The Project Gutenberg eBook, Mappo, the Merry Monkey, by Richard Barnum,
Illustrated by Harriet H. Tooker
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Title: Mappo, the Merry Monkey
Author: Richard Barnum
Release Date: November 8, 2004 [eBook #13980]
Language: English
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Kneetime Animal Stories
MAPPO, THE MERRY MONKEY
His Many Adventures
by
RICHARD BARNUM
Author of _Squinty, the Comical Pig_, _Slicko the Jumping Squirrel_,
_Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant_, _Don, a Runaway Dog_, etc.
Illustrated by Harriet H. Tooker
1915
[Illustration: With all his might he threw the empty cocoanut shell
right at the tiger's head. (Frontispiece)]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I MAPPO AND THE COCOANUT
II MAPPO PLAYS A TRICK
III MAPPO IN A NET
IV MAPPO IN A BOX
V MAPPO ON THE SHIP
VI MAPPO MEETS TUM TUM
VII MAPPO IN THE CIRCUS
VIII MAPPO AND HIS TRICKS
IX MAPPO RUNS AWAY
X MAPPO AND SQUINTY
XI MAPPO AND THE ORGAN-MAN
XII MAPPO AND THE BABY
KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES
Richard Barnum
Illustrated.
SQUINTY, THE COMICAL PIG
SLICKO, THE JUMPING SQUIRREL
MAPPO, THE MERRY MONKEY
TUM TUM, THE JOLLY ELEPHANT
DON, A RUNAWAY DOG
DIDO, THE DANCING BEAR
BLACKIE, A LOST CAT
FLOP EAR, THE FUNNY RABBIT
TINKLE, THE TRICK PONY
LIGHTFOOT, THE LEAPING GOAT
(Other volumes in preparation)
ILLUSTRATIONS
With all his might he threw the empty cocoanut shell right at the
tiger's head (Frontispiece)
Mr. Monkey, with a bunch of bananas slung over his back, came scrambling
up to the tree-house
So he gave a jump out of the net, but, in a second found himself inside
the wooden crate or box
Away up to the top he went, and, curling his tail around a rope, there
he sat
Around and around in a ring went Prince carrying Mappo
He rode around a little wooden platform on the bicycle, holding a flag
over his shoulder
Mappo sat up at the table and eat his dinner with knife, fork and spoon
CHAPTER I
MAPPO AND THE COCOANUT
Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, there lived in a tree, in
a big woods, a little monkey boy. It was in a far-off country, where
this little monkey lived, so far that you would have to travel many days
in the steam cars, and in a steamship, to get there.
The name of the little monkey boy was Mappo, and he had two brothers and
two sisters, and also a papa and a mamma. One sister was named Choo, and
the other Chaa, and one brother was called Jacko, and the other Bumpo.
They were funny names, but then, you see, monkeys are funny little
creatures, anyhow, and have to be called by funny names, or things would
not come out right.
Mappo was the oldest of the monkey children, and he was the smartest.
Perhaps that was why he had so many adventures. And I am going to tell
you some of the wonderful things that happened to Mappo, while he lived
in the big woods, and afterwards, when he was caught by a hunter, and
sent off to live in a circus.
But we will begin at the beginning, if you please.
Mappo, as I have said, lived in a tree in the woods. Now it might seem
funny for you to live in a tree, but it came very natural to Mappo. Lots
of creatures live in trees. There are birds, and squirrels, and
katydids. Of course they do not stay in the trees all the time, any more
than you boys and girls stay in your houses all the while. They go down
on the ground to play, occasionally.
"But you will find the safest place for you is the tree," said Mappo's
mother to him one day, when he had been playing down on the ground with
his brothers and sisters. And, while they were down playing a game,
something like your game of tag, all of a sudden along came a big
striped tiger, with long teeth.
"Run! Run fast! Everybody run!" yelled Mappo, in the queer, chattering
language monkeys use.
His brothers and sisters scrambled up into the tree where their house
was, and Mappo scrambled up after them. He was almost too late, for the
tiger nearly caught Mappo by the tail. But the little monkey boy managed
to get out of the way, and then he sat down on a branch in front of the
tree house where he lived.
"That wasn't very nice of that tiger to chase us!" said Mappo, when he
could get his breath.
"No, indeed," said Mrs. Monkey. "Tigers are not often nice. After this
you children had better stay in the tree--until you are a little larger,
at least."
"But it's more fun on the ground," said Mappo.
"That may be," said Mrs. Monkey, as she looked down through the branches
to see if the tiger were still waiting to catch one of her little ones.
"But, Mappo, you and your brothers and sisters can run much better and
faster in a tree than on the ground," said Mrs. Monkey.
And this is so. A monkey can get over the ground pretty fast on his four
legs, as you can easily tell if you have ever watched a hand-organ
monkey. But they can travel much faster up in the trees. For there is a
hand on the end of each monkey's four limbs, and his curly tail is as
good as another hand for grasping branches. So you see a monkey really
has five hands with which to help himself along in the trees, and that
is why he can swing himself along so swiftly, from one branch to
another.
That is why it is safer for monkeys to be up in a tree than on the
ground. There are very few other animals that can catch monkeys, once
the five-handed creatures are up among the leaves. And monkeys can
travel a long way through the forest without ever coming down to the
ground. They swing themselves along from one tree to another, for miles
and miles through the forest.
"Is it safe to go down now, Mamma?" asked Mappo of his mother, in monkey
talk. This was a little while after the scare.
"No, not yet," she said. "That tiger may still be down there, waiting
and hiding. You and Jacko and Bumpo, and Choo and Chaa stay up here, and
pretty soon I will give you a new lesson."
"Oh, a new lesson!" exclaimed Jacko. "I wonder what kind it will be. We
have learned to swing by our tails, and to hang by one paw. Is there
anything else we can learn?"
"Many things," said the mamma monkey, for she and her husband had been
teaching the children the different things monkeys must know to get
along in the woods.
So the four little monkeys sat in the tree in front of their home, and
waited for their mother to teach them a new lesson.
If you had seen Mappo's house, you would not have thought it a very nice
one. It was just some branches of a tree, twined together, over a sort
of platform, or floor, of dried branches. About all the house was used
for was to keep off some of the rain that fell very heavily in the
country where Mappo lived.
But this house suited the monkeys very well. They did not need to have a
warm one, for it was never winter in the land where they lived. It was
always hot and warm--sometimes too warm. There was never any snow or
ice, but, instead, just rain. It rained half the year, and the other
half it was dry. So, you see, Mappo's house was only needed to keep off
the rain.
Mappo and the other monkeys did not stay in their houses very much. They
went in them to sleep, but that was about all. The rest of the time they
jumped about in the trees, looking for things to eat, and, once in a
while, when there was no danger, they went down on the ground to play.
"I guess that tiger is gone now," said Jacko to Mappo. "Let's go down on
the ground again, and get some of those green things that are good to
eat."
The little monkeys had been eating some fruit, like green pears, which
they liked very much, when the tiger came along and frightened them.
Tigers would rather eat monkeys than green pears, I guess.
"Yes, I think we can go down now," said Mappo, looking through the
leaves, and seeing nothing of the savage, striped tiger.
"You'd better ask mamma," said Choo, one of the little girl monkeys.
"Indeed I will not! I can see as good as she can that the tiger isn't
there!" exclaimed Mappo.
You see monkey children don't want to mind, and be careful, any more
than some human children do.
Mappo started to climb down the tree, holding on to the branches by his
four paws and by his tail. He was almost to the ground, and Jacko and
Bumpo were following him, when, all at once, there was a dreadful roar,
and out sprang the tiger again.
"Oh, run! Run quick! Jump back!" screamed Mappo, and he and his brothers
got back to their tree-house not a second too soon. The tiger snapped
his teeth, and growled, he was so mad at being fooled the second time.
"Here! What did I tell you monkeys? You must stay up in the tree!"
chattered Mrs. Monkey, as she jumped out of the house. She had been
inside shaking up the piles of leaves that were the beds for her family.
"We--we thought the tiger was gone," said Mappo, who was trembling
because he was so frightened.
"But he wasn't," said Bumpo, shivering.
"No, he was right there," added Jacko, looking around.
"Yes, and he'll be there for some time," said Mrs. Monkey. "I told you
to be careful. Now you just sit down, all of you, and don't you dare
stir out of this tree until I tell you to. I'll let you know when the
tiger is gone," and she looked down through the leaves toward the
ground.
"He is still there," said Mrs. Monkey, for she caught sight of the
stripes of the tiger's skin. She had very sharp eyes, and though the
patches of sunlight through the jungle leaves hid the bad creature
somewhat, Mrs. Monkey could tell he was there, waiting to catch one of
her little children.
"Your father will be coming along, soon," said Mrs. Monkey, to her
children. "The tiger may lay in wait for him. I'd better let him know he
must be careful as he comes along through the woods."
So Mrs. Monkey raised up her head, and called as loudly as she could, in
her chattering talk. You would not have understood what she said, even
if you had heard it, though there are some men who say they can
understand monkey talk.
But the other monkeys in the woods heard what the mother of Mappo was
saying, and they, too, began to shout, in their language:
"Look out for the tiger! There is a tiger hiding down under the bushes!
Look out for him!"
Soon the whole jungle was filled with the sound of the chattering of the
monkeys, as, one after another, they began to shout. It was a warning
they shouted--a warning to Mr. Monkey to be careful when he came near
his home--to be careful of the tiger lying in wait for him.
My! what a noise those monkeys made, shouting and chattering in the
jungle. You could hear them for a mile or more. It was their way of
telephoning to Mappo's papa. Monkeys cannot really telephone, you
know--that is, not the way we do--but they can shout, one after another,
so as to be heard a long way off.
First one would chatter something about the tiger--then another monkey,
farther off, would take up the cry, and so on until Mr. Monkey heard it.
So it was as good as a telephone, anyhow.
As soon as Mappo's papa, who had gone a long distance from the
tree-house to look for some bananas for his family--as soon as he heard
the shouting about the tiger, he said to himself:
"Well, I must get home as quickly as I can, to look after my family. But
I'll be careful. I hope Mappo and the others will stay in the tall
trees."
For Mr. Monkey well knew that if his wife and little ones stayed up in
the high trees the tiger could not very well get at them, though tigers
can sometimes climb low trees.
Meanwhile Mrs. Monkey was keeping good watch over her little ones. They
had no idea, now, of going down on the ground to play--at least as long
as the tiger was hiding near them in the bushes.
"But I wish we had something to do," said Mappo, who was a merry little
chap, always laughing, shouting, running about or playing some trick on
his brothers and sisters. Just then he thought of a little trick.
He went softly up behind Jacko, and tickled him on the ear with a long
piece of a tree branch. Jacko thought it was a fly, and put up his paw
to brush it away. Mappo pulled the tree branch away just in time, and
while Jacko was peeling the skin off a bit of fruit, to eat it, Mappo
again tickled his brother.
"Oh that fly!" chattered Jacko. "If I get hold of him!" and again he
brushed with his paw at what he thought was a fly.
This made Mappo laugh. The merry little monkey laughed so hard that the
next time he tried to tickle Jacko, Mappo's paw slipped, and Jacko,
turning around, saw his brother.
"Oh ho! So it was you, and not a fly!" cried Jacko. He dropped his
fruit, and raced after his brother. Up through the tree, nearly to the
top, went the two monkeys, as fast as they could. They laughed and
chattered, for it was all in fun.
Finally Jacko caught Mappo by the tail.
"Oh, let go!" begged Mappo.
"Will you stop tickling me?" asked Jacko.
"I guess so--maybe!" laughed Mappo, trying to pull his tail out of his
brother's paw.
"No, you'll have to say for sure, before I let you go!"
Jacko pulled pretty hard on Mappo's tail.
"Oh! let go! Yes, I'll be good! I won't tickle you any more!" cried
Mappo.
Then Jacko let go, and started to climb down the tree to the little
platform in front of the monkey house. But Mappo was not done with his
jokes. He scrambled down faster than did Jacko, and finally, when Jacko
was not looking, Mappo grasped the end of his brother's tail, and gave
it a hard pinch.
"Ouch! Oh dear! Mamma, the tiger's got me!" cried Jacko.
"Ha! Ha! That's the time I fooled you!" laughed Mappo in his chattering
way.
Then Jacko gave chase after Mappo again, and the two monkey boys were
having lots of fun in the trees, when Mrs. Monkey called to them:
"Jacko! Mappo! Come down here. It is time for your new lesson. And you,
too, Choo and Chaa! You'll have time to practice a little bit before
your father comes home," and she looked down to see if the tiger were
there.
But the bad animal had gone away. He had heard the monkeys talking about
him, and sending a warning all through the jungle where they lived. A
jungle, you know, is a great big woods.
"What lesson is it going to be, Mamma?" asked Mappo.
"You'll soon see," she said.
