Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail Part 13

"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 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.

STORY XVII

THE KINKYTAILS SPEND MONEY

"Well, I must say I never thought you two monkey boys would go off and earn money that way," said Mamma Kinkytail, as Jacko and Jumpo came in with the second-hand hand organ, after having gone around and played tunes, as I told you about in the story ahead of this.

"Neither did I know what they were up to," said their father, as he sat reading the evening paper, after supper. "Why, when you boys came down to the factory, and asked me to let you take a second-hand hand organ I had no idea that you were going to do what you did."

"But you don't mind; do you?" asked Jumpo.

"Because we thought it was all right," spoke Jacko.

"Oh, bless you, no," said their mamma. "It _was_ all right." And then Jacko told her how he and his brother had played the music and done the tricks, and how the little girl had given them ten cents and the other children pennies and five-cent pieces, and how delighted all the children were to see them.

"It was clever of you," said Mrs. Kinkytail.

"How much money did you make?" asked their papa, laughing behind his paper.

"We took in one dollar and seventeen cents," said Jacko, as he counted it, "and we would have had eighteen cents, only I dropped one penny down a crack in the board walk of a house. But maybe we can get it some day."

"And now may we go down town and buy our auto?" asked Jumpo eagerly.

"It's early yet and the stores will be open for some time. Please may we, mother?"

"You can't get an automobile for a dollar and seventeen cents," said their papa.

"Well, we can try, can't we?" asked Jacko.

"Oh, let them go," whispered their mamma to Mr. Kinkytail. "It will do no harm, and they will very soon find out their mistake."

"I guess so," agreed their papa, as he looked in the paper to see if it was going to be nice weather Sunday.

So Jacko and Jumpo having carefully wrapped their money in a piece of paper, started down town. And on their way they met Sammie Littletail, the boy rabbit, who wanted to know where they were going. So they told him.

"Ha, ha! Ho, ho!" laughed Sammie. "You can't get an auto for that money.

Why an automobile costs as much as three dollars and fifteen cents, and then there's the gasoline to make it go--that costs money, too."

"Don't mind him," spoke Jacko, pulling his brother by the sleeve. "We'll get that auto anyhow."

So they kept on down town, and pretty soon they could see the lights in the stores, and they hurried faster than ever, for they were very anxious to get their auto.

"Have you got the money safe?" asked Jumpo.

"Yes," said Jacko, and just then, as they turned around a corner they saw a poor little mousie girl. Oh, she was such a poor little girl, and she had on such a ragged dress, and her shoes were so full of holes that there was hardly room for her tiny feet in them. And she was crying and s.h.i.+vering with the cold.

"Why, what is the matter?" asked Jacko, kindly.

"Oh, I'm so cold and miserable and hungry," said the mousie girl, wiping away her tears.

"Then why don't you go home and get warm and have something to eat,"

said Jumpo. "That's what we do when we're cold and hungry, don't we, Jacko?"

"Yes, but there is no fire in my house," said the poor little mousie girl, "and there is nothing to eat."

"Why not?" asked Jacko, surprised like, and he felt in his pockets once more, to see if he had his money safe.

"Because we are too poor," answered the mousie girl. "My papa is sick with the epizootic, and my mamma has the rheumatism so bad that she can't take in was.h.i.+ng, and we are so cold and miserable! My little brother sells papers, telling the mouse people about cheese and crackers, and how to keep out of traps, but his toes got so cold, because he had no shoes, that he can't sell papers any more.