STORY VI JACKO AND THE PAPER BAG

 "Well, what shall we do today?" asked Jumpo of his brother, as the two monkey boys slid down out of the tree-house one Saturday morning.

 

"We don't have to go to school," spoke¹ Jacko, "and I'm glad of it. Suppose we play soldier. I'll let you shoot me, if you don't do it too hard."

 

"All right. Oh, I tell you what let's do!" and Jumpo was so excited that he tied his tail in three hard knots and he could hardly get them out again.

 

"What shall we do?" asked his brother, as he kindly² helped untie³ the knots in Jumpo's tail.

 

"We'll get a lot of the fellows, and have a regular battle," proposed Jumpo. "We'll get Sammy Littletail and the two Bushytail brothers, and Buddy⁴ Pigg, and Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, and Jimmy Wibblewobble and Billie Wagtail, the goat, and all the others, including Munchie Trot⁵, and we'll choose sides and have a big fight. One side can be Indians, and the other white men."

 

"Fine! Fine!" cried Jacko. "You go get the fellows, and I'll whittle⁶ out the make-believe wooden guns."

 

Off Jumpo started, and it wasn't long before he had met a lot of his boy friends. Of course they thought it was great fun to play soldier, and they hurried back with him. By this time Jacko had a lot of guns made, and then the boys divided into two parties.

 

Jacko was captain of one side, and he and his friends were to pretend to be white soldiers, and the others, of which Jumpo was captain, were to be the Indians.

 

"Now, we'll go off in the woods," said Jumpo, "and we Indians will wait until you white fellows have built a cabin. Then we'll come in the night—make-believe night, you know—and we'll shoot at you, and burn the cabin down, and take you prisoners."

 

"No fair throwing stones!" cried Buddy Pigg, looking to see if any tail had grown on him yet, but none had.

 

"No, there must be no stones," declared Jacko. "Now fellows, get to work building our cabin. Billie Wagtail, you get some long sticks, and, Buddy, you get some small ones." Buddy and Billie were on Jacko's side, and Sammie Littletail was one of the Indians, and so was Johnny Bushytail and Munchie Trot, the pony⁷. In fact there were about seven boys on each side.

 

Well, pretty soon the white soldiers had their cabin built, and then it was time for the Indians to come and fight them. Jacko hollered when they were ready, and then he and his friends went inside the little cabin and made believe go to sleep.

 

"And, mind you," said Jacko, "when the Indians come you fellows must shoot off your guns as hard as anything."

 

"Sure," said Billie Wagtail, shaking his horns.

 

Pretty soon there was a rustling⁸ in the bushes, and along crept the make-believe Indians, softly and silently. Then, when they saw the cabin, Jumpo cried:

 

"Fire! Fire! Shoot 'em! Bang! Bang! Capture 'em!"

 

Up jumped Jacko and his men.

 

"Bangity-bang-bang!" cried Jacko. "Shoot 'em fellows! Fire like anything! Don't let 'em take us!"

 

Well, I just wish you could have heard that racket! No, on second thought perhaps it's just as well you didn't, for it might have made you deaf to hear so many guns going off at once. Oh, it was a fierce fight! if you will excuse me saying so. And after a while the Indians won, and into the cabin they rushed.

 

"Escape! Get away fellows," cried brave monkey boy Jacko. "I'll keep them back until you get away."

 

"That's not fair!" shouted Sammie Littletail. "Yes it is," said Billie Wagtail. Well, Billie and the other white soldiers ran out the back door, while Jacko was shooting at the Indians at the front door, and so all the white soldiers got away except little red monkey, and he was caught.

 

"Now, we'll tie him to a tree, and we'll go off and try to catch the others," said Jumpo. So, in fun, they tied Jacko fast to a tree, and left him there in the woods by the make-believe cabin all alone, while they ran off shouting.

 

"My! That was jolly sport," thought Jacko, and he was glad to rest for a while. Then he began to feel a bit lonesome. "I wish I could get away," he said, and he found that he could wiggle his arms out of the ropes. "But it wouldn't be fair to run off when they have captured me," he went on. "Though I know what I can do. I'll play a trick on them when they come back."