And Mrs. Monkey went into the tree-house, came out with a brown, shaggy
thing, about as big as a small football. Have you ever seen one of
those? Only, of course, it was not a football.
"Oh, what is it, Mamma?" asked Chaa.
"I know!" exclaimed Bumpo, as he tried to climb under a branch, and
bumped his head.
"Ouch!" he cried.
That was why he was called Bumpo--he was always bumping his head,
though it did not hurt him very much, for he was covered with a heavy
growth of hair.
"Well, what is it, if you know?" asked Mappo, for he was looking at the
big, round, brown thing, and trying to guess what it was.
"It's--it's a new kind of banana," said Bumpo, for he and his brothers
and sisters were very fond of the soft red and yellow fruit.
"No, it isn't a banana," said Mrs. Monkey. "It's a cocoanut."
"I never saw a cocoanut as big as that," spoke Mappo, for his papa had
brought some smaller, round nuts to the tree-house, and had said they
were cocoanuts. The little monkeys had not been allowed to eat any of
the white meat inside the cocoanut though, for they were too small for
it then.
"Yes, this is a cocoanut," went on Mrs. Monkey. "You are now getting
large enough to have some for your meals, and so I am going to give you
a lesson in how to open a cocoanut."
"I thought cocoanut was white," said Choo.
"It is, inside," said Mrs. Monkey. "This cocoanut I now have has the
outer shell still on it. That is why it is not round, like some you may
have seen. Inside this soft covering is the round nut, and inside that
round nut is the white meat. Now, Mappo, you are a smart little monkey,
let me see if you will know how to open the cocoanut. And, when you do,
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
happened to look up in the tree, and he saw where a branch had been
broken off, leaving a sharp point.
"Ha! I have it!" he cried.
He broke off the branch, and with the sharp point he soon had torn a
hole in the outer husk of the cocoanut. He pulled the round nut out.
"I have it!" he chattered.
"Yes, but it isn't good to eat yet," said Bumpo. "How are you going to
open the rest of it?"
Mappo did not know. Once more he tried to bite a hole, but he could not.
All of a sudden the nut slipped from his paws, and fell down toward the
ground.
"Oh!" cried Mappo, and he started to climb down after the nut. "My
cocoanut is lost!"
"Look out for the tiger!" cried Jacko. "Look out, Mappo!"
CHAPTER II
MAPPO PLAYS A TRICK
Mappo, who had started to climb down to the ground, to get the cocoanut
he had lost, stopped short when he heard his brother Jacko cry out about
the tiger.
"Don't be afraid," said Mrs. Monkey. "The tiger is not there now. He has
gone, or else I shouldn't have let you try to open the cocoanut, Mappo.
Go on and get it; don't be afraid."
So Mappo went on down to the ground. And, when he reached it, he saw
something that was very strange to him.
"Oh, Mamma!" cried Mappo. "The cocoanut is all broken to pieces. I can
pick out the white meat now. Oh, Mamma, it's all broken."
"Is it?" cried Bumpo, and he hurried down so fast that he hit his nose,
and sneezed.
"Yes, it's all cracked open," said Mappo. "Oh, goodie!"
Of course Mappo didn't just say that in so many words, but he talked, in
his monkey talk, just as you children would have done, had the same
thing happened to you.
"Maybe the tiger broke open the cocoanut for you," said Bumpo, as he
rubbed his hurt nose.
"No, the tiger is not there," said Mrs. Monkey. "You may all go down and
see how Mappo opened the cocoanut."
Down trooped all the five little monkeys, Mappo was the first to reach
his cocoanut.
"Why!" he cried. "It fell on a stone, and smashed open. That's what
cracked the shell, Mamma."
"Yes, I thought it would," said Mrs. Monkey. "And that is the lesson you
little ones are to learn. You cannot bite open a cocoanut. You must
crack it on a stone. Mappo dropped his by accident, but it can also be
dropped, or thrown, on purpose. So, when you get a cocoanut, the first
thing to do is to get a sharp stick, and take off the outer shell. Then,
go up in a tall tree, and drop the inside nut down on a stone. The fall
will break it, and you can then eat the white meat."
"Oh, isn't that a nice thing to know!" cried Choo.
"Yes, indeed," said her sister Chaa. "I wish we had a cocoanut to break
open."
"Come up in the tree and I'll give you each one," said Mrs. Monkey.
Up into the tree, where their house was, scrambled Mappo, and his
brothers and sisters. Mappo carried in his paws the pieces of white
cocoanut he had broken out of the round, brown shell. He nibbled at a
piece.
"Oh, doesn't that taste good!" he cried.
"Please give me some," begged Chaa, holding out one little, brown paw.
"No, I want it all," said Mappo.
"Oh, you must not be selfish!" said Mrs. Monkey. "Give your brothers and
sisters some, Mappo, and when they open their nuts, they will give you
some."
Mappo was sorry he had been a little selfish. He gave each of the other
monkeys some cocoanut. Mrs. Monkey went into the tree-house and came out
with four other cocoanuts. She gave one each to the other monkeys, and
soon they had torn off the tough, outer husk, or covering, with a sharp
stick, the way Mappo did.
Then they threw the round brown nuts down on a flat stone under the
tree, cracking the shell so they could pick out the white meat.
"Oh, but this is good!" exclaimed Mappo, as he chewed some of the pieces
his brothers and sisters gave him.
All of a sudden, as the little monkeys were eating away, there sounded a
rustling in the trees. Something was coming through the branches.
"Look out!" cried Jacko.
"Run!" shouted Mappo.
"Don't be afraid, children, it's only your papa," said a kind,
chattering voice, and Mr. Monkey, with a bunch of bananas slung over his
back, came scrambling up to the tree-house.
"Did you see the tiger?" asked Mrs. Monkey.
"No, but I heard the other monkeys calling out about him, so I was
careful," said the papa monkey. "Are you all right here?"
"Oh, yes. We saw him in time," spoke Mrs. Monkey.
"Oh, papa, I can open a cocoanut!" cried Mappo.
"So can I!" exclaimed Bumpo. "Look!" and he was in such a hurry to show
what he could do that he slipped, and bumped his head against Mappo,
nearly knocking him off the branch on which the monkey boy was sitting.
In fact, Mappo did fall off, but he had his tail tightly wound around
the branch, so he did not fall all the way to the ground, as he might
have done.
"Look out! What are you doing?" cried Mappo to Bumpo, after having swung
himself up on the branch again.
"Oh dear! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," said Bumpo. "I just wanted to
show papa how I can open a cocoanut."
[Illustration: Mr. Monkey, with a bunch of bananas slung over his back,
came scrambling up to the tree-house. (Page 25)]
"We can all open cocoanuts! We've had our lessons," said Chaa.
"Good!" cried Mr. Monkey. "To open cocoanuts is a good thing to know.
And now here are some bananas I have brought you." He passed around the
yellow fruit from the bunch he had brought home. Then, having eaten
bananas and cocoanut, all the monkeys went to sleep.
That is about all monkeys in the jungle do--eat and sleep. Of course
some of the younger ones play tricks once in a while. Monkeys are very
mischievous and fond of playing tricks. That is what makes them so funny
in the circus, and with the hand-organ men.
When the monkeys awakened, they were thirsty. Mappo was going down,
right away, to the ground and get a drink at a water-pool near the
family tree.
"Wait!" called his father, stretching out his long, hairy arms. "I must
first look to see that the tiger is not there, Mappo."
But the tiger was far away, so the monkeys scrambled down and took long
drinks. Then they crawled back into their tree again.
For two or three days after this, Mappo, his brothers and sisters
practiced their new lesson of opening cocoanuts, until they could do it
as well as Mr. and Mrs. Monkey.
Meanwhile they had gone off together, a little way into the woods,
looking for different things to eat. Mappo used to go a little ahead of
the others.
"Be careful," his mother warned him. "If you get too far away from us,
the tiger will catch you."
Then Mappo would come back.
One day, after the monkeys had opened some cocoanuts and eaten out the
white meat, Mappo thought of a good trick to play on Bumpo or Jacko.
Down on the ground, under the family tree, were some empty cocoanut
shells. One was almost whole, with only a small piece broken out.
"I'll put that piece of shell back in the hole," said Mappo, "and it
will look as though it had not been opened. Then I'll give it to Jacko
or Bumpo. They'll think it's a good cocoanut, and try to break it open.
Then won't they feel funny when they see it's empty!"
Mappo was thinking so much about the trick he was going to play, that he
did not look about, as he ought to have done, for any signs of danger.
He was down on the ground, putting the piece of shell back in the hole
in the empty cocoanut, to play a trick on one of his brothers, when, all
of a sudden, there was a crashing in the bushes, right in front of
Mappo, and out jumped the big, yellow and black striped tiger.
"Oh my!" exclaimed Mappo, and he was so frightened that he could not
move.
CHAPTER III
MAPPO IN A NET
Mappo crouched down on the ground, trying to hide under a green bush of
the jungle. In his paw he held the empty cocoanut shell with which he
was going to play a trick on Bumpo or Jacko. The tiger was creeping,
slowly, slowly along, on his soft, padded feet, just as your cat creeps
after a bird. Mappo was too frightened to move.
"Ah ha!" growled the tiger, away down deep in his throat. "At last I
have caught a monkey!"
Of course he had not yet really caught Mappo, but he soon would; there
was very little doubt of that. Mappo shivered. He wished he had not
tried to play the trick. If he had stayed safe up in the tree, the tiger
could not have gotten at him.
Mappo, with his queer little eyes, almost like yours, looked up toward
where he knew his tree-house was. He was looking to see if his papa or
mamma were in sight.
"Ha! There is no use looking up there!" said the cunning tiger, lashing
his striped sides with his long tail. "There's no one up there to help
you!"
Poor Mappo saw that this was so. There was none of his brothers or
sisters up in the tree-house. Nor was his papa or mamma there. The whole
monkey family had gone off to look for more cocoanuts, since those they
had had were all eaten up.
Just before starting out Mrs. Monkey had said:
"Where is Mappo?"
"Oh, he just went on ahead," said Bumpo, who had seen his brother
scrambling down the tree toward the ground. Bumpo did not know what his
brother was going to do, or that Mappo intended to play a trick with the
empty cocoanut shell.
"Oh, if he's gone on ahead, then we'll catch up to him," said Mrs.
Monkey. So away they all went, leaving the tree-house empty, and
expecting to meet Mappo somewhere on the road through the jungle.
But they did not, and there was poor Mappo on the ground right in front
of the bad tiger. The tiger knew none of the monkey family was near the
tree-house except Mappo. That was what made the tiger so bold.
For, had Mr. Monkey, or Mrs. Monkey, been at home they would have seen,
or smelled the tiger. Monkeys, and other creatures of the jungle, can
often smell danger much better and more quickly than they can see it.
And, had Mr. or Mrs. Monkey smelled the tiger, they would have kept
their little ones safe in the tree, and would have shouted loudly, to
warn all the other monkeys of the danger of the bad tiger.
"Well, you can't get away from me this time!" growled the tiger,
speaking in his own language, which Mappo understood very well, just as
the tiger understood the monkey talk.
For, though monkeys, tigers and elephants, as well as cats and dogs,
cannot speak our language, they have a way of their own for talking one
to another. To us it may sound only like chatter, growls, meows and
barks, but it is really talk. Wouldn't it be nice if we could understand
animals as well as they understand us?
For they can understand our talk, you know. Else how would a horse know
when to start and stop, when the driver tells him? Or how would your dog
know when to come to you, and to lie down when you tell him to, if he
didn't understand you? Tell me that, if you please.
So Mappo understood the tiger, and the tiger understood Mappo.
The little monkey, still keeping tight hold of the empty cocoanut shell,
looked at the crouching tiger as bravely as he could. Nearer and nearer
crept the striped beast. But don't you be afraid. I have a way of saving
Mappo, and I'm going to do it, too!
"Chatter! Chatter! Chip! Chip! Whew! Zur-r-r-r-r!" went Mappo in his
queer monkey talk. That was his way of calling for help. All monkeys do
that in the jungle, when they are in danger. They want a whole lot more
monkeys to come and help them.
"There's no use in your calling that way!" growled the tiger, deep in
his throat. "Nobody can hear you!"
Mappo began to believe that this was so. All the monkeys seemed to have
gone away from that part of the jungle. He was all alone with the tiger.
Now Mappo was a brave little chap, but being brave is not going to do
one much good, when there's a tiger in the way. So Mappo thought,
besides being brave, he might be polite, and ask a favor of the tiger.
For animals are often more kind to one another than we think. If you
watch them sometimes, as I have done, you will see that this is so.
So Mappo made up his mind he would ask the tiger, as a favor, not to
bite or eat him.
