Mrs. Kinkytail was very glad to see the cricket, who would have been frozen if he had had to sleep outdoors many more cold nights. She made him a warm bed near the fireplace by putting some cotton inside her sewing thimble.
"Oh, this is most delightful," said the cricket as he snuggled down inside the thimble under the warm cotton. "This is the nicest place I ever slept in." Then he sang his jolly song again, and Jacko and Jumpo did their lessons and soon the cricket sang himself to sleep and it was time for everybody to go to bed.
But listen! Something happened in the middle of the night. That bad bear was so mad that along about 12 o'clock, when all was still and quiet in the monkeys' house, he sneaked up and climbed the tree until he was at the front door.
"Now I will go in and eat them all up," thought the bear, smacking his lips and gnashing his sharp teeth. So with his long toenails he unlocked the door and went softly into the house, where Jacko and Jumpo and their papa and mamma were fast asleep. No one heard the bear come in—that is, no one but the little black cricket in the thimble near the fireplace. He heard the shaggy, savage creature, and all at once that cricket chirped and cried out:
"Wake up! Wake up, everybody! You'll all be eaten!" And the cricket sang his happy song so loudly that Jacko and Jumpo and Mr. and Mrs. Kinkytail awakened at once, just as though they had heard an alarm clock.
Then Mr. Kinkytail took a club and began beating on the bottom of the dishpan, and the bear heard it and he thought it was the fire engines coming after him, so he jumped out of the front door to get away. And he jumped so hard that he fell to the ground and broke two of its toenails, and it served him right, I think.
So that's how the cricket saved the Kinkytails from being robbed and eaten up, and they were very thankful to him. And he stayed with them all winter, and sometimes he had cherry pie for supper.
Now next I'm going to tell you about the Kinkytails and the doll's house—that is, if the alarm clock will stop making figures all over my paper so I can write the story, and if the coffee pot doesn't step on the rolling pin's toes.