you may all have some to eat."

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