"And, if he won't be kind to me," thought Mappo, "well, then maybe
something else will happen. Maybe papa will come, with a whole lot more
monkeys, and drive the tiger away. Or, if he does not, well, maybe
something else will happen," and Mappo looked at the empty cocoanut
shell in his paw.
"Please let me go, Mr. Tiger!" begged Mappo. "I never did anything to
you. Let me go!"
"No. I'll not!" growled the tiger. "I'm hungry and I want something to
eat. I chased after a goat half the morning, but it got away from me.
Then I tried to get a little deer, but it ran back with the rest of the
deer, and, as the big deer had such sharp horns, I dared not go after
it. So I haven't had anything to eat, and I'm very hungry. You haven't
any horns, none of your monkey friends are near, and I'm going to eat
you!"
Mappo looked to see how far it was to the nearest tree. It was some
distance off, but the little monkey boy knew if he could reach it he
would be safe. For, in the tree, he could run much faster, from branch
to branch, than could the tiger on the ground. But in getting over the
ground on his four paws the monkey was a bit slow. And the tiger, in one
jump could grab Mappo if the monkey started to run.
"Well, there's no use trying to get away from him by running on the
ground," thought Mappo. "He'd have me in a second. And there's no use
asking a favor of him. He seems to be mad at me. I wonder how I can get
away from him!"
Once more Mappo looked at the empty cocoanut shell in his paw--the shell
with which he was going to play a trick on Jacko or Bumpo.
Nearer and nearer to Mappo crept the tiger, lashing his tail from side
to side. Tigers always do that, just as cats do when they are trying to
catch a bird in the garden. Tigers are only big cats, you know, very
much bigger and stronger than your pussy. And they always creep slowly,
slowly up toward anything they are going to catch, until they are near
enough to give one jump and grab it in their claws. That is what the
tiger was trying to do to Mappo.
All of a sudden Mappo raised the paw that held the cocoanut shell. The
little monkey chap made up his mind to be brave and save himself if he
could.
"Take that, Mr. Tiger!" called Mappo, all at once.
With all his might he threw the empty cocoanut shell right at the
tiger's head. Monkeys are very good throwers. They are almost as good as
are baseball boys at that sort of thing.
"Bang!" went the cocoanut on the tiger's head. It cracked open--I mean
the cocoanut cracked open--where Mappo had stuck it together. It made
quite a noise.
"Oh my!" cried the tiger, jumping up suddenly, for he did not know what
to make of the cocoanut shell in his face. Mappo had thrown it so
suddenly.
Then, as the tiger heard the cracking of the cocoanut shell, he thought
it was his own head. Tigers are sometimes silly that way, no matter if
they are strong, and have sharp claws.
"Oh my head! My head!" cried the tiger. "It is broken!"
You see he really thought it was. The crack of the cocoanut shell made
him think that it was his own silly, bad head.
Up in the air reared the tiger on his hind legs. This was just the
chance Mappo wanted.
"Here I go!" thought the little monkey chap. "Here's where I get away."
As fast as Mappo could go he scrambled over the ground toward the tree
where his house was built. By this time the tiger had seen the empty
cocoanut shell fall to the ground, and the striped creature knew what
had happened.
"Ha! That monkey boy! He did that!" growled the tiger. "He can't fool me
that way! I'll get him! I'll fix him for playing tricks on me!"
Finding that his head was all right, and not cracked as he had feared
it was, the tiger gave a big jump, and ran after Mappo. But Mappo was
not waiting for him. The little monkey boy was now far across the open
place on the ground, and was climbing up into a tree as fast as he could
go.
"Come back here!" growled the tiger, making a spring for Mappo. But
Mappo was safely out of the way. The tiger's claws stuck in the trunk of
the tree, tearing loose some bits of bark, but Mappo was not hurt. He
got safely away.
Then, sitting up in the tree on a high limb, Mappo, as he looked down at
the tiger, chattered:
"Ha! You didn't get me after all! You didn't catch me! I fooled you!
Chatter-chatter-chat! Bur-r-r-r! Wuzzzzzzz! Whir-r-r-r-r-r!"
That's the way Mappo chattered, not so much to make fun of the bad
tiger, as to warn the other monkeys in the woods that the bad striped
animal was near, and that there was danger in the jungle.
"Chatter-chatter-chat! Bur-r-r-r-r! Whe-e-e-e-e! Zir-r-r-r!" chattered
the other monkeys, far off in the jungle, as they heard Mappo's warning.
The woods were filled with the sound they made.
"Well, I might as well go away," thought the tiger. "They will all be
on the lookout for me now. I'll have to wait until after dark to catch a
monkey, or something else to eat. Bur-r-r-r-r-r! But I'm hungry!"
So the tiger slunk away, and I guess no one else in the woods felt sorry
that he had not caught Mappo. They were all glad the monkey boy had
gotten away, and Mappo was especially glad, on his own account.
"Ha! That was a good trick of yours--to throw the empty cocoanut shell
at the tiger, Mappo," said an old grandfather monkey, high in a tree.
Mappo had told his friends, the other monkeys, what had happened.
"Yes, indeed it was," said an uncle monkey. "Mappo is a smart boy to
think of such a trick."
This made Mappo feel pretty proud of himself.
"Do you know where my papa and mamma are?" he asked.
"They went off over toward the banana grove," said the grandfather
monkey. "Be careful of the tiger if you follow them."
"I will," promised Mappo. But the tiger had slunk away now, so Mappo
thought it would be safe to travel through the jungle, especially if he
kept up in the trees, and did not go down on the ground.
Off Mappo started after his folks, who had gone on, thinking to catch
up to him.
Mappo had not gone very far before he came to a place in the woods where
he saw something very strange. It was strange and also nice, for, down
on the ground, were a number of pieces of white cocoanut.
"Well, that's good!" thought Mappo. "Cocoanut already shelled to eat.
I wonder who could have left that there for me. Maybe my papa or mamma
did, knowing I would come this way. Yes, that must be it. They are very
kind to me. I'll go down and get some of that sweet cocoanut."
Now Mappo was not a very wise little monkey. He had not lived long
enough to know all the dangers of the jungle. There were dangers from
tigers and other wild beasts.
Some of those dangers Mappo knew about, and he also knew how to keep out
of their way. But there were other dangers from men--from hunters--and
these Mappo did not know so well. For, as yet, he had never seen a
man--a human being. Mappo had only lived in the jungle where men very
seldom came, and those men were brown or black men.
But men knew monkeys were in the woods, and men wanted the monkeys for
circuses, for menageries and for hand-organs. That is the reason men
try to catch monkeys.
Mappo looked all around the forest from the top of the tree where he had
come to rest. He saw no signs of danger. He saw only white pieces of
cocoanut on the ground.
"I'll go down and get some, and then I'll run on and find my papa and
mamma and brothers and sisters," thought Mappo. "They will want some of
this cocoanut."
Down he went, and began picking up the bits of cocoanut. They were
rather small pieces and Mappo had to eat a great many of them before he
felt he had enough. Each piece was a little way beyond the next one, and
Mappo kept on walking along slowly as he picked them up.
Finally he saw a very large piece. He reached for it with his paw, and
then, all at once something happened.
Something like a big spider's web seemed to fall down out of a tree
right over Mappo. In an instant he was all tangled up--his paws and tail
were caught. He yelled and chattered in fright, and tried to get loose,
but the more he tried, the tighter the meshes of the net fell about him.
Poor Mappo was caught. He had been caught by a hunter's net in the
jungle, and the pieces of cocoanut were only bait, just as you bait a
mouse trap with cheese.
"Oh!" cried Mappo, in his shrill, chattering voice. "Oh dear! I am
caught!"
Tighter and tighter the net closed over him.
CHAPTER IV
MAPPO IN A BOX
Poor Mappo was not a merry monkey just then. Usually he was a jolly
little fellow, laughing and chattering in his own way, and playing
tricks on his brothers and sisters. Now he felt very little like doing
anything of that sort.
"And to think that I was going to play a trick with the empty cocoanut
shell, just a little while before this happened to me," thought Mappo,
as he tried very hard to get loose from the net in which he was all
tangled up. "I wonder what has happened to me, anyhow," said Mappo to
himself.
And, as Mappo did not find out for some little time I will tell you. He
had been caught by a native hunter, in a net made from long pieces of a
trailing vine, which was as strong as a rope.
In the country where Mappo lived there were many people called
natives--that is they had never lived in any country but their own, and
they were a queer sort of people.
They wore very few clothes, for it was too hot to need many. They were
a black, savage people, and they lived by hunting with their spears, and
bows and arrows. They hunted wild animals--lions, tigers, elephants and
monkeys. Some of the wild animals they used for food, and others they
sold to white men who wanted them for circuses and menageries. And
monkeys were generally the easiest to catch.
Some of these black, half-clothed, savage natives had spread a vine net
in the forest. The net, being made of vines, could not be seen until
some animal got close to it. And to make monkeys come close to the net,
so it would fall down over them, when one end was pulled loose by a
native (hidden behind a tree) bits of cocoanut were sprinkled about.
Monkeys are very fond of cocoanut, and the natives knew, when the little
long-tailed creatures went to pick up the white pieces, that they would
come nearer and nearer to the trap-net, until they were caught. That was
what had happened to Mappo.
The little monkey tried and tried again to break out of the net, but he
could not. It was too strong. Tighter and tighter it was pulled about
him, until he could struggle no more. He lay there, a sad little lump of
monkey in the net.
Then some black men, with long sharp sticks, or spears, gathered about
him, and talked very fast and loud. You would not have understood what
they said, if you had heard them, any more than you can understand dog
and cat talk, but Mappo knew some of what they were saying, for he had
lived in the jungle all his life, and these were natives, or jungle men.
"Ha! We caught only one monkey!" exclaimed one tall, black man, with a
long spear.
"Well, but he is a good one," another man said. "We will take him to the
coast in a box, and sell him to the white men who will take him away in
a ship. We will get many things for him, lots of beads to put around our
necks, some brass wire to make rings for our noses and ankles, and red
cloth to wear."
The natives, you see, did not want money. They wanted beads and bits of
shiny brass wire, or gay-colored cloth, to make themselves look, as they
thought, very fine. They even put rings in their noses, as well as in
their ears, to decorate themselves.
"Ha! So this is not the end of me!" thought Mappo, when he heard the
black men thus talking. "I am to be put in a box, and taken to a ship,
it seems. I wonder what a ship is like. Well, as long as I am not to be
hurt, perhaps it will be fun after all. But I wish they would let my
mamma and papa, and sisters and brothers come with me. It is no fun
being all by yourself."
But of course Mappo's folks were, by this time, a long way off in the
jungle woods, wondering where Mappo himself was. If they had seen him in
the net, they might have tried to get him out, but they did not see him.
The net was now pulled so tightly about the little monkey, that he was
in some pain.
"Bring up the box, and we'll put him in it," said one of the black men.
Another native came up with a box made of tree branches nailed together.
It was what is called a crate--that is, there were spaces between the
slats so Mappo could look out and get air.
"Look out. He may bite you!" called one native to another, as the crate
was placed near the net.
"Oh, I won't give him a chance!" the other native said.
"Ha! I won't bite!" chattered Mappo, but the natives did not understand
him. They knew very little of monkey talk. Mappo made up his mind that
he would be good, for his mamma had often told him that was the best way
to get along in this world. "But I'm sure she never thought I would be
caught in a net," said Mappo to himself. "I wonder if she would mean me
to be good now; and not bite. I guess she would, so I won't nip
anybody."
Mappo had very sharp teeth, even if he was a monkey, and he could give
some good hard bites. But now he was going to be good.
The net, with poor Mappo in it, was dragged up close to the crate, and
a door in the crate was opened. Then part of the net was pulled to one
side, and Mappo saw a hole where he thought he might slip out. He gave
a jump, hoping he could get back into the tall trees again.
"And if I do, I'll never eat any more cocoanut, unless my mamma or papa
gives it to me!" thought Mappo.
So he gave a jump out of the net, but, in a second he found himself
inside the wooden crate, or box. He had gone into it when the net was
open opposite the door of the crate. In another second the door was shut
and fastened, and Mappo was a prisoner in a new prison. He could not get
out, no matter how hard he tried.
"There he is, safe and sound!" chattered the natives, in their queer
language, which was as much like monkey talk as anything else. "Now we
can carry him to the coast, and sell him to the white men. Come on."
"I wonder where the coast is," thought Mappo, and I might tell you,
in case you don't know, that the coast is the seashore.
[Illustration: So he gave a jump out of the net, but, in a second,
found himself inside the wooden crate or box. (Page 47)]
The ships, in which white men come to the jungle countries, go only as
far as the seashore. They cannot go on the land, or into the interior,
where the wild animals live. So when the natives catch monkeys, or other
creatures, they have to carry them to the coast.
"Well, this isn't very nice," thought Mappo, as he looked at the little
crate, inside of which he now found himself. "I haven't much room to
move around here, and I don't see anything to eat, or drink."
