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"I thought cocoanut was white," said Choo.
"It is, inside," said Mrs. Monkey. "This cocoanut I now have has the outer shell still on it. That is why it is not round, like some you may have seen. Inside this soft covering is the round nut, and inside that round nut is the white meat. Now, Mappo, you are a smart little monkey, let me see if you will know how to o...
Mappo took the cocoanut and looked at it. He turned it over and over in his paws. Then, with his fingers, he tried to pull it apart. But he could not do it. The nut was too hard for him. Next he tried to bite it open, but he could not.
"Let me try. I can open it!" exclaimed Jacko.
"No, I'll do it," said Mappo.
"If you can't, I can," spoke Bumpo, and he gave a jump over toward Mappo, and once more he hit his head on a branch, Bumpo did.
"Ouch!" he chattered, 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 the cocoanut."
Down trooped all the five little monkeys, Mappo was the first to reach his cocoanut.
"Why!" he cried. "It fell on a stone, and smashed open. That's what cracked the shell, Mamma."
"Yes, I thought it would," said Mrs. Monkey. "And that is the lesson you little ones are to learn. You cannot bite open a cocoanut. You must crack it on a stone. Mappo dropped his by accident, but it can also be dropped, or thrown, on purpose. So, when you get a cocoanut, the first thing to do is to get a sharp stick, ...
"Oh, isn't that a nice thing to know!" cried Choo.
"Yes, indeed," said her sister Chaa. "I wish we had a cocoanut to break open."
"Come up in the tree and I'll give you each one," said Mrs. Monkey.
Up into the tree, where their house was, scrambled Mappo, and his brothers and sisters. Mappo carried in his paws the pieces of white cocoanut he had broken out of the round, brown shell. He nibbled at a piece.
"Oh, doesn't that taste good!" he cried.
"Please give me some," begged Chaa, holding out one little, brown paw.
"No, I want it all," said Mappo.
"Oh, you must not be selfish!" said Mrs. Monkey. "Give your brothers and sisters some, Mappo, and when they open their nuts, they will give you some."
Mappo was sorry he had been a little selfish. He gave each of the other monkeys some cocoanut. Mrs. Monkey went into the tree-house and came out with four other cocoanuts. She gave one each to the other monkeys, and soon they had torn off the tough, outer husk, or covering, with a sharp stick, the way Mappo did.
Then they threw the round brown nuts down on a flat stone under the tree, cracking the shell so they could pick out the white meat.
"Oh, but this is good!" exclaimed Mappo, as he chewed some of the pieces his brothers and sisters gave him.
All of a sudden, as the little monkeys were eating away, there sounded a rustling in the trees. Something was coming through the branches.
"Look out!" cried Jacko.
"Run!" shouted Mappo.
"Don't be afraid, children, it's only your papa," said a kind, chattering voice, and Mr. Monkey, with a bunch of bananas slung over his back, came scrambling up to the tree-house.