 

In his coat pocket he found an empty paper bag. This he blew up full of wind, and he twisted the neck of it so the wind wouldn't get out.

 

"When they come back I'll crack the bag and make it burst. They will think it's a cannon⁹," he said with a laugh. Then he waited.

 

But all of a sudden, before he could count forty-'leven, along came the skillery-scalery alligator¹⁰. The creature with the double-jointed tail saw the little red monkey tied fast to the tree with ropes.

 

"Ah, ha! Now I have you!" cried the 'gator, licking his chops. "You can't get away from me this time."

 

And it didn't seem as if Jacko could. He tugged¹¹ and strained at the ropes, but they were too tight. It looked as if he were going to be eaten up.

 

Nearer and nearer came the alligator. He opened his big mouth, full of sharp, shining white teeth to bite Jacko, when, all of a sudden the monkey boy thought of the blown-up paper bag.

 

"That's the thing," cried Jacko, and with that he clapped his paw down hard on the bag.

 

"Bang!" it went, just like a cannon. My! how loud!

 

"Oh, I'm shot! I'm killed! My double-jointed tail is blown off!" cried the alligator, and then, half frightened to death, he scurried¹² off through the woods, taking his tail with him, for of course it wasn't blown off at all.

 

So that's how the paper bag saved Jacko, and pretty soon his brother and the other Indians came back with their prisoners and the game was over. Then they untied¹³ Jacko and they all went to the home of the red and green monkeys, and Mrs. Kinkytail gave them all some bread and jam. She spread thirty-three loaves of bread and used up seventeen pots of jam before they had enough, and the alligator didn't have a smitch, I'm glad to say.

 

And the next story will be about Jumpo and the green parrot—that is, if the window pane¹⁴ doesn't get the toothache in the night and cry like a baby so it wakes up the pussy¹⁵ cat.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

3 untie   

vt.解开，松开；解放

参考例句：

• It's just impossible to untie the knot.It's too tight.这个结根本解不开。太紧了。
• Will you please untie the knot for me?请你替我解开这个结头，好吗？

4 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

5 trot   

n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧

参考例句：

• They passed me at a trot.他们从我身边快步走过。
• The horse broke into a brisk trot.马突然快步小跑起来。

6 whittle   

v.削（木头），削减；n.屠刀

参考例句：

• They are trying to whittle down our salaries.他们正着手削减我们的薪水。
• He began to whittle away all powers of the government that he did not control.他开始削弱他所未能控制的一切政府权力。

7 pony   

adj.小型的；n.小马

参考例句：

• His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.他父亲给了他一匹小马驹作为圣诞礼物。
• They made him pony up the money he owed.他们逼他还债。

8 rustling   

n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的

参考例句：

• the sound of the trees rustling in the breeze 树木在微风中发出的沙沙声
• the soft rustling of leaves 树叶柔和的沙沙声

9 cannon   

n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮

参考例句：

• The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
• The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。

10 alligator   

n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)

参考例句：

• She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。

11 tugged   

v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She tugged at his sleeve to get his attention. 她拽了拽他的袖子引起他的注意。
• A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. 他的嘴角带一丝苦笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 scurried   

v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She said goodbye and scurried back to work. 她说声再见，然后扭头跑回去干活了。
• It began to rain and we scurried for shelter. 下起雨来，我们急忙找地方躲避。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 untied   

松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决

参考例句：

• Once untied, we common people are able to conquer nature, too. 只要团结起来，我们老百姓也能移山倒海。
• He untied the ropes. 他解开了绳子。

14 pane   

n.窗格玻璃，长方块

参考例句：

• He broke this pane of glass.他打破了这块窗玻璃。
• Their breath bloomed the frosty pane.他们呼出的水气，在冰冷的窗玻璃上形成一层雾。

15 pussy   

n.(儿语)小猫，猫咪

参考例句：

• Why can't they leave my pussy alone?为什么他们就不能离我小猫咪远一点？
• The baby was playing with his pussy.孩子正和他的猫嬉戏。