo were! but jumpo knew just what to do.
first he quickly tied his tail into a hard knot so it would be short, and not in the way. then he took up the soft pudding out of the frying pan on the pancake turner and he threw it right in the face of that wolf.[pg 28]
oh! i wish you could have seen him! that wolf was all covered with broken eggs, and whole eggs, and raisins and sweet milk, and sour milk, and cocoanut, and sugar and everything like that. oh! what a sight he was! and as he was so frightened that he ran down the tree, up which he had climbed by his sharp toenails, and he hid himself in the woods.
"oh, but our pudding is spoiled!" cried jacko, sad like.
"never mind," said mamma kinkytail, who came in just then, having seen the wolf run away. "jumpo was a good boy." and when she heard how they had made the pudding she said it was just as well, after all, that it was thrown at the wolf, for it would not have been good to eat. so she made a nice chocolate cake for supper, leaving out the egg shells and sour milk, and the pudding was all eaten up, for the red and green monkeys and their papa were very hungry.
now the next story will be about jacko and the peanuts—that is, if the little girl across the street doesn't wheel her doll carriage into a mud puddle and splash my new shoes that i want to dance in at the moving pictures.