He was not very hungry, for he had eaten a lot of the cocoanut just
before being caught in the net. But he was thirsty. However, he saw no
water, and, though he chattered, and asked for it as nicely as he knew
how, he got none--at least, not right away.
Mappo's fur was all ruffled by being caught in the net, and he now began
to smooth that out, until he looked more like himself. He peered through
between the slats of his cage with his queer little eyes, and there was
a sad look in them, if any one had noticed. But no one did. The natives
were getting ready to carry Mappo to the coast.
Poor Mappo looked out on the green jungle where he had lived ever since
he could remember. He did not know that he was never to see it again.
He would never climb the big trees, and swing from one branch to
another. He would not play tag with his brothers and sisters, nor would
he open cocoanuts on a sharp stick and by dropping them on a stone.
Mappo was to be taken away from his nice jungle.
Of course he did not know all this at once. All he knew now was that he
was in a little crate, where he had hardly room enough to turn around,
and no room at all to hang by his tail.
"Come on--let's start with him!" called one of the black men. "We'll
take him to the white people, and come back and catch some more
monkeys."
"Oh, I hope they catch some of my folks!" thought Mappo. He did not wish
any harm to happen to his father or mother, or sisters or brothers, you
know, but he was so lonesome, that he wanted to see some of them.
The natives thrust long poles through the slats of Mappo's box, and,
putting the poles over their shoulders, off through the jungle they
started to march.
Poor Mappo was very thirsty by this time, but though he chattered very
hard, and cried "Water!" over and over again, in his monkey language,
no one paid any attention to him.
On and on went the natives, carrying the little monkey in a crate.
After a while some other black men came along another path, and they,
too, had boxes slung on poles, and in the boxes were other animals. In
one was a big striped tiger, and when Mappo saw him, the monkey crouched
down in a corner of his box and covered his eyes with his paws.
"Oh, maybe it's the same tiger that tried to catch me, and whom I hit on
the head with the empty cocoanut," thought Mappo. "If it is, he'll be
very angry at me, and try to get me.
"Oh dear! This is too bad. I guess this is the end of me!" Mappo cried.
The natives carrying Mappo, in his box, ran forward with him, and as he
looked out, he saw that his crate was close to the one in which was the
growling, striped tiger.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" thought poor Mappo. "He'll get me sure!"
CHAPTER V
MAPPO ON THE SHIP
Mappo, who had taken his paws down from his eyes long enough to look at
the striped tiger, now blind-folded himself, with his paws again, and
shivered. All of a sudden the tiger growled, and Mappo shivered still
more.
"Ha! Growl and roar as much as you like!" called one of the black
natives. "You can't get out of there, Sharp-Tooth!" That was the name
the jungle men had given the tiger. "You can't get out of that crate!"
went on the native, and when Mappo heard that, he took down his paws
once more, and looked at the tiger. He was sure it was the same one at
whom he had thrown the cocoanut, and he wondered how the fierce, strong
beast had been caught. Then Mappo looked at the crate in which the tiger
was being carried along through the jungle.
"Ha! That is a good, strong crate!" thought Mappo. "It is much stronger
than the one I am in. I guess the tiger can't get out, and I am glad of
it. I mean I am sorry he is shut up, and I am sorry for myself, that I
am shut up, and being taken away, but I would not like the tiger to get
loose, while I am near him."
And indeed the cage holding the tiger was very strong. It had big pieces
of tree branches for slats, and it took eight men to carry it, for the
tiger was very heavy. Side by side, slung in their crates on the poles,
over the shoulders of the black natives, Mappo and Sharp-Tooth, the
tiger, were carried through the jungle.
The tiger kept walking back and forth in his cage. It was just long
enough to allow him to take two steps one way, and two steps the other
way. And he kept going back and forth all the while, up and down, his
red tongue hanging out of his mouth, for it was very hot. His fur, too,
was scratched and cut, as though he had fought very hard, before he had
let the natives catch him and put him into the crate.
Mappo was not so much afraid now, and once, when his cage was close to
that of the tiger, the big, striped beast spoke to the little monkey. Of
course he talked in tiger language, which the natives could not
understand, but Mappo could.
"Ha! So they caught you too, little monkey?" asked the tiger.
"Yes, I got caught in a net, while I was eating some cocoanut," answered
Mappo.
"The cocoanut was bait," said the tiger. "I got caught eating a little
goat. The goat was bait, too, and they caught me in a noose that almost
choked me. Then they slipped me in this box when I was half dead. If I
had had my strength, they never would have gotten me in it!" and the
tiger roared and growled, and tried to break out of his crate. But it
was too strong--he could not.
"Keep quiet there, Sharp-Tooth!" cried one of the black natives who was
marching along beside the tiger's cage. "Keep quiet, or I shall hit you
on the nose with a stick," and the black man held up a hard stick. The
tiger growled, away down deep in his throat, and kept quiet. But still
he spoke to Mappo, now and then.
"Seems to me I have seen you before, somewhere, little monkey," said
Sharp-Tooth.
"Yes, you--you tried to eat me, if you please," said Mappo, who spoke
politely, because he was still afraid of the tiger.
"Did I?" asked the tiger. "Well, I have to live, you know. And I have
eaten so many monkeys that one, more or less, doesn't matter. So I tried
to eat you, eh? I wonder why I didn't finish. I usually eat what I set
out to."
"I--I hit you on the head with an empty cocoanut shell and ran away,"
said Mappo.
"Oh, that's so. You did!" exclaimed the tiger. "I thought I remembered
you. So you're the chap who played that trick on me, eh? Well, I thought
I knew you. Ha! Yes. An empty cocoanut shell! I remember I was quite
frightened. I thought my head was broken. But never mind. I forgive you.
One shouldn't remember things like that when friends are in trouble.
Listen, little monkey, will you do me a favor?"
"What is it?" asked Mappo, wondering how he, a little monkey, could do
anything to help a big, strong tiger.
"Will you help me out of this cage?" asked the tiger.
"How can I?" inquired Mappo.
"Very easily," the tiger said. "I know what is going to become of us. We
are to be taken to the big ocean-water, and put in a house that floats
on the waves." That was what the tiger called a ship; a house that
floats on the waves.
"How do you know this is to happen to us?" asked Mappo.
"Because I heard the black men talking of it," said Sharp-Tooth. "And,
after a long while, we will land in another country, where there is no
jungle, such as we love."
"That will be too bad," Mappo said. "But still, it may be nice in that
other country, and we may have many adventures."
"Bah! I do not want adventures!" the tiger growled. "All I want is to
be left alone in my jungle, where I can kill what I want to eat, drink
from the jungle pool, and sleep in the sun. I hate these men! I hate
this cage! Once before I was caught and put in one, but I broke out and
got away. This time they have been too strong for me. But you can help
me to escape."
"How?" asked Mappo.
"Listen!" whispered the tiger, putting his big mouth, filled with sharp
teeth, close to the side of his cage, and nearest to Mappo's crate.
"Listen! Your paws are like hands and fingers. To-night, when the
natives set our crates down, to take their sleep, you can open your
cage, slip out and come over and open mine. I have tried to open my own,
but I cannot. However, you can easily do it. Then we will both be free,
and we can run away to the jungle together: Come, will you do it? I am
very hungry! I want to get off in the jungle and get something to eat."
Mappo thought for a minute. He was a smart little monkey, and he feared
if he opened the tiger's cage for him, the big chap might be so hungry
that he would eat the first thing he saw, which would be Mappo himself.
"Will you open my cage for me after dark?" asked Sharp-Tooth.
"I'll think about it," answered back Mappo.
But he had no idea of letting out that tiger.
"I'm sure he must still be angry at me for hitting him with that empty
cocoanut," said Mappo, "and if he is loose he can easily crush me with
one stroke of his paw. No, I think I will not let him out, though I am
sorry he is caught. But I will try to get out myself, and run back to my
mamma and papa, and sisters and brothers. Yes, I will do that."
After the tiger had asked Mappo to help him get out of the cage,
Sharp-Tooth pretended to go to sleep. He wanted to fool the natives, you
see, and make believe he was going to be good and gentle.
"Oh, but won't I roar and bite and scratch when I do get out!" thought
the tiger. Perhaps he would not have hurt Mappo, had the monkey opened
the cage; but I cannot be sure of that.
All day long through the jungle tramped the natives, carrying the wild
animals in their crates. There were several besides Mappo and
Sharp-Tooth. There were snakes, in big boxes, other monkeys, a
rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, two lions, who roared dreadfully all the
while, and many other beasts.
In fact, it was a small circus marching through the jungle, and all the
animals had been caught, in one way or another, to be sold to circuses
and menageries. But in this book I will tell you mostly about Mappo,
just as in other books I have told you of Squinty, the comical pig, and
Slicko, the jumping squirrel.
"Oh, I do wish I had something to eat!" thought poor Mappo. But he did
not see anything for a long time. It was getting dark when the natives,
carrying the crates, set them down in the jungle, and began to build
fires to cook their supper. They were going to camp out in the woods all
night, and they had stopped near a pool of water.
Mappo smelled the water. So did the other animals, and they began to
howl for drinks. You remember I told you wild animals can often smell
better than they can see.
The natives did not want to be cruel to the animals; they only wanted to
sell them to the white people. And the natives knew if the animals did
not get something to drink, they might die. So, pretty soon, they began
to give the beasts water to drink. Mappo got some, and oh! how good it
was to his little dry throat and mouth.
"Don't forget, you are going to let me loose in the night," whispered
the tiger to Mappo, as it grew darker and darker in the jungle. Mappo
said nothing. He pretended to be asleep. But, all the same, he made up
his mind that he was _not_ going to let the tiger loose.
When it was all dark and quiet in the camp, Mappo tried to open his own
cage with his smart little fingers. But the natives were smarter than
the little monkey. They knew all monkeys were very good at picking open
boxes, so they had made this one, for Mappo, especially tight. Mappo
tried his best, but he could not get out.
So, after all, he did not have to play any trick on the tiger, and not
let Sharp-Tooth out, and he was glad of it.
"Hist! Hist!" the tiger called, from his crate, near that of Mappo.
"Aren't you going to let me out?"
"I can't get out myself," answered the little monkey.
"Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! Wuff!" roared the tiger. And then he was so angry
that he growled and jumped about, trying to break out of his cage. The
natives awoke, and one of them, running over to Sharp-Tooth, said:
"Quiet here, tiger, or I shall have to hit you on the nose with a
stick!"
But the tiger would not be quiet, and, surely enough, the black man hit
him on the nose with a stick. The tiger howled and then became quiet.
All the other animals who had made different noises when they heard the
racket made by Sharp-Tooth, grew quiet also.
Mappo went back to sleep, after trying once more to open his crate so he
could get away in the jungle.
"I guess I shall have to let them put me on the house in the big water,"
he said to himself. "Never mind, I may have some fine adventures."
When morning came, the natives got their breakfast, fed the animals in
the crates, and off they started once more through the forest. Mappo
looked out of his cage, and he could see, swinging along in the trees on
either side of the jungle path, other monkeys like himself. But they
were free, and could climb to the tops of the tallest trees.
Mappo called to them, in his own language, and told them to take the
news to his papa and mamma that he had been caught in a net, and was
being taken away to a far country. The wild monkeys promised that they
would let Mr. and Mrs. Monkey know what had become of Mappo.
In this way Mappo's folks learned what had happened to him, but they
never saw him again, nor did he see them. But monkeys are not like a
boy or girl. Once they leave their homes, they do not mind it very much.
They are always willing to look at something new. Though, of course,
they may often wish they were out of their cages, and back in the jungle
again.
After some days the natives, with the wild animals, reached the big
ocean. Mappo had never seen so much water before. He looked at it
through the slats of his crate. A little way out from shore he saw what
looked like a big house floating on the water. This was the ship.
Soon, in small boats, all the animals were taken aboard the ship, Mappo
among them.
"Now my adventures are really beginning," thought Mappo, as he found
himself in a cage on deck, next to some other monkeys, and a big cow
with a hump on her back. She was a sacred cow.
CHAPTER VI
MAPPO MEETS TUM TUM
Mappo did not know what a ship was, nor how it floated over the ocean
from one country to another, blown by the wind or pushed by steam
engines. The little monkey could not see much except the other monkeys
in crates on the deck near him. Finally Mappo did hear a deep growl from
somewhere behind him.
"Ha!" snarled a voice. "There will be little chance to get away now! Why
didn't you let me out of my cage, monkey?"
"I--I couldn't," said Mappo, and he looked around to see the tiger close
to him. Sharp-Tooth was in his own cage and could not reach Mappo. For
this the monkey was very glad.
All the black men who had carried the wild animals through the jungle
had gone now. In their places were white men, quite different. Mappo did
not know which he liked better, but the white men seemed to be kind, for
some of them brought food and water to the animals.
