tling up in an
oak tree which had some brown leaves on it, and then Jumpo caught a
glimpse of the doll's blue dress, and he also saw a big crawly snake,
with his tail wound around a limb of the tree, and that snake was
holding the doll fast in his coils. He had reached down and taken the
doll when Susie wasn't looking.

"Oh, the snake has your doll!" cried Jumpo.

"And how shall I ever get her?" asked the rabbit girl.

"Leave it to me," said Jumpo.

"You'll never get this doll," hissed the snake, like a steam radiator.
But Jumpo knew a good trick. He went off in the woods until he met a
cow. And he asked the cow for some milk and the cow gave him a whole
pailful. Then Jumpo went back and put the pail of milk where the snake
could see it.

Now you know snakes like milk better than anything--better even than
boys and girls like ice cream cones. So as soon as the snake in the tree
saw the milk, he at once let go of the doll, uncoiled himself, and
hurried down for the milk, before the cow could take it away.

"Oh, now I have my dollie back!" cried Susie in delight, and she quickly
caught and hugged Clotilde Raspberry Shortcake, which was the doll's
name, and then Susie and Jumpo ran away before the snake could get them,
and they found Jacko, and each had a lot of chestnuts.

So that's how Jumpo helped Susie Littletail, and that's all there is to
this story. But the next one will be about Jacko and the little
mouse--that is, if the water pitcher doesn't turn over and go to sleep
in the baby's crib and scare the gold fish.

[Illustration]

STORY XII

JACKO AND THE LITTLE MOUSE

"Jacko, will you go to the store for me?" called Mamma Kinkytail to the
little red monkey one afternoon when he had come home from school.

"Yes, mother," he said. "What do you want?"

"Well, I need a dozen cocoanuts and two pounds of sugar, and some
chocolate and some flour."

"Oh, you must be going to make a cake!" cried the monkey boy, tying two
hard knots in his tail.

"You have guessed it," answered his mother. "Hurry now, and the cake
will be baked in time for supper."

"Oh, but I wish Jumpo was here to go with me," said Jacko, as he started
off.

"Why?" asked his mother.

"Because if I carry such nice things as cocoanuts and sugar and
chocolate, a burglar may take them away from me on my way home."

"Nonsense!" said his mother. "Burglars don't want such things as that.
Besides, it is daylight, and burglars don't