JUMPO AND HIS AIRSHIP
"Well, what in the world are you making now?" asked Mr. Kinkytail of his little boy Jumpo one morning, just as the papa monkey was starting to work in the hand organ factory. "Is that going to be a tent, Jumpo?"
Jumpo looked up from where he was making something down in the yard.
"No, papa, it isn't going to be a tent," he said.
"Then what is it?" asked Mr. Kinkytail.
"It's going to be an airship, to sail up in the air as the birds do," replied the little green monkey boy.
"Oh, my! You never can make that!" said his papa, and he went off laughing. "Is Jacko helping you?" he asked.
"No, Jacko has gone off in the automobile to give Grandfather Goosey Gander a ride," said Jumpo.
"That is very kind of Jacko," spoke Mr. Kinkytail, "but I hope he doesn't upset and spill out the old gentleman duck. But you be careful not to fall out of your airship, Jumpo."
So Jumpo said he would, and he went right on making it. I suppose you know what an airship is? It's something like two tablecloths fastened over some sticks, and one end is a thing like the tail of a goose, and on the other end is something like the tail of a bird, and in the middle there is a thing like a pinwheel, which goes around buzzity-buzz, and there's an engine to make the buzzity-buzz thing go. Then there are wheels like on a baby carriage, only they are blown up with air like a big bologna sausage, and that's an airship.
And that is what Jumpo was making. He had two old umbrellas, and he had fastened them together, one over the other, with some strings. He had a big palm leaf fan for one tail and another fan for the other tail, and four wheels he took off an old pair of roller skates. Then he had a little toy locomotive, and he used that for the engine, and it was very good, for it went whizzing around very fast when he wound up the spring. And for the buzzity-buzz thing he had a green paper pinwheel.
"Do you think your airship will sail, Jumpo?" asked Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, as he came along just then.
"I'm sure it will," said the green monkey boy. "You see I get in it and sit on this seat. It's made from an old washboard that mamma didn't want. Then I start the engine and I will go rolling along over the ground. Pretty soon I will get going so fast that I'll sail up in the air, and then I'll be like a bird. Don't you want to sail with me?"
"Are you going up pretty soon?" asked Jimmie, "because my dinner is nearly ready and I don't want to miss it."
"Oh, I'm going up very shortly," said Jumpo. "All I've got to do is to fasten some court plaster on the wheels so they won't drop off when we're up in the air, and then I've got to take along a piece of string to tie the engine fast with, and then we'll go up. I'll bring you back in time for dinner, all right."
"Then I'll go," said Jimmie. "I never have been up in an airship, and it must be fun."
"I'll be glad to have you along," spoke Jumpo, "because if anything happens, you can fly down to the ground with me on your back and neither of us will get hurt."
"Why, do you think anything may happen?" asked Jimmie, sort of scared like.
"Well, you never can tell," answered Jumpo, as he fastened the roller skate wheels on with sticking plaster. "Airships sometimes do fall," and he whistled a funny little tune.
"Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! Wow!" exclaimed Jimmie. "I guess my mamma is calling me. I'll see you again, Jumpo. Goodbye!"
"Oh, don't go. I guess nothing will happen," called the green monkey, and then Jimmie came back.
Well, pretty soon the airship was finished. Oh! I wish you could have seen it, but of course you can't on account of what happened to it. I'll tell you all about it, however.
"Come on, get aboard, Jimmie!" called Jumpo. "There's room for you beside me on the washboard," and he got up and so did the duck boy, and then they were ready to start. Jumpo had placed the airship on a smooth place where the roller skate wheels could go around very easily. The two umbrellas were hoisted to catch the air and the pinwheel buzzer was all ready to go bizz-buzz.
"Here we go!" called Jumpo, and he started the engine.
My! How the pinwheel buzzer did whirl around! Faster and faster it went until you could hardly see it. But alas and alack a-day! The airship didn't go up.
"What's the matter?" asked Jimmie anxious like.
"Oh, I see!" cried Jumpo, looking over the side. "I put too much court plaster on the roller skate wheels, and they're all stuck up. I'll soon fix it."
Well, it didn't take him long, and once more he started the engine. Faster and faster went the buzzer. The airship began to shiver and to shake, and then all of a sudden it began rolling over the ground.
"Oh, we're moving! We're moving!" cried Jimmie.
"Of course we are," said Jumpo proudly. "I told you we'd fly like a bird."
And then, would you believe me, that queer airship did go in the air a little distance because the wind got under the umbrellas and lifted them up. Up and up it went, with Jimmie and Jumpo in it.
"Wow! Isn't this great?" cried Jumpo.
"Yes, we're right over our duck pond," said Jimmie. "I hope we don't fall."
But alas! Just as he said that, something happened. The engine went so fast that the spring flew out of it. One umbrella turned inside out and the other outside in. The sticking plaster fell off, and the roller skate wheels dropped into the pond with a splash. Then the whole airship began falling into the pond.
"Oh, save me! Save me!" cried Jumpo.
"I will!" cried Jimmie. "Get on my back."
So Jumpo did this and Jimmie spread out his strong wings and flew safely to the ground with Jumpo, while the airship fell into the duck pond with a big splash—splash—splash—and it was drowned, I believe, for no one ever saw it again.
"Well," said Jumpo, as he got off Jimmie's back when they had landed, "I guess I don't know how to make airships. But I'm much obliged to you. I'm glad you came along."
"I don't know whether I am glad or not," answered Jimmie, as he looked at a place where a stone had bruised his foot. "But anyhow I'm sure you don't know how to build airships that will fly. I'll stick to my own wings after this." And he did!
Now, next in case the man who cleans our windows doesn't put the soap in the sugar bowl and make the gold fish sing like a canary bird, I'll tell you about Jumpo and the talcum powder.