"I'll eat a bit," he said, "and bring some home to my mamma and papa and Jacko. Oh, some one was very kind to leave this here for me." You see, he didn't know the trick the fox had made up to catch him.
Into the freezing mixture of ice and salt poor Jumpo plunged his paw, and in an instant it was frozen fast there, and he couldn't get it out, as the late afternoon was cold. Pull and pull as he did, the little green monkey was held fast, just as if he was in a trap.
"Oh, dear! This is terrible! Oh, it isn't ice cream at all. It's just ice, and I'm frozen fast. Will no one help me?" cried Jumpo.
"No," said the fox, "no one will, and when it gets dark enough, so no one can see me, I'm coming out and get you and eat you. I have you fast, just where I want you."
And indeed it did seem so, for the harder Jumpo pulled the tighter he was held. He begged and pleaded, but it was of no use. It got darker and darker, and the fox was just coming out with a hatchet to chop Jumpo's paw out of the ice, so he could take him inside the bungalow stump, when, all of a sudden, Grandfather Goosey Gander heard the monkey boy's cries.
"That is some one in trouble!" exclaimed the old gander gentleman, and he put back on the stove the hot flatiron with which he was ironing his silk hat ready for Sunday. So he opened the door and called: "What's the trouble?"
"I'm frozen fast in the ice cream tub, and the fox is going to catch me!" cried Jumpo.
"Ha! Hum! We'll see about that!" shouted Grandfather Goosey Gander. In an instant he caught up the hot flatiron off the stove, and out he ran. Then, before the fox could get at the monkey boy the goose gentleman had put the hot flatiron on the ice in the tub, taking care not to burn Jumpo. And there was a sizzling, hissing sound, and in another instant the ice was melted because of the hot flatiron, and Jumpo was free. Then he ran to Grandfather Goosey Gander's house with the old gentleman, and the fox didn't get him, and pretty soon Jumpo went home to tell the folks all about it. And for some time after that Jumpo was a good monkey boy in school.
Now, in the next story I'm going to tell you about Jacko and the paper bag—that is, if the sofa cushion doesn't get tangled up in the lamp chimney and spoil the pudding for supper.