Mappo, the Merry Monkey | Page 6

brothers and sisters gave him.

All of a sudden, as the little monkeys were eating away, there sounded
a rustling in the trees. Something was coming through the branches.
"Look out!" cried Jacko.
"Run!" shouted Mappo.
"Don't be afraid, children, it's only your papa," said a kind, chattering
voice, and Mr. Monkey, with a bunch of bananas slung over his back,
came scrambling up to the tree-house.
"Did you see the tiger?" asked Mrs. Monkey.
"No, but I heard the other monkeys calling out about him, so I was
careful," said the papa monkey. "Are you all right here?"
"Oh, yes. We saw him in time," spoke Mrs. Monkey.
"Oh, papa, I can open a cocoanut!" cried Mappo.
"So can I!" exclaimed Bumpo. "Look!" and he was in such a hurry to
show what he could do that he slipped, and bumped his head against
Mappo, nearly knocking him off the branch on which the monkey boy
was sitting.
In fact, Mappo did fall off, but he had his tail tightly wound around the
branch, so he did not fall all the way to the ground, as he might have
done.
"Look out! What are you doing?" cried Mappo to Bumpo, after having
swung himself up on the branch again.
"Oh dear! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," said Bumpo. "I just wanted to
show papa how I can open a cocoanut."
[Illustration: Mr. Monkey, with a bunch of bananas slung over his back,
came scrambling up to the tree-house. (Page 25)]
"We can all open cocoanuts! We've had our lessons," said Chaa.

"Good!" cried Mr. Monkey. "To open cocoanuts is a good thing to
know. And now here are some bananas I have brought you." He passed
around the yellow fruit from the bunch he had brought home. Then,
having eaten bananas and cocoanut, all the monkeys went to sleep.
That is about all monkeys in the jungle do--eat and sleep. Of course
some of the younger ones play tricks once in a while. Monkeys are very
mischievous and fond of playing tricks. That is what makes them so
funny in the circus, and with the hand-organ men.
When the monkeys awakened, they were thirsty. Mappo was going
down, right away, to the ground and get a drink at a water-pool near the
family tree.
"Wait!" called his father, stretching out his long, hairy arms. "I must
first look to see that the tiger is not there, Mappo."
But the tiger was far away, so the monkeys scrambled down and took
long drinks. Then they crawled back into their tree again.
For two or three days after this, Mappo, his brothers and sisters
practiced their new lesson of opening cocoanuts, until they could do it
as well as Mr. and Mrs. Monkey.
Meanwhile they had gone off together, a little way into the woods,
looking for different things to eat. Mappo used to go a little ahead of
the others.
"Be careful," his mother warned him. "If you get too far away from us,
the tiger will catch you."
Then Mappo would come back.
One day, after the monkeys had opened some cocoanuts and eaten out
the white meat, Mappo thought of a good trick to play on Bumpo or
Jacko.
Down on the ground, under the family tree, were some empty cocoanut

shells. One was almost whole, with only a small piece broken out.
"I'll put that piece of shell back in the hole," said Mappo, "and it will
look as though it had not been opened. Then I'll give it to Jacko or
Bumpo. They'll think it's a good cocoanut, and try to break it open.
Then won't they feel funny when they see it's empty!"
Mappo was thinking so much about the trick he was going to play, that
he did not look about, as he ought to have done, for any signs of danger.
He was down on the ground, putting the piece of shell back in the hole
in the empty cocoanut, to play a trick on one of his brothers, when, all
of a sudden, there was a crashing in the bushes, right in front of Mappo,
and out jumped the big, yellow and black striped tiger.
"Oh my!" exclaimed Mappo, and he was so frightened that he could not
move.
CHAPTER III
MAPPO IN A NET
Mappo crouched down on the ground, trying to hide under a green bush
of the jungle. In his paw he held the empty cocoanut shell with which
he was going to play a trick on Bumpo or Jacko. The tiger was creeping,
slowly, slowly along, on his soft, padded feet, just as your cat creeps
after a bird. Mappo was too frightened to move.
"Ah ha!" growled the tiger, away down deep in his throat. "At last I
have