Once upon a time there was a little girl just about your age, and she had a little brown monkey. Every day they would laugh and play together, and have the best time. The little girl would giggle as little girls do, "Tee hee hee." And the little brown monkey would giggle monkey fashion, "Cheee hee, chee hee, chee."

This little girl was a very good little girl. She always tried to do things the best way she possibly could.

One day the little girl decided to help her mother. She was going to do laundry while her mother was working in the office. Then, when her mother saw what she had done she would be pleased and happy. That was the plan.

The little girl knew that the laundry took quite a while. So she decided to start early. As soon as her mother closed the office door, the little girl got right to work. She got all her dirty clothes out of her hamper, and took them into her parents' bedroom. There, on the floor, she carefully sorted the laundry into four stacks: whites, warm colors (yellows and reds and browns), cool colors (greens and blues), and blacks. She put her jeans into the cool colors pile. The little brown monkey put his red jacket into the warm colors pile. She took the dirty clothes out of her parents' hamper too, to add them to the piles.

When she came to her mother's pretty yellow sundress, she couldn't resist trying that on. And the little brown monkey couldn't resist trying on her daddy's dress shirt. When she saw how they looked together in the mirror, the little girl had to laugh! They both had a lot of growing to do before those clothes fit them! She took off the yellow dress, and put it into the warm colors pile, and she took her daddy's brown shirt from her little brown monkey, and tossed it into the whites pile.

The whites pile, full of her daddy's t-shirts and shorts and socks, was the biggest pile. So the little girl decided to start washing whites first. She put some of the whites into the little brown monkey's arms, and she took the rest of the whites in her arms, and they went together to the laundry room.

In the laundry room, the little girl dropped her pile of clothes on the floor. Then she fetched the stool, and pulled it up by the washer. She stood on the stool, and opened the washer. Then the stepped off the stool, picked up her load of whites again, and put them into the washer. The little brown monkey put the clothes he was carrying into the washer too! In fact, the little brown monkey jumped right in with those clothes!

"No, no, no, Little Brown Monkey," the little girl said. "You don't belong in this load. You are brown, not white! She lifted the little brown monkey out of the washer, and put him on top of the dryer.

Then she got the detergent, and carefully measured it in. She turned on the washer, and watched the water pour in. The little brown monkey watched the water too. When he saw the water he didn't want to get into the washer any more. He was not particularly fond of water.

Suddenly the little girl noticed a sock. It had fallen from their arms as they carried the clothes from the bedroom. When she went to pick that sock up, she saw another sock, in the hall. She picked that sock up too.

When the little girl returned with the socks, she saw that the little brown monkey had the box of detergent in his hands. She quickly took that away from him. When she put the two socks into the washer, she thought it looked a little soapier than it had before, but she couldn't be sure. "Oh well," she thought, "if he put a little soap in there, it won't matter. A little extra soap won't hurt anything." She closed the lid on the washer, took her little brown monkey by the hand, and went outside to play for a while.

After the little girl had swung on her swing for a while, and the little brown monkey had climbed a tree, they decided to come in and check on the laundry. Perhaps it would be ready to move to the dryer?

When they got to the laundry room they had a surprise! The floor was covered with suds! And more suds were bubbling out of the washing machine! "Oh, my goodness!" the little girl cried! "Oh, my goodness gracious! What ever shall I do?" She started to cry, because she had a big mess, and she was afraid that her mother would be angry with her.

But the little brown monkey knew what to do. He jumped from her shoulder to the dryer, and from there to the washer, and from there to the bookshelf. From the bookshelf he could reach the door, and swing it wide open. After he did that, some of the sudds started flowing out the door.

Then he jumped back to the washer. Delicately he avoided the bubbles, as he lept to the dryer. From the dryer he could reach the handle of the mop. He grabbed it, and pulled the mop over toward the little girl. He hopped onto the little girl's shoulder, and put the mop in her hand.

She looked up at him. "Thank you, Little Brown Monkey," she said. She wiped the tears from her eyes. "That is what I should do, isn't it? I need to mop this mess up."

Just then the cycle of the washer changed to rinse, and bubbles stopped coming out of the machine. The little girl smiled. Things were looking better - she could handle this!

She took that mop and started pushing the water and the suds out the door. The little brown monkey liked that - he thought it was a game! He grabbed hold of the mop handle and rode it like a hobby horse! The little girl laughed at that, but she kept mopping. She mopped and mopped, until the all of the suds were gone. The floor was still damp, but there were no puddles on it any more. She got a towel, and wiped off the top of the washer. Everything looked fine.

Just as she put the mop away, she heard her mother's footsteps. Her mother came to the door of the laundry room. She saw the damp floor. She heard the washer, which was now spinning dry. And she saw her daughter standing there, with the little brown monkey perched on her shoulder.

"What a surprise," Mother said. "You mopped the floor for me? And you did a load of laundry?" she exclaimed. "What a wonderful surprise! What a sweet child you are!" She picked up her daughter and gave her a big hug. She hugged the little brown monkey too. "Thank you, thank you!" Mother said.

"Cheee hee, chee hee, chee," said the little brown monkey. And the little girl felt very proud and happy.

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