"Are we on the ship, or water-house, now?" asked Mappo, as he felt as
though he were being moved along.
"Yes, we are on a ship, and we'll never see the jungle any more," said
the tiger. "Oh wow!" and he roared very loudly.
"Quiet there!" called one of the white men, and he banged with his stick
on the tiger's cage. The tiger growled, and lay down.
Now it was quiet aboard the ship, which soon started away from the
shores of the hot, jungle country toward another land, where it is warm
part of the time and cold part of the time. Mappo was on his way to have
many new adventures.
For several days the little monkey boy did nothing but stay in his cage,
crouched in one corner, looking out between the slats. He could see
nothing, for, all around him, were other cages. But when he looked up,
through the top of his cage, he could see a little bit of blue sky.
It was the same kind of blue sky he had looked at from his tree-house in
the jungle, now so far away, and Mappo did not feel so lonesome, or
homesick, when he watched the white clouds sail over the little patch of
blue sky.
For you know animals do get homesick just as do boys and girls. Often,
in circuses and menageries, the animals become so homesick, and long so
for the land from which they have been taken, that they become ill and
die. When a keeper sees one of his pet animals getting homesick, he
tries to cure him.
He may put the homesick animal into another cage, or give him different
things to eat--things he had in his own country. Or the keeper may put
the homesick animal in with some different and new beasts, so the
homesick one may have something new to think about. Monkeys very often
become homesick, but so do elephants, tigers and lions. It is a sad
thing to be homesick, even for animals.
But Mappo was not very homesick. In the first place he was not a very
old monkey, and he had not lived in the jungle very long, though he had
been there all his life. Then, too, he was anxious to have some
adventures.
So, though when he looked at the bit of blue sky, and thought of his
home in the deep, green woods, he had a wish, only for a moment, to go
back there. He had enough to eat on the ship, plenty of cool water to
drink, and he knew he was in no danger from the tiger or other wild
beasts bigger than himself. For the tiger was fastened up in a big
strong cage, and could not get out.
Mappo, on board the ship, chattered and talked with the other monkeys in
cages all around him. He asked how they had been caught, and they told
him it was in the same way as he had been--by picking up good things to
eat on the ground, and so being tangled up in a net.
"And I don't know what is going to happen to me now," said a little girl
monkey, with a very sad face.
"Oh, cheer up!" cried Mappo, in his most jolly voice. "I am sure
something nice will happen to all of us. See, we are having a nice ride
in the water-house, and we have all we want to eat, without having to
hunt for it in the woods."
"Yes, but I want my papa and mamma!" cried the little girl monkey.
Mappo tried to make her feel happier, but it was hard work. As for
Mappo, himself, he was feeling pretty jolly, but then he was always a
merry monkey.
As the ship sailed on, over the ocean, it left behind the warm, jungle
country where Mappo had always lived. The weather grew more cool, and
though Polar Bears like cold weather, and are happy when they have a
cake of ice to sit on, monkeys do not. Monkeys must be kept very warm,
or they catch cold, just as boys and girls do.
So, as the ship sailed farther and farther north, on its way to a new
country, Mappo felt the change. Though he was covered with thick hair,
or fur, he could not help shivering, especially at night when the sun
had gone down.
The man in charge of the wild animals that were to go to the circus knew
how to look after them. He knew which ones had to be kept warm, and
which ones cold.
"You must cover up the monkeys' cages these nights," said the man to a
sailor one afternoon, as he saw Mappo and the others shivering. "Keep
them warm."
"Aye, aye, sir," answered the sailor, which was his way of saying,
"Yes, sir!"
Heavy coverings were spread over the monkeys' cages every night, but
even then Mappo shivered, and so did the others. It was quite different
from the warm jungle where he could sleep out of doors with only his own
fur for a bedquilt.
"I guess we'll have to move the monkeys down below, if it gets much
colder," said the animal man to the sailor. "They'll freeze up here."
"Free-e-e-e-eze! I-I-I-I--I g-g-g-g-guess we will!" chattered Mappo, and
he shivered so that he stuttered when he talked. Of course he spoke
monkey language, and the men could not understand him. But they could
understand his shivering, and soon they began to move the cages to a
warmer place.
Mappo and the other animals who need to be kept warm were lowered
through a hole down inside the ship. It was in a place called a "hold."
And it was called that, I suppose, because it was made to hold the cargo
of wild animals carried by the ship.
Mappo did not like it so well down in this part of the ship as he had
liked it on deck. But it was warmer, and that was a great deal. Still he
could not see the little patch of blue sky that had reminded him of his
jungle home.
"I wonder what has become of Sharp-Tooth, the big tiger?" asked Mappo,
of one of the other monkeys.
"Oh, I saw them lower his cage down into another part of the ship," said
a big monkey. "I am glad of it, too, for I don't like him so near us. He
might break out some night, and bite us."
"He wanted me to let him out," said Mappo.
"Gracious! I hope you didn't think of such a thing!" cried a little girl
monkey.
"No, I didn't," Mappo said.
"How did you happen to know the tiger?" asked the big monkey.
"Oh, he tried to get me once," Mappo answered, "and I threw an empty
cocoanut shell in his face!"
"You did!" cried all the other monkeys.
"How brave you were!" said the little girl monkey.
Mappo was beginning to feel that way himself!
For several days nothing much happened to Mappo, after he and his monkey
friends had been moved to the warm part of the ship. They had things to
eat, and water to drink, and they slept a good deal of the time. One day
the sailor who always fed Mappo stood in front of the cage, and, looking
in, said:
"I wonder if you'd bite me if I petted you a bit? You look like a nice
chap, and I like monkeys. I wonder if I couldn't teach you some tricks.
Then you'd be worth more to the circus. You'll have to learn tricks in
the circus, anyhow, and you might as well begin now. I think I'll pet
you a bit."
"Chatter! Chatter! Chat! Bur-r-r-r! Snip!" went Mappo. That meant, in
his language, that he would not think of biting the kind sailor who had
fed and watered him. But the sailor was careful. Very slowly he put out
his hand, and, reaching through the bars, he stroked Mappo's soft fur.
"That's a good chap!" said the sailor. "I believe you are going to be
nice after all."
"Bur-r-r-r! Wopp!" said Mappo. That meant: "Of course I am!"
In a few days the sailor and Mappo were good friends, and one afternoon
the sailor opened the cage door and let the monkey out. Then Mappo grew
quite excited. It was the first time he had been loose since he had been
caught, and he was so glad to run about, and use his legs and tail,
that, before he knew what he was doing, he had jumped right over the
sailor's head, and had scrambled up on the ship's deck.
"Oh, a monkey's loose! One of the monkeys has gotten away!" cried the
sailors.
"Never mind! I'll catch him!" said the one who had been kind to Mappo.
Mappo ran and leaped. He saw something like a tall tree, only it had no
branches on it. But there were ropes and ladders fast to it, and, in an
instant, Mappo had scrambled up them to the top of the tall thing. It
was the mast of the ship, but Mappo did not know that.
Away up to the top he went, and, curling his tail around a rope, there
he sat.
"Make him come down!" cried the captain. "I can't have a monkey on top
of my ship's mast! Somebody climb up after him and bring him down."
"I'll go," said a sailor.
Now a sailor is a good climber, but not nearly so good as a monkey.
Mappo waited until the sailor was almost up to him, and then, quick as a
flash, Mappo swung himself out of the way by another rope, and, just as
he had done in the jungle, he went over to the top of another mast.
"There he goes!" cried the sailors on deck.
"Yes, I see he does," said the sailor who had tried to catch Mappo.
"You had better come down," spoke the man who had let Mappo out of the
cage. "I think he'll come down for me." In his hand he held some lumps
of sugar, of which Mappo was very fond.
"Come on down, old chap," called the sailor. "No one will hurt you. Come
and get the sugar."
Now whether Mappo had had enough of being loose, or whether it was too
cold for him up on the mast, I can't say. Perhaps he wanted the sugar,
and, again, he might not have wanted to make trouble for his kind
friend, the sailor, who had let him out.
Anyhow, Mappo came slowly down, and took some of the sugar from the
sailor's hand. The sailor took hold of the collar around Mappo's
neck.
[Illustration: Away up to the top he went, and, curling his tail around
a rope, there he sat. (Page 71)]
"Now lock up that monkey!" cried the captain. "And if he runs away
again, we'll whip him."
"No, it was my fault," the sailor said. "And I'd like him to be loose.
I can teach him some tricks."
"All right, do as you like," the captain spoke. "Only keep him off the
mast."
"I'm not going up there again," thought Mappo to himself. "It is too
cold."
"Come along," said the sailor, giving him another lump of sugar, and
Mappo put one hairy little paw in the hand of the sailor, and walked
along the deck with him.
"I guess you were just scared, old fellow," the man said to the monkey.
"When you get quieted down, you and I shall have lots of fun. You are
almost as nice as my elephant, Tum Tum."
This was the first Mappo had heard of the elephant. He knew what they
were, for he had often seen the big creatures in the jungle, crashing
their way through the trees, even pulling some up by the roots, in their
strong trunks, to eat the tender green tops of the trees.
"I didn't know there was an elephant on this ship," thought Mappo. But
he was soon to find out there was.
Two or three days after this Mappo was let out of his cage once more.
This time he did not jump and run. He stayed quietly beside the sailor,
and put his paw into the man's hand.
"That's the way to do it," said the sailor. "Come now, we'll go below
and see Tum Tum."
Down into a deep part of the ship, near the bottom, the sailor took
Mappo. Then the monkey could see a number of elephants chained to the
walls. They were swaying their big bodies to and fro, and swinging their
trunks. The sailor went up to the biggest elephant of them all, and, so
Mappo thought, the most jolly-looking, and said:
"Tum Tum, I have brought some one to see you. Here is a little monkey."
Mappo looked up, and saw a jolly twinkle in the little eyes of Tum Tum.
Mappo knew elephants were never unkind to monkeys, and, a moment later,
Mappo had given a jump, up to the shoulder of the sailor, and then right
on the back of Tum Tum.
CHAPTER VII
MAPPO IN THE CIRCUS
"Well, I declare!" exclaimed the sailor who had brought Mappo downstairs
in the ship to see Tum Tum, the jolly elephant. "You two animals seem to
get along fine together!"
And indeed Mappo and Tum Tum were the best of friends at once. Elephants
and monkeys very seldom quarrel, and they live together in peace, even
in the jungle, and do not fight, and bite and scratch, as some wild
beasts do.
"Hello!" said Mappo to Tum Tum, as the little monkey sat on the
elephant's back. "Hello!"
"Hello yourself!" answered Tum Tum, and his voice was deep and rumbling,
away down in his long nose or trunk, while Mappo's was chattery and
shrill, as a monkey's voice always is.
"Well, where did you come from?" asked Mappo. "I've often seen you, or
some elephant friends of yours in the jungle. How did you get on this
ship with the other animals? You don't mean to say that the hunter men
caught you--you, a great big strong elephant, do you?"
"That's just what they did, Mappo," said Tum Tum, and the sailor,
looking at the two animals, did not know they were telling secrets to
each other.
"I'll just leave 'em together a while," said the sailor. "I don't
believe the monkey will run away, and, as he's getting homesick, it may
make him feel better to be with the elephant a while."
Mappo was indeed getting homesick for the jungle, and for his folks, but
when he saw Tum Tum, he felt much better.
"How did they catch you?" asked the monkey, as the sailor went up on
deck, while Mappo and the elephant stayed down in the lower part of the
ship, where it was nice and warm, talking to one another.
"Oh, the hunters made a big, strong fence in the jungle," said Tum Tum.
"They left one opening in it, and then they began to drive us elephants
along toward it. We did not know what was happening until it was too
late, and at last we were caught fast in a sort of big trap, and could
not get out."
"I should think you were so strong that you could easily have gotten
out," Mappo said.
"Well, we did try--we wild elephants," spoke Tum Tum. "We rushed at the
bamboo fence, and tried to break it down with our big heads. But tame
elephants, who had helped to drive us into the trap, came up, and struck
us with their trunks, and stuck us with their tusks, and told us to be
good, and not to break the fence, and that we would be kindly treated.
So we behaved, and, after a while, we found ourselves on this ship."
"Do you like it here?" asked Mappo.
"Well, it isn't so bad," said Tum Tum. "I get all I want to eat, and I
don't have to hunt for it. I am to go in a circus and menagerie, I hear.
I don't quite know what that is, do you?"
"Not exactly," answered Mappo, scratching his nose.
"Well, maybe we'll be in it together," went on Tum Tum. "But how did you
happen to get caught, and brought away from the jungle, little monkey?"
Then Mappo told of being caught in the net when he picked up the pieces
of cocoanut.
"Were any other animals caught with you?" asked Tum Tum.
