"Roast chestnuts! Why not?" he exclaimed. "I'm hungry and they will be just the thing for my supper."
So he took some of the chestnuts the squirrel had given him, and put them in the hot ashes to roast. Well, the nuts were almost ready to eat, after they had cooled a bit, when, all of a sudden, something reached around Jacko's neck from the darkness behind him, and a voice cried out:
"Ah, ha! This time I've got you sure! I thought I'd find something for my supper if I came out, and I have!"
Jacko turned around and saw that the savage wolf had hold of him.
"Oh, please let me go!" cried the poor monkey boy. He struggled to get loose, but couldn't.
"Indeed I'll not let you go!" snarled the wolf. "I'm going to sit down by your fire, and get warm, and then I'll carry you off to my den." Well, Jacko felt dreadfully on hearing that. But just you wait and see what happens, if you please.
All of a sudden, just as the wolf was getting ready to carry the monkey boy off to his den, the chestnuts in the fire began bursting and popping from the heat.
"Bang-bang!" they went, like fire-crackers. My! what a noise they made as they exploded.
"Oh, I'm shot! I'm hit! Some one is shooting guns at me! Oh, please, don't kill me! I'll be good! I won't eat Jacko! I was only fooling!" cried the wolf, in a great fright.
"Bang-bang!" went more chestnuts, and some of them hit the wolf in the eye. Then he gave three and a half howls, let go of Jacko and ran off in the woods as fast as he could go.