Jacko and Jumpo Kinkytail Part 24

"Oh, if we only had our automobile, we could go very quickly," said Jacko, but they didn't have it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry; it was my fault," exclaimed Jumpo. "I will run for Dr. Possum."

"You never can run fast enough," exclaimed Mrs. Littletail. "Why, even an airship wouldn't be quick enough. Oh! What shall I do? Sammie may bleed to death."

"Wait, I have an idea," cried Susie. "Why can't Jacko go for the doctor in Sammie's toy train of cars?"

"In a toy train of cars?" exclaimed Jacko.

"Yes, the engine is very big and strong, and it runs very fast. Just hitch one car to it and go for Dr. Possum."

"But doesn't that engine have to run on a track?" asked Jumpo.

"No, if you wind the spring up real tight it will run right over the ground without any track," said Susie, for Sammie couldn't talk on account of the nose bleed. "Hurry off, Jacko. You can ride in the cab and be the engineer and Dr. Possum can ride in the pa.s.senger coach."

Quickly Mrs. Littletail wheeled out the toy engine and one car. It was quite large, plenty big enough for Jacko to get in. He and Jumpo wound up the spring real tight and then Jacko got in the engine cab.

"Toot! Toot!" he blew the whistle and with a whizz and a rattle, away the engine went right along a smooth path in the woods toward Dr.

Possum's house. Faster and faster rode Jacko, ringing the bell every once in a while. Faster and faster he went until he came to Dr. Possum's house.

"Oh, doctor, come quick!" he cried, stopping the engine by pulling on a handle. "Sammie Littletail has the nose bleed very bad!"

"I'll be with you at once," said Dr. Possum. So he took a big bottle of nose bleed medicine and into the coach he sprang. Jacko rolled the engine around and turned on the spring. Away it went back through the woods, pulling him and Dr. Possum as nicely as a stick of mola.s.ses candy.

All of a sudden out from the bushes sprang the burglar fox.

"Hi! Stop that train!" he cried. "I want to get on!"

"No! No! Never! Never!" shouted Jacko.

"Then I'll stop it!" said the bad fox. So he took a stone and put it in front of the engine but do you s'pose the engine minded that?

Not a bit of it! Why, with the cow-catcher the engine just pushed the stone out of the way so that it fell over and pinched the fox on the tail, and then the engine went on faster than ever.

And pretty soon they were back again at Sammie's house. Out jumped the doctor, out of his valise he took the bottle of nose-bleed medicine.

"Smell of that!" he said to Sammie. And smell of it Sammie did, and in a second and a half his nose stopped bleeding and he was all better.

So that's how Jacko went for the doctor in an engine and part of a toy train of cars, and that's all to this story, if you please, for then it was time for Jacko and Jumpo to go home to supper, and now it's time for you to go to bed.

But the next story, in case the wallpaper doesn't fall down and get tangled up in p.u.s.s.y cat's oatmeal dish, will be about Jumpo and his airship.

STORY XXIX

JUMPO AND HIS AIRSHIP

"Well, what in the world are you making now?" asked Mr. Kinkytail of his little boy Jumpo one morning, just as the papa monkey was starting to work in the hand organ factory. "Is that going to be a tent, Jumpo?"

Jumpo looked up from where he was making something down in the yard.

"No, papa, it isn't going to be a tent," he said.

"Then what is it?" asked Mr. Kinkytail.

"It's going to be an airship, to sail up in the air as the birds do,"

replied the little green monkey boy.

"Oh, my! You never can make that!" said his papa, and he went off laughing. "Is Jacko helping you?" he asked.

"No, Jacko has gone off in the automobile to give Grandfather Goosey Gander a ride," said Jumpo.

"That is very kind of Jacko," spoke Mr. Kinkytail, "but I hope he doesn't upset and spill out the old gentleman duck. But you be careful not to fall out of your airship, Jumpo."

So Jumpo said he would, and he went right on making it. I suppose you know what an airship is? It's something like two tablecloths fastened over some sticks, and one end is a thing like the tail of a goose, and on the other end is something like the tail of a bird, and in the middle there is a thing like a pinwheel, which goes around buzzity-buzz, and there's an engine to make the buzzity-buzz thing go. Then there are wheels like on a baby carriage, only they are blown up with air like a big bologna sausage, and that's an airship.

And that is what Jumpo was making. He had two old umbrellas, and he had fastened them together, one over the other, with some strings. He had a big palm leaf fan for one tail and another fan for the other tail, and four wheels he took off an old pair of roller skates. Then he had a little toy locomotive, and he used that for the engine, and it was very good, for it went whizzing around very fast when he wound up the spring.

And for the buzzity-buzz thing he had a green paper pinwheel.

"Do you think your airship will sail, Jumpo?" asked Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, as he came along just then.

"I'm sure it will," said the green monkey boy. "You see I get in it and sit on this seat. It's made from an old washboard that mamma didn't want. Then I start the engine and I will go rolling along over the ground. Pretty soon I will get going so fast that I'll sail up in the air, and then I'll be like a bird. Don't you want to sail with me?"

"Are you going up pretty soon?" asked Jimmie, "because my dinner is nearly ready and I don't want to miss it."

"Oh, I'm going up very shortly," said Jumpo. "All I've got to do is to fasten some court plaster on the wheels so they won't drop off when we're up in the air, and then I've got to take along a piece of string to tie the engine fast with, and then we'll go up. I'll bring you back in time for dinner, all right."

"Then I'll go," said Jimmie. "I never have been up in an airship, and it must be fun."

"I'll be glad to have you along," spoke Jumpo, "because if anything happens, you can fly down to the ground with me on your back and neither of us will get hurt."

"Why, do you think anything may happen?" asked Jimmie, sort of scared like.

"Well, you never can tell," answered Jumpo, as he fastened the roller skate wheels on with sticking plaster. "Airships sometimes do fall," and he whistled a funny little tune.

"Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! Wow!" exclaimed Jimmie. "I guess my mamma is calling me. I'll see you again, Jumpo. Goodbye!"

"Oh, don't go. I guess nothing will happen," called the green monkey, and then Jimmie came back.

Well, pretty soon the airship was finished. Oh! I wish you could have seen it, but of course you can't on account of what happened to it. I'll tell you all about it, however.

"Come on, get aboard, Jimmie!" called Jumpo. "There's room for you beside me on the washboard," and he got up and so did the duck boy, and then they were ready to start. Jumpo had placed the airship on a smooth place where the roller skate wheels could go around very easily. The two umbrellas were hoisted to catch the air and the pinwheel buzzer was all ready to go bizz-buzz.

"Here we go!" called Jumpo, and he started the engine.

My! How the pinwheel buzzer did whirl around! Faster and faster it went until you could hardly see it. But alas and alack a-day! The airship didn't go up.