"Oh, yes, the hunters had other animals--some monkeys, and a big tiger
in a cage. He was named Sharp-Tooth, the tiger was."
"Hush!" whispered Tum Tum through his trunk, and looking around
carefully, he went on: "Don't let him know I'm here!"
"Let who know?" asked Mappo.
"Sharp-Tooth, the tiger. Don't tell him I'm here," Tum Tum said.
"Why not?" the little monkey wanted to know.
"Well, because he and I aren't friends," said Tum Tum. "You know in the
jungle, hunters sometimes ride on the backs of myself, and my elephant
friends, to hunt tigers. That's why the tigers don't like us. So don't
mention to Sharp-Tooth that I'm on board this ship."
"I won't, of course," spoke Mappo in his funny, monkey talk. "But it
wouldn't matter, anyhow, as he's in a cage."
"He might break loose, and scratch me," said Tum Tum. "So don't mention
it to him."
Mappo promised not to. He sat up there on the elephant's back a long
time, and they talked of many things that had happened in the jungle
woods.
"Well, you two seem to like each other so well that I guess I'll leave
you together," said the sailor, when he came back and found Mappo asleep
on Tum Tum's back. "I'll bring the monkey's cage down here," the sailor
went on, "and let him stay. They might just as well get acquainted, for
they'll be together in the circus, anyhow."
"That will be nice," thought Mappo, as he heard what the sailor said.
Many things happened to Mappo aboard the ship in which he journeyed
from the jungle to this country. I have not room to tell you about all
of them in this book.
Once there came a great storm, so that the big ship rolled and rocked
like a rocking-chair, and Mappo felt ill. So did Tum Tum, and the other
elephants, and they made loud noises through their trunks. Mappo and the
other monkeys chattered with fear, and even Sharp-Tooth, the big striped
tiger, in his cage, was afraid, and growled, while the lions roared like
thunder.
But finally the storm passed, the sea grew calm and the animals felt
better. Then came a day when Mappo was shut up in his cage again. Most
of the time he had been loose, to run about as he pleased.
"I'm sorry to have to do it, old chap," said his sailor friend, "but all
you animals are going to be taken off the ship now, and put ashore, and
we don't want to lose you."
"I don't want to get lost, either," said Mappo to himself. "I wonder
what is going to happen now."
Many things happened to him, and also to Tum Tum and the others. Mappo's
cage, as well as the cages holding the lions and tigers, were lifted off
the ship onto land. Then they were put on big wagons and carted off
through a strange place. At first Mappo thought it was a new kind of
jungle, for he saw some trees.
But when Mappo saw many boys and girls, and men and women, all in
strange dresses, not at all like the brown natives, and when he saw many
houses, he knew it could not be a jungle. No, it was a big city where
Mappo had been taken. And it was the city where the circus stayed in
winter, the animals living in barns, and in menageries, instead of in
tents. But when the warm summer came, they would be taken out on the
road, and sent from place to place with the traveling circus. Of course,
Mappo knew nothing of this yet. Neither did Tum Tum.
Mappo's cage, with a number of others, was finally put into a big barn,
where it was nice and warm. On the earth-floor of the barn was sawdust,
and Mappo saw many men and horses, and many strange things. Finally a
man came up to Mappo's cage.
"Ha! So these are some of the monkeys I am to teach to do tricks, eh?"
said the man. "Well, they look like nice monkeys. And that one seems a
little tame. I think I'll begin on him," and he pointed right at Mappo.
"Better look out," said another man. "Maybe he is an ugly chap, and will
bite you."
"Oh, indeed I won't!" chattered Mappo. "I guess I know better than
that!" But of course the circus man did not understand this monkey talk.
Mappo jumped about in his cage, for he felt that he was going to be
taken out, and he was tired of being shut up. He wanted to hang by his
tail, and do other things, as he had done in the jungle.
"He's a lively little fellow, anyhow," said the circus man, as he opened
the door of Mappo's cage. "Come on out, old chap," he went on, "and
let's see what you look like."
Very gently he took Mappo out, and Mappo was very quiet. He wanted to
show the man how polite and nice even a jungle monkey could be, when he
tried.
"You're a nice fellow," the man said, stroking Mappo's back. "Now let's
see. I guess I'll teach you first to ride a pony, or a dog, and then
jump through paper hoops. After that you can turn somersaults, and sit
up at the table and eat like a real child. Oh, I'll teach you many
tricks."
Mappo did not understand very much of this talk. No monkey could. But
Mappo did understand the word "eat," and he wondered when the man was
going to feed him, for Mappo was hungry.
All around the circus barn different animals were being taught tricks,
for the men were training them to be ready for the summer circus in the
big tents. Horses were racing about sawdust rings, men were shouting and
calling, and snapping long whips. In one corner a man was trying to make
an elephant stand on his hind legs. Mappo looked a second time.
"Why, that's Tum Tum! He's learning tricks too!" said Mappo, to himself.
"That's fine! I hope he and I can do tricks together."
Tum Tum did not look very happy. A long rope was fastened to him, and he
was being pulled up so his head and trunk were in the air. That's how
elephants are first taught to do the trick of standing on their hind
legs. After a bit they learn to do it without being hoisted up by a
rope.
"Now then, monkey boy, here we are!" exclaimed the man who had taken
Mappo out of his cage. The man soon found that Mappo was good and
gentle. "Now for your first trick," the man said. "Here, Prince!"
A great big, shaggy dog, almost as large as Sharp-Tooth, the tiger, came
bounding into the circus ring. Right at Mappo rushed the dog, barking as
loudly as he could:
"Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!"
CHAPTER VIII
MAPPO AND HIS TRICKS
Mappo, the merry monkey, gave one look at the big dog rushing at him,
and then, with a chatter of fright, sprang right up on the shoulder of
the circus man. There Mappo sat, shivering, and looking down at the dog
who kept on barking.
"Oh ho! So you're afraid, are you?" asked the man, as he put up his hand
and patted Mappo. "Well, you don't need to be, little chap. Prince
wouldn't hurt you a bit, would you, old chap?"
"Bow wow!" barked the dog, and I think he meant that he certainly would
not--that he loved monkeys. In fact, any one would have loved Mappo, he
was so kind and gentle, even though he had not had much training.
"Now, Prince, just show this monkey how you can stand on your head,"
went on the circus man. "Show him how it's done."
The dog kicked his hind legs up in the air, and there he was, standing
up partly on his head, and partly on his forepaws.
"That'll do, Prince!" the man called. "Down!"
"Bow wow!" barked Prince, as he turned a somersault, and stood on his
four feet.
"You'll soon be doing tricks like that, little monkey," went on the
circus man, speaking to Mappo, as though the little chap from the jungle
could understand and answer him.
And, as I have told you, Mappo could understand pretty nearly all the
man said, but he could not talk back to him, except in monkey language,
and that the man did not understand.
"Now, Prince," said the circus man, "Mappo is going to have a ride on
your back. I want you to go slowly with him at first so he will not fall
off. Later on, you may run fast, and we'll have a race, with other
monkeys on the backs of other dogs. And, when Mappo has learned to ride
dog-back, I'll teach him to ride pony-back."
"Bow wow!" barked Prince, just as though he understood it all.
A bright red blanket was strapped around Prince, like a saddle on a
horse, and over the dog's head were put some straps like the reins of a
horse. Those were for Mappo to take hold of, and pretend he was driving
the dog around the ring.
"All right now. Here we go!" cried the man. "Come, Mappo!"
Mappo, who had been watching Tum Tum learn to stand on his hind legs,
now looked at the man and dog. The man lifted up the monkey and set him
on the dog's back. He also put the reins in Mappo's little paws.
"Now go, Prince!" said the man, and he walked along with the dog,
holding Mappo on the back of Prince.
At first Mappo did not understand what was wanted of him, and when
Prince started off, the little monkey grew afraid, and tried to jump
down and run away. But the man spoke gently to him.
"There now, old fellow," said the circus man kindly. "No one is going to
hurt you. You'll be all right. Just sit on. Prince won't run away with
you."
Mappo was not so frightened now, and as the man held him on the dog's
back, he did not fall off. Around and around in a ring went Prince
carrying Mappo. Finally the monkey saw that he was in no danger of
falling, and he sat up straighter.
"I guess you can go alone now," said the man. "Go on, Prince!"
Mappo sat up proudly, holding the reins. He was riding alone, though of
course not very fast, for Prince only walked now.
For two or three days Mappo practiced this trick, and each day he did
it better. Each day, too, when he had finished it, he was given
something good to eat, and so was Prince.
"Now we'll try it faster to-day," said the man, after Mappo had been in
the circus about a week. "Run, Prince, and give Mappo a fast ride."
Off started Prince, almost before Mappo was ready for him. And, just as
you might expect, Mappo fell off and rolled over and over in the
sawdust.
"Chatter-chatter-chat! Bur-r-r-r! Buz-z-z-z-z! Wur-r-r-r-r!" went Mappo,
excitedly.
"Bow wow!" barked Prince, capering about.
"Hold on! That's not the way to do it! You must hold on tightly!" cried
the circus man.
"Did you hurt yourself, Mappo?" asked Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, who
was resting, after having stood up on his hind legs. He had seen Mappo
fall.
"No," answered the monkey, "I didn't hurt myself, but I don't like to
fall that way. I don't like that trick."
"Never mind," spoke Tum Tum kindly. "The next time you do it, and Prince
runs fast, just wrap your tail around him, as you used to wrap it around
a tree limb in the big jungle. Then you won't fall."
"That's a good idea--I'll do it!" cried Mappo.
[Illustration: Around and around in a ring went Prince carrying Mappo.
(Page 87)]
"Now we'll try it again," said the circus man. "Go a bit slower this
time, Prince."
"Bow wow! I will!" barked the dog.
Once more Mappo took his place on the red blanket on the dog's back. He
took the reins in his little paws, that were almost like your hands, and
then, remembering what Tum Tum had said to him, Mappo wound his tail
around the neck of Prince, but not so tightly as to hurt him.
"Bow wow! What are you doing that for?" asked the dog. He knew how to
speak so Mappo would understand him.
"I am doing it so I will not fall off when you run fast, Prince,"
answered Mappo.
"Ha! Ha! Very good!" laughed Prince, in the only way dogs can laugh,
which is by barking softly. "That's a good trick, little monkey. If
other monkeys were as smart as you they would learn their lessons more
quickly. Now hold on tight, for I am going to run!"
"I will!" promised Mappo.
The circus man looked at what Mappo had done.
"That is a smart little monkey," he said. "Now he will not fall."
And this time, when Prince started off, and ran very fast around the
sawdust ring, Mappo did not fall off. His tail, which was as good as a
hand to him, was wrapped about the neck of Prince, and kept Mappo from
slipping.
Mappo could now do the dog-riding trick very well. No matter how fast
Prince ran, the monkey would not fall off. A few days later more dogs
and other monkeys were brought into the circus ring in the big barn, and
they, too, raced around. But none of them could go as fast as Mappo and
Prince, and, each time, they won the race around the sawdust ring.
"That certainly is a smart little monkey!" the circus man would say over
and over again. "I shall teach him many tricks. I will now see how he
can ride on the back of a pony, and, after that, I will teach him to
jump through paper hoops."
Mappo did not very well understand what this meant, but he made up his
mind he would do whatever was asked of him, and that he would do it as
well as he could.
A few days later some little Shetland ponies were brought into the barn,
and Mappo was placed on the back of one of them. The pony was a little
larger than Prince, and Mappo was farther from the ground. But the
little monkey had climbed tall trees in the jungle, and he was not
afraid of going up even on an elephant's back. So, of course, he was not
afraid on Trotter, the pony.
A blanket was strapped on Trotter's back, and as there was an iron ring
in the strap, Mappo stuck his tail through that, and so held on. The
other monkeys, who were also to ride ponies, saw what Mappo was doing,
and they did the same thing.
"Ha! It's good to have a smart monkey in the circus," said the man. "He
shows the others what to do."
Mappo was so smart, and such a good rider, that he easily took the lead
in the race, and kept it. The ponies ran faster than the dogs had done,
but, even then, neither Mappo nor any of the other monkeys fell off, for
their tails were in the iron rings of the straps.
"Well, how are you coming on?" asked Tum Tum of Mappo one day, when they
were resting after having eaten their dinners.
"Fine!" answered Mappo. "I can do many tricks now. What are you
learning?"
"Oh, many things," answered Tum Tum. "I have to play ball, grind a
hand-organ with my trunk and make music, I have to play soldier, march
around, and stand up on my hind legs and on my head."
"Is it hard work?" asked Mappo.
"Yes, but I like it," said Tum Tum. And some day soon, in another book,
I shall tell you the many adventures of Tum Tum, the jolly elephant.
"Well, now for a new trick," said the circus man to Mappo, one morning.
"Soon it will be time for the circus to go out on the road, under the
big tents, and I want you to do many tricks for the boys and girls."
