rubbing the sore place with his paw.

Mappo turned the cocoanut over and over again. He was looking for some
hole in it through which he could put his paw and get out the white
meat. But he saw none.

"Maybe I could open it," said Choo, gently.

"No, we must let Mappo have a good try," said Mrs. Monkey. "Then, if he
cannot do it, you may all have a turn. But it is a good lesson to know
how to open a cocoanut. When you get to be big monkeys, you will have to
open a great many of them."

Mappo was pulling and tearing at the hard husk of the cocoanut.

"If I had something sharp, I could tear it open," he said. Then he
happened to look up in the tree, and he saw where a branch had been
broken off, leaving a sharp point.

"Ha! I have it!" he cried.

He broke off the branch, and with the sharp point he soon had torn a
hole in the outer husk of the cocoanut. He pulled the round nut out.

"I have it!" he chattered.

"Yes, but it isn't good to eat yet," said Bumpo. "How are you going to
open the rest of it?"

Mappo did not know. Once more he tried to bite a hole, but he could not.
All of a sudden the nut slipped from his paws, and fell down toward the
ground.

"Oh!" cried Mappo, and he started to climb down after the nut. "My
cocoanut is lost!"

"Look out for the tiger!" cried Jacko. "Look out, Mappo!"

CHAPTER II

MAPPO PLAYS A TRICK

Mappo, who had started to climb down to the ground, to get the cocoanut
he had lost, stopped short when he heard his brother Jacko cry out about
the tiger.

"Don't be afraid," said Mrs. Monkey. "The tiger is not there now. He has
gone, or else I shouldn't have let you try to open the cocoanut, Mappo.
Go on and get it; don't be afraid."

So Mappo went on down to the ground. And, when he reached it, he saw
something that was very strange to him.

"Oh, Mamma!" cried Mappo. "The cocoanut is all broken to pieces. I can
pick out the white meat now. Oh, Mamma, it's all broken."

"Is it?" cried Bumpo, and he hurried down so fast that he hit his nose,
and sneezed.

"Yes, it's all cracked open," said Mappo. "Oh, goodie!"

Of course Mappo didn't just say that in so many words, but he talked, in
his monkey talk, just as you children would have done, had the same
thing happened to you.

"Maybe the tiger broke open the cocoanut for you," said Bumpo, as he
rubbed his hurt nose.

"No, the tiger is not there," said Mrs. Monkey. "You may all go down and
see how Mappo opened