"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 cork¹ in your pop-gun, and it hit me on the end of the nose. I haven't forgotten that."

 

"I'm very sorry," spoke² 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, winding³ 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."

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