"I'll do all I can!" chattered Mappo, in his monkey language.
This time, after he had ridden around the ring once or twice on the back
of Prince, the circus man brought out some big wooden hoops, covered
with paper.
"You are to jump through these, Mappo," said the man. "Come, let me see
how you can do it." Mappo was riding on Prince's back. All of a sudden,
as Prince went around the sawdust ring, he came near to one of the rings
the man held out. Mappo did not in the least know what he was to do,
but, all at once, the man caught him up off the dog's back, and fairly
tossed him through the paper ring. The paper burst with a crackling
noise, and Mappo felt himself falling.
"Oh dear!" thought the little monkey, "I wonder where I shall land!"
CHAPTER IX
MAPPO RUNS AWAY
Mappo was so surprised, as he felt himself fairly flying through the
paper hoop, that he did not know exactly what was happening.
"I may land on the back of Tum Tum, for all I know," he thought.
But, just as he said that to himself, he came down on the back of
Prince, as if nothing had happened.
"Hello, here we are again!" cried Prince, running on around the sawdust
ring, with Mappo on his back. "You did that trick all right."
"Yes, but the man tossed me through the paper-covered hoop," spoke
Mappo, wonderingly.
"That was to show you how to do it," went on Prince. "I have seen many
monkeys do that trick."
"Oh, I see," said Mappo. "There's the man with another hoop. Shall I
jump right through it?"
"Yes, don't wait for him to toss you," Prince said. "Though he didn't
hurt you, did he?"
"Not a bit," laughed Mappo, who rather liked doing that trick.
The circus man stood up on a little box, holding the ring, all covered
with red paper, ready for Mappo to jump through. And the man would have
picked Mappo up, and tossed him through the ring, only the monkey did
not wait for that. Instead, he gave a jump himself, and right through
the ring he went, coming down on Prince's back as nicely as you please.
Prince kept right on running around the sawdust ring.
"Fine! That's the way to do it!" cried the circus man, clapping his
hands. "I'll have to get you to show the other monkeys how to do it,
Mappo! You're the first monkey who ever learned that trick so quickly."
I guess I told you Mappo was a smart little chap.
The rest of that day he spent practicing jumping through more
paper-covered hoops, doing some of his jumps from the back of Trotter,
the pony. Then other monkeys were brought in, and they watched Mappo.
"Now let's see if they can do it," said the man, after Mappo had done
his trick several times. Well, the other monkeys tried, and while some
of them could do it pretty well, others fell off, or else were afraid
of the paper hoops. No one did it as well as Mappo.
From then on, the little monkey learned many circus tricks. He did not
learn all of them as easily as he had learned to ride the dog and pony,
or jump through the hoops. In fact, it took him several days to learn
the trick of turning a somersault. And it took him longer to learn to
sit up at a table, and eat with a knife, fork and spoon, dressed up like
a little boy, with real clothes on.
All this while the circus animals had remained in the big, warm barn,
for it was still winter. But spring and summer were coming, and would
soon be over all the land. Then the circus would start out with the
tents, and the big red, green and golden wagons.
Other animals were being trained, too. Tum Tum, the jolly elephant could
do many tricks, and Mappo loved to watch his big friend, with the long
trunk, and the long white teeth, or tusks, sticking out of his mouth.
Tum Tum's trainer would sometimes sit on these tusks, or on Tum Tum's
trunk, and ride around the ring. Tum Tum liked his keeper, or trainer,
very much, just as Mappo liked his own circus man.
One day, when Mappo had finished doing his tricks for the day, and had
been given a whole, ripe, yellow banana for himself, as a treat for
being good and smart, the little monkey wandered off to another part of
the circus barn. Mappo, unlike the other monkeys, was not kept in a
cage, or chained up.
As Mappo was walking along he came underneath a cage, and from over his
head came a loud roar.
"A lion!" cried Mappo, springing away. "He'll get me!"
In the jungle he and his brothers and sisters had been taught to run and
hide when a lion roared, and, for the moment, Mappo did just as he had
been used to doing in the jungle. Then he sort of laughed to himself, in
a way monkeys have, and he said:
"Ha! Ha! That lion can't get at me! He is locked in his cage. I'm not
afraid."
But, just the same, Mappo ran over on the other side of the circus barn,
and watched the lion from there.
The "King of Beasts," as he is called, though a lion is often no braver
that any other animal, paced back and forth in his cage. He peered out
between the bars, and tried to break them with his big paws. But he
could not. Now and then the lion would utter a deep, loud roar, that
seemed to shake the very ground. I suppose he roared as he had done in
the jungle, when he wanted to let the other animals know he was coming.
A lion must be very proud of his roar.
"Well, you can't get me, anyhow," thought Mappo. "You are safe in your
cage, and I am glad of it."
"Well, how are you to-day, Tum Tum?" asked Mappo, of the jolly elephant.
"Tired. Very tired!" exclaimed Tum Tum.
"What makes you tired?" asked the monkey.
"Doing so many tricks," the elephant answered. "And you know I am a big,
heavy chap, and it tires me to run fast around the ring. But never mind,
we will soon be out of here, and on a journey."
"Where are we going?" asked Mappo.
"To travel from town to town, as all circuses do. We shall soon be
living in tents," the elephant answered.
"I'll like that," said Mappo. "I am getting rather tired of staying here
so long."
And, surely enough, a few days later, the circus started out "on the
road," as it is called. The big red, golden and green wagons were drawn
by many horses, and rumbled up hill and down. In the wagons the animals
and tents and other things, all of which go to make up a circus, were
carried.
One day, after a lot of traveling, part of which was by train, Mappo and
the other animals came to a place where a big, white tent was set up in
a wide, green field. The tent had been set up in the night, ready for
the circus.
"Ah! Now our real circus work will begin!" said Tum Tum. And so it did.
The bands began to play, and when the tent was filled with boys and
girls, and their papas and mammas, and grandpas and grandmas, there was
a grand procession of all the performers. The elephants, of which Tum
Tum was one, also marched around, as did lots of the ponies and dogs.
"I wonder when it will come my turn to do tricks?" thought Mappo. His
turn soon came. The kind circus man who had taught the little monkey,
came and dressed him up in a nice red suit, with a little red cap. Then
Prince, the dog, was led in, wearing a fine yellow blanket.
"Now for the race!" cried the man, as Mappo jumped up on Prince's back.
The other monkeys jumped up on the backs of other dogs, and, as the band
played, off they ran.
Mappo liked it very much, especially when the children laughed and
clapped their hands, for he was glad he had pleased them. Faster and
faster went the racing dogs, and Mappo and Prince won.
Then came the jumping through the paper hoops, first from the backs of
dogs, and, afterward backs of the ponies. In all of these tricks
Mappo did very well.
[Illustration: He rode around a little wooden platform on the bicycle,
holding a flag over his shoulder. (Page 99)]
Then Mappo did his other tricks--turning somersaults, standing on his
head, and even riding a little bicycle the man had made for him. That
was Mappo's best trick, and one that ended his part of the circus. He
rode around a little wooden platform on the bicycle, holding a flag over
his shoulder, and my! how the children did laugh at that.
Mappo did not see all the circus. As soon as his act was over, he was
taken back to his cage, but he was not chained up. His keeper knew he
could trust Mappo not to run away.
Mappo wandered around the animal tent. After a while he came to where
the tiger's cage stood.
"Ah ha! There you are!" snarled Sharp-Tooth, the striped tiger, as he
saw Mappo. "You're the monkey who is to blame for my being here."
"I to blame! How?" asked Mappo.
"Yes, you are to blame," went on Sharp-Tooth. "You wouldn't open my
cage, and let me out when we were in the jungle. Never mind! I'll fix
you! When I get out of here--and some day I'm going to break loose--when
I get out of here, I'll bite you."
"Oh dear!" thought Mappo. "I hope that never happens!" and he went off
to talk to Tum Tum, the jolly elephant.
For nearly a week the circus traveled from town to town, Mappo doing his
tricks very well indeed. Once again Sharp-Tooth, the tiger, said to the
monkey chap:
"Oh, wait until I get hold of you. I was nearly out of my cage last
night. To-night I'll be out for sure, and then I'll fix you!"
Poor Mappo was frightened. The more he thought of the tiger getting
loose and biting him, the more frightened he became. And that day, as
Mappo was riding along in his own cage in the circus wagon, he thought
he heard the tiger getting loose from the big cage.
"Oh, he'll get me, sure!" cried Mappo. He looked up. The door of his
cage was open the least little bit. Mappo pulled it open wider with his
paws, and then, when none of the circus men was looking, Mappo slipped
out, and dropped down to the road.
The door of his cage snapped shut after Mappo got out, keeping the other
monkeys in.
"I'm going to run away," said Mappo. "I'm not going to stay, and let
that bad tiger catch me." And so Mappo ran away.
CHAPTER X
MAPPO AND SQUINTY
Mappo, as soon as he got outside the traveling circus cage on wheels,
looked all about him to see if any one were watching him. But no one
seemed to be doing so.
His man friend, who had trained him to do many tricks, was riding on the
seat with the driver of the big monkey-cage wagon, and this man never
looked around, as Mappo slipped out. All the other circus men were too
busy to look after one monkey.
Mappo slipped down to the dusty country road, along which the circus
procession was then going, and quickly running across it, the merry
little monkey hid in the bushes on the other side.
Slowly the big circus wagons rumbled past the place where Mappo was
hiding in the bushes. When the cage, in which Sharp-Tooth, the tiger,
was pacing up and down, came along, the big striped beast growled and
roared, and to Mappo it sounded just as if he were saying:
"Where's that monkey? Oh, wait until I get hold of him! He wouldn't let
me out of my cage, and I'll fix him!"
When the last wagon in, the procession had gone past--and it was the
steam piano which brought up at the end--Mappo breathed a long breath.
"Now I'm all right!" he thought. "They can't find me now. I'm going over
into those woods. Maybe there is a jungle where I can find cocoanuts."
Scrambling over rocks, stones and fences, Mappo made his way to the big
woods. It looked cool and green there, much better than the hot, dusty
road, down which the circus procession was rumbling, with the big red,
green and gold wagons.
Mappo was much disappointed when he reached the woods. He could not see
any cocoanuts or bananas, and those were the things he liked best of
all.
"I wonder what I shall eat," said Mappo, for he was quite hungry.
He ran about, climbing trees, going away up to the top, and hanging down
by his tail. He had not had a chance to do this since he had been with
the circus, and, really, it was lots of fun for him.
Soon he felt hungry again, and he looked around for something to chew.
He saw nothing.
"Oh dear!" he cried out loud. "I wonder what I can eat."
"Ha!" cried a grunting little voice near him, "why don't you eat acorns,
as I do?"
"What's that? Who are you? Where are you?" asked Mappo, looking up and
down.
"Here I am, under this bush," the voice went on, and out walked a little
pig.
"What's your name?" asked Mappo.
"My name is Squinty," answered the little pig. I suppose you had guessed
that before I told you--at least those of you who have read my other
book, called "Squinty, the Comical Pig."
"Squinty, eh?" remarked Mappo. "That's a queer name."
"They call me that because one of my eyes squints," said the little pig.
"See!" and he looked up at Mappo in such a funny way, with one eye half
shut, and the other wide open, and with one ear cocked forward and the
other backward, that Mappo had to laugh.
"My name is Mappo, and I'm from the circus. I've run away, and I'm
hungry," the monkey said.
"Ha! I'm running away myself," said Squinty, "and I was hungry too, but
I found some acorns to eat."
"What are acorns, and where did you run from?" asked Mappo.
"Acorns are nuts, good for pigs to eat," Squinty answered, "and I ran
away from my pen."
"I wish I had something to eat," said Mappo. "I am very hungry."
"Come with me, and I'll see if I can't find you something to eat,"
Squinty said. "Then you can tell me all about the circus, and I'll tell
you all about my pen."
"All right," agreed Mappo, and the two little animal friends went off
together into the woods.
"Are there any cocoanuts here?" asked Mappo, when they had gone on for
some distance.
"I don't know," answered Squinty. "What are cocoanuts?"
Mappo told the little pig how cocoanuts and bananas grew in the jungle,
and the little pig told about how he liked sour milk and things like
that. And, after a while, they managed to find some berries for Mappo to
eat, as he did not like the acorn nuts.
The two friends went on in the woods for some distance, and they were
having a good time, telling each other about their adventures, when,
all of a sudden, as Mappo was swinging along by his tail on a tree
branch, he stopped short and cried:
"Ha! They're after me. I guess I'd better run."
"Who is after you?" asked Squinty.
"The circus men. They must have found out I ran away."
Mappo and Squinty looked through the bushes, and they saw a number of
men in red coats and blue trousers coming through the woods. Squinty
also saw something else.
"Oh, look!" cried the little pig. "What is that funny animal with two
tails? I'm afraid of him, he's so big!"
