"
With this he raised his lean head to look up at the
Tin Owl and the Canary and the Monkey, and he lashed
his tail upon the ground and growled as fiercely as any
jaguar could.
"My friends are enchanted, also," said the little
Brown Bear.
"All of them?" asked the Jaguar.
"Yes. The Owl is tin, so you couldn't possibly eat
him. The Canary is a fairy -- Polychrome, the Daughter
of the Rainbow -- and you never could catch her because
she can easily fly out of your reach."
"There still remains the Green Monkey," remarked the
Jaguar hungrily. "He is neither made of tin nor stuffed
with straw, nor can he fly. I'm pretty good at climbing
trees, myself, so I think I'll capture the Monkey and
eat him for my breakfast."
Woot the Monkey, hearing this speech from his perch
on the tree, became much frightened, for he knew the
nature of jaguars and realized they could climb trees
and leap from limb to limb with the agility of cats. So
he at once began to scamper through the forest as fast
as he could go, catching at a branch with his long
monkey arms and swinging his green body through space
to grasp another branch in a neighboring tree, and so
on, while the Jaguar followed him from below, his eyes
fixed steadfastly on his prey. But presently Woot got
his feet tangled in the Lace Apron, which he was still
wearing, and that tripped him in his flight and made
him fall to the ground, where the Jaguar placed one
huge paw upon him and said grimly:
I've got you, now!"
The fact that the Apron had tripped him made Woot
remember its magic powers, and in his terror he cried
out: "Open!" without stopping to consider how this
command might save him.
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