in a passion--his wife likewise standin' by holdin' her sides wi'
laughin'. Well, sir, the moment I goes in, up gits the chief an' shouts
for Tony, an' tells him to tell me that I must make him a jumpin'-jack!
In course I says I'd do it with all the pleasure in life; and he says
that I must make it full size, as big as hisself! I opened my eyes at
this, but he said he must have a thing that was fit for a man--a chief--
so there was nothin' for it but to set to work. An' it worn't difficult
to manage neither, for they supplied me with slabs o' timber an inch
thick an' I soon blocked out the body an' limbs with a hatchet an'
polished 'em off with my knife, and then put 'em together. W'en the big
jack wos all right Yambo took it away, for he'd watched me all the time
I wos at it, an' fixed it up to the branch of a tree an' set to work.

"I never, no I never, did," continued Disco, slapping his right thigh,
while Jumbo grinned in sympathy, "see sitch a big baby as Yambo became
w'en he got that monstrous jumpin'-jack into action--with his courtiers
all round him, their faces blazin' with surprise, or conwulsed wi'
laughter. The chief hisself was too hard at work to laugh much. He
could only glare an' grin, for, big an' strong though he is, the jack
wos so awful heavy that it took all his weight an' muscle haulin' on the
rope which okipied the place o' the string that we're used to.

"`Haul away, my hearty,' thought I, w'en I seed him heavin', blowin',
an' swettin' at the jack's halyards, `you'll not break that rope in a
hurry.'

"But I was wrong, sir, for, although the halyards held on all right, I
had not calkilated on such wiolent action at the joints. All of a
sudden off comes a leg at the knee. It was goin' the up'ard kick at the
time, an' went up like a rocket, slap through a troop o' monkeys that
was lookin' on aloft, which it scattered like foam in a gale. Yambo
didn't seem to care a pinch o' snuff. His blood was up. The sweat was
runnin' off him like rain. `Hi!' cries he, givin' another most awful
tug. But it wasn't high that time, for the other leg came off at the
hip-jint on the down kick, an' went straight into the buzzum of a black
warrior an' floored him wuss than he ever wos floored since he took to
fightin'. Yambo didn't care for that either. He gave another haul with
all his might, which proved too much for jack without his legs, for it
threw his arms out with such force that they jammed hard