The Complete Adventures of Curious George (3 page)

On the deck he found some sea gulls.
He wondered how they could fly.
He was very curious.
Finally he HAD to try.
It looked easy. But—

oh, what happened!
First this—

and then this!

"WHERE IS GEORGE?"
The sailors looked and looked.
At last they saw him
struggling in the water,
and almost all tired out.

"Man overboard!" the sailors cried
as they threw him a lifebelt.
George caught it and held on.
At last he was safe on board.

After that George was more careful
to be a good monkey, until, at last,
the long trip was over.
George said good-bye to the kind sailors,
and he and the man with the yellow hat
walked off the ship on to the shore
and on into the city to the man's house.

After a good meal
and a good pipe
George felt very tired.

He crawled into bed
and fell asleep at once.

The next morning
the man telephoned the Zoo.
George watched him.
He was fascinated.
Then the man went away.

George was curious.
He wanted to telephone, too.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
What fun!

DING-A-LING-A-LING!
GEORGE HAD TELEPHONED
THE FIRE STATION!
The firemen rushed to the telephone.
"Hello! Hello!" they said.
But there was no answer.
Then they looked for the signal
on the big map that showed
where the telephone call had come from.
They didn't know it was GEORGE.
They thought it was a real fire.

HURRY! HURRY! HURRY!
The firemen jumped on to the fire engines
and on to the hook-and-ladders.
Ding-dong-ding-dong.
Everyone out of the way!
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

The firemen rushed into the house.
They opened the door.
NO FIRE!
ONLY a naughty little monkey.
"Oh, catch him, catch him," they cried.
George tried to run away.
He almost did, but he got caught
in the telephone wire, and—

a thin fireman caught one arm
and a fat fireman caught the other.
"You fooled the fire department,"
they said. "We will have to shut you up
where you can't do any more harm."
They took him away
and shut him in a prison.

George wanted to get out.
He climbed up to the window
to try the bars.
Just then the watchman came in.
He got on the wooden bed to catch George.
But he was too big and heavy.
The bed tipped up,
the watchman fell over,
and, quick as lightning,
George ran out through the open door.