"mamma, would you please buy us an automobile?" asked jacko kinkytail of his mother one saturday morning when there wasn't any school.
"an automobile? why, my dear boy, what would you do with an automobile?" asked mrs. kinkytail.
"oh, yes; please do get us one, mother!" begged jumpo.
"oh, my! i never heard of such a thing!" cried the monkeys' mamma, as she trimmed the dough off the edge of an apple pie and put it in the oven to bake. "what could you possibly do with it—you two little boys?"
"why, we could soon learn to run it," said jacko. "then we could go to school in it, and come home and take papa to the hand organ factory, and take you to the store, and we could even take out parties on excursion trips and make money that way."
"what would you do when your auto wouldn't go?" asked mrs. kinkytail, as she got ready to bake a chocolate cocoanut cake with cherries on the top.
"oh, we could take turns pulling it then," spoke jumpo. "uncle wiggily has one, so why can't we?"
"uncle wiggily is rich, since he found his fortune," said mrs. kinkytail, "but your papa and i haven't money enough to buy even a set of tires for an auto. still, if you boys could earn the money yourselves you might get one," she said. of course, she was only joking, for she never thought the boys would take her in earnest. but they did.
"all right, then, we'll earn the money," said jacko. "come on, jumpo."
"don't stay away too long," cautioned their mamma, and she smiled as the two little monkey boys slid down the tree in which the house was built, and hurried away.
"how are we going to make money?" asked jumpo, as he followed after his brother. "are you going to gather up old rags, bones and bottles, and sell them?"
"come on, i'll show you," spoke jacko, as he tied his tail in a bow knot to keep it from dragging in the dust. "i'm going to the hand organ factory, where papa works, and i'm going to ask him to lend us an old organ. then you and i will go around and play music and people will give us pennies. we'll soon have enough to buy an automobile."
"the very thing!" cried jumpo in delight. "you can play the organ and i'll climb up to the windows where the children are and get the pennies. then this afternoon we'll buy the auto, and go for a ride. won't mamma be surprised?"
"i guess so," answered jacko. "i hope we get enough money today. how much do you s'pose an auto costs, jumpo?"
"oh, i guess twenty-six or twenty-seven cents. i know they're very expensive. but we can easily earn the money, for if the children give single pennies to a man playing the organ, who has a monkey with him, they'll probably give us double five-cent pieces to see two monkeys, and we'll soon have the twenty-seven cents, or, maybe, even thirty—who knows."
mr. kinkytail was very busy in the factory when his two boys came in to see him, and he said they could have a second-hand hand organ that played sort of wheezy-eezy tunes. he was so busy that he didn't even ask them what they wanted it for and they didn't tell him. they just took the organ and started off with it.
"now we must play the very best tunes, and you must do some of your finest tricks," said jacko, as they walked along until they came to a row of brick houses. "this will be a good place to begin," said the red monkey boy. "rich people must live here."
well, i just wish you could have heard jacko play that hand organ. really, he did as well as you could, turning the handle sometimes with his left paw, and sometimes with his right and sometimes with his tail.
"oh, mamma!" cried a little girl at one window. "come quick and see two monkeys with a hand organ! and one of them is coming up here. oh, give me five cents for him!"
"two monkeys!" exclaimed her mamma. "you must be mistaken. you mean a man with a monkey."
"no, really, mamma!" cried the little girl. "come and see."
"sure enough!" spoke her mamma. "two monkeys. two monkeys. how very odd. here is ten cents for them. aren't they cute?"
by this time jumpo was climbing up the porch to where the little girl was holding out the money for him and jacko was grinding the handle of the organ and playing a tune called: "if you have your umbrella you will never mind the rain."
when the little girl handed jumpo the money he took off his pink cap, made a low bow, and, then standing on the roof of the porch, he turned a somersault, stood on his tail and made a queer face like an ice cream cone inside of a watermelon.
"oh, what a funny monkey!" cried the little girl in delight. "i wish i could keep him!"
"i guess it's time for me to be going," thought jumpo. "she might want to keep me forever and then jacko and i couldn't get the auto."
so he went on to the next house where there was a little boy, and jumpo climbed up, and did some more tricks and jacko kept on playing. by this time all the children in the block had heard about the two monkeys with the hand organ, and the boys and girls came with so many pennies that jumpo's cap was hardly large enough to hold them.
"oh, jacko, we've got as much as fifty cents!" he cried as they went on to the next block, and there they got more money until they had over a dollar. and then a big dog chased them, and the two monkey boys hurried back home.
"but we've got enough to buy our auto," said[pg 113] jacko, "so it's all right. oh, won't we have fun in it!"
"indeed, we will!" cried jumpo, as he wiggled both his ears and on the next page, in case the feather in the hat of the little girl next door doesn't tickle my puppy dog and make him sneeze, i'll tell you how the kinkytails spent their money.[pg 114]
