ful," 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.