estnuts and throwing away the shells, I can't say for sure--at any
rate poor Jacko was soon lost in the woods, with night coming on, and he
couldn't find the right path.

It wasn't because Jacko didn't look for the path home that he couldn't
find it; no, indeed, for he searched as hard as ever a monkey boy could.
But that path stayed lost.

"Oh, dear! What shall I do?" said the red monkey finally. "I'm afraid
I'll have to stay in these woods forever, and never see my mamma or papa
or brother Jumpo again! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"

Then he put his hand in his pocket, and he happened to feel a box of
matches. Finding them gave him an idea.

"I'll just make a little camp fire," he said. "Then, if I have to stay
in the woods all night I'll be warm. And perhaps my papa and brother
will come to search for me, and they can tell where I am by the light of
the fire. I'll build one."

It didn't take the monkey boy long to gather up some sticks and make a
fire, and soon it was blazing merrily, while he sat down in front of it,
on a flat stone, and looked at the flames. Then he thought of something
else.

"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!"