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," spoke 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 kindly helped untie 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 Buddy Pigg, and Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, and Jimmy Wibblewobble and Billie Wagtail, the goat, and all the others, including Munchie Trot, 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 whittle 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.