Mappo looked and laughed.
"He hasn't two tails," he said. "One is his tail and the other is his
trunk. That is Tum Tum, the circus elephant. And you needn't be afraid
of him, for he is the jolliest elephant in the whole show.
"But I'm not going to be caught," went on Mappo. "I want to run away
farther, and have more adventures. So I guess I'll go before Tum Tum and
the men see me. Good-by, Squinty. I'm glad I met you."
"And I'm glad that I met you," said the comical little pig. Then he ran
one way through the woods, for he did not want to be caught, either,
and Mappo ran the other way.
On and on through the woods roamed the merry little monkey, and many
things happened to him. He met Slicko, the jumping girl squirrel, and in
the book about Slicko you may read all about her wonderful adventures.
At first Mappo had lots of fun, after running away from the circus. It
was warm, and he managed to make himself a little house of leaves, in
the woods where he slept nights, or when it rained. But, for all that,
he did not have as good things to eat as he had had when he was in his
cage. He missed doing his tricks, too, and he missed seeing the boys and
girls and their parents, in the big tent.
One day, as Mappo was asleep in the woods, he was suddenly awakened by
feeling himself caught by two hands, and a voice cried:
"Oh, I've caught a monkey. I'm going to take him home and keep him. Oh,
a real, live monkey!"
Mappo opened his eyes, and he saw that a boy was holding him, and
holding him so tightly that the little monkey could not get away.
"Well, I'm caught!" thought Mappo, but he was not very sorry.
CHAPTER XI
MAPPO AND THE ORGAN-MAN
Some monkeys, if they had been caught by a boy, in the woods, would have
bit and scratched and fought to get away. But Mappo was both a merry
monkey, and a good, kind one. So, when he saw that the boy was holding
him tightly, Mappo made up his mind that it would not be nice to try to
get away.
Besides, he liked boys, as well as girls, for so many of them had fed
him peanuts in the circus. And I rather think that Mappo was getting
tired of having run away, for he did not find these woods as nice as he
thought he would.
"Oh, father, look!" the boy cried. "I've caught a monkey."
"Have you, really?" asked a man, who came up near the boy. "Why, so you
have!" he exclaimed. "It must have escaped from the circus that went
through here the other day."
"Oh, father, mayn't we keep it?" the boy asked, as he patted Mappo.
"See, he is real tame, and maybe he does tricks."
"Of course I'm tame and do tricks!" Mappo chattered, but the boy did
not understand monkey talk.
"Oh, let me keep him!" the boy begged of his father.
"Well, I don't know," spoke the man, slowly. "A monkey is a queer sort
of a pet, and we haven't really any place for him."
"Oh, I'll make a place," the boy said. "Do let me keep him!"
"Well, you may try," his father said. "But if the circus men come back
after him, you'll have to give up your monkey. And he may run away, no
matter what sort of a cage you keep him in."
"Oh, I don't believe he will," the boy said.
So Mappo was taken home to the boy's house. It was quite different from
the circus where the merry little monkey had lived so long. There were
no sawdust rings, no horses or other animals, and there was no
performance in the afternoon, and none in the evening.
But, for all that, Mappo liked it. For one thing he got enough to eat,
and the things he liked--cocoanuts and bananas, for the boy read in a
book what monkeys liked, and got them for his new pet. The boy made a
nice box cage for Mappo to sleep in, and tied him fast with a string
around the collar, which Mappo wore.
"But I could easily loosen that string and get away if I wanted to,"
Mappo thought as he played with the knot in his odd little fingers.
Monkeys can untie most knots, and a chain is about the only thing that
will hold them.
The boy's mother was afraid of Mappo at first, but the little monkey was
so kind and gentle, that she grew to like him. And Mappo was a very good
monkey. He did not bite or scratch.
The house where the boy lived was quite different from the circus tent,
or the big barn where Mappo had first learned to do tricks. There was an
upstairs and downstairs to the house, and many windows. Mappo soon
learned to go up and down stairs very well indeed, and he liked nothing
better than to slide down the banisters. Sometimes he would climb up on
the gas chandelier and hang by his tail. This always made the boy laugh.
"See, my monkey can do tricks!" he would cry.
Then, one day, something sad happened. Mappo was sitting near the
dining-room window, which was open, and he was half asleep, for the sun
was very warm. The little monkey was dreaming, perhaps of the days when
he used to sleep in the tree-house in the jungle, or he may have been
thinking of the time when he went with the circus.
Suddenly he was awakened by hearing some music. He looked out in the
street, and there he saw a hand-organ man grinding away at the crank
which made the nice music. Mappo liked it very much. It reminded him a
little of the circus music.
And, as soon as the hand-organ man saw the monkey, he cried out:
"Ha! A monkey! Just what I need. My monkey has gone away, and I'll take
this new little monkey to go around with me and get the pennies in his
cap."
Then, before Mappo knew what was going to happen, the hand-organ man ran
up to the open window, grabbed the little monkey off the sill, and,
stuffing him under his coat, ran away down the street with him as fast
as he could go.
"Let me go! Let me out!" chattered Mappo, in his own, queer language.
The man paid no attention to him. Perhaps he did not understand what
Mappo meant, though hand-organ men ought to know monkey talk, if any one
does. At any rate, the man did not let Mappo go. Instead, he carried him
on and on through the streets, until he came to the place where he
lived.
"Now I'll put a chain and a long string on you, and take you around with
me when I make music," said the hand-organ man. "You will have a little
red cap to take the pennies the children give you."
While he was thus talking the man thrust Mappo into a box, that was not
very clean, and tossed him a crust of bread.
"I wonder if that is all I am to get to eat," thought Mappo. "Oh, dear!
I might better have stayed in the circus. It was nice at the boy's
house, but it is not nice here."
Mappo was shut up in the box, with only a little water, and that one
piece of bread crust to eat. And then the hand-organ man went to sleep.
Poor Mappo did not like this at all, but what could he do? He was shut
up in a box, and try as he did, he could not get out. Some other monkey
had lived in the box before. Mappo could tell that, because there were
scratches and teeth marks in the wood which Mappo knew must have been
made by some such little monkey as himself.
Mappo's life from then on, for some time, was rather hard. The next
morning the hand-organ man fastened a chain to the collar of the monkey,
and a long rope to the chain.
"Now I'll teach you to climb up on porch houses, go up the rain-water
pipes, and up to windows, to get pennies," said the hand-organ man.
"Come, be lively!"
He did not-have to teach Mappo very much, for the monkey could already
do those things.
"Ha! I see you are a trick monkey!" the man said. "So much the better
for me. I'll get many pennies from the children."
Then, every day, Mappo was made to go out with the man and his
hand-organ, and when the man played tunes, Mappo would watch the windows
of the houses in front of which his master stopped. The children would
come to the windows when they heard the music.
"Go up and get the pennies!" the man would cry, and he would pull and
jerk on the long string so that the collar around Mappo's neck choked
and hurt him. Then the monkey would squeal, and hold the chain with his
paw, so the pulling on it would not pain him so much. The hand-organ man
was not very kind to Mappo.
But Mappo made up his mind he would do his best to please his master.
"Some day I may get loose," Mappo thought. "If I do, I'll run back to
the circus, and never go away from it again. Oh that circus! And Tum
Tum! I wonder if I'll ever see the jolly elephant again."
Thinking such thoughts as these, Mappo would climb up the front of the
houses, to the windows, scrambling up the rain-water pipe, and he would
take off his cap, and catch in it the pennies the children threw to
him. Then sometimes, on the porch roof, Mappo would turn a somersault,
or play soldier, doing some of his circus tricks. This made the children
laugh again, and they would ask their mammas for more pennies.
"Ah, he is a fine monkey!" the hand-organ man would say. "He brings me
much money."
The hand-organ man never let him loose; always was there that chain and
string fast to the collar on Mappo's neck.
Mappo was made to wear a little red jacket, as well as a cap, and, as
the things had been made for a smaller monkey than he, they were rather
tight for him.
For many weeks Mappo was kept by the hand-organ man, and made to gather
pennies. Mappo grew very tired of it.
"Oh, if I had only stayed with the circus," thought Mappo, sorrowfully.
One morning the hand-organ man got up earlier than usual.
"We make much money to-day," he said to Mappo, for he had a habit of
speaking to the monkey as though he could understand. And indeed, Mappo
knew a great deal of what his master said. "We will make many pennies
to-day," went on the man. "Out by the big show, where everybody will be
jolly."
He brushed Mappo's jacket and cap, and then, after a very little
breakfast, out they started. Through street after street they went, but
the man did not stop to play in front of any houses.
"I wonder why that is," thought Mappo, for his master had never done
that before.
And then, all of a sudden, Mappo saw a big white tent, with gay flags
flying from the poles. He saw the big red, gold and green wagons. He
heard the neighing of the horses, the trumpeting of the elephants, the
roaring of the lions, and the snarling of the tigers.
"Oh, it's the circus! It's my circus!" cried Mappo to himself, and so it
was.
"Now we make much money!" said the hand-organ man. "The people who come
to the circus have many pennies. They give them to me when I play. Come,
Mappo, be lively--do tricks and get the pennies," and he shook the
string and chain, hurting Mappo's neck.
Then the organ began to play. But Mappo did not hear it. He heard only
the circus band. And he smelled the sawdust ring.
"Oh, I must get back to my dear circus!" he chattered. Then, with one
big, strong pull of his paws, Mappo broke the collar around his neck,
and, as fast as he could run, he scampered toward the big tent--the tent
where he knew his cage was. Oh, how Mappo ran!
CHAPTER XII
MAPPO AND THE BABY
"Come back here! Come back! My monkey! He is running away!" cried the
hand-organ man, as he raced after Mappo. Mappo looked behind, and saw
his unkind master coming, so the little monkey ran faster than ever.
"Oh, if I can only find Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, and get up on his
back, that man can never get me again!" thought Mappo. "I must find Tum
Tum!"
Into the big circus tent ran Mappo. The show had not yet begun, and one
of the men who was at the entrance to take tickets seeing Mappo, cried
out:
"Ha! One of our monkeys must have gotten loose. I will call the animal
trainer."
So Mappo came back to the circus again. But his adventures were not yet
over.
That afternoon, when he had been given his own circus suit, which fitted
him better than the one the hand-organ man had put on him, Mappo went
through his tricks in the big tent. He had not forgotten them.
He rode on the back of Prince, the big dog, and also on Trotter, the
pony, coming in first in every race. Then Mappo jumped through the
paper-covered hoops, he played soldier, and he sat up at the table and
ate his dinner with a knife, fork and spoon, almost as nicely as you
could have done it. He used his napkin, too.
The circus traveled on and on. One day it came to a big city, and some
of the tents were set up in a field, near some houses. From his place
near his cage Mappo could look out of the crack in the top of the tent,
and see the windows of the houses near him.
"I used to climb in windows like that," said Mappo to Tum Tum. "I used
to go up the rain-water pipe to get the pennies from the children."
"It must have been fun for you," said Tum Tum, "as you are such a good
climber."
"Oh, it wasn't so much fun as you'd imagine," answered Mappo as he slyly
tickled another monkey with a straw. Mappo was always up to some trick
or other; he was a very merry monkey.
It was almost time for the circus performance to start. Mappo was
thinking he had better go, and get on his pretty new red, white and blue
suit, when suddenly, from outside the tent, he heard the cry of:
"Fire! Fire! Fire!"
[Illustration: Mappo sat up at the table and eat his dinner with knife,
fork and spoon. (Page 119)]
Now Mappo knew what a fire was. There used to be a fire in the stove at
the big circus barn, and once he went too close and burned his paw.
So Mappo knew what fire meant, even though it was cried in some other
language than monkey talk. Then Mappo looked out of a crack in the tent,
and he saw one of the houses, near the circus grounds, all ablaze. Black
smoke was coming from it.
"One of those houses is burning," said Mappo to Tum Tum. The monkey had
often seen the natives, in his jungle, kindle fires at night to cook
their suppers, and also to keep wild beasts away. For wild beasts are
afraid of fire.
"A house burning, eh?" said Tum Tum. "Well, that is nothing to us. We
have to go on with the show, no matter what happens."
"I'm going out to see it," spoke Mappo. "I have a little time yet before
I must do my tricks."
Mappo was not chained, so he had no trouble in slipping under the tent,
and in going toward the burning house. There was great excitement. Men,
boys, girls and women were running all around. Some of them were
carrying things out of the blazing dwelling. Then up came the fire
engines, tooting and whistling. Mappo of course did not know what fire
engines were. All he cared for was the black smoke, and the bright, red
fire.
Suddenly a woman in the crowd began to scream.
"My baby! Oh, my little baby is up in that room," and she pointed to one
on the side of the house which was not yet burning as much as the rest.
"Oh, my baby!" she cried, and she tried to run back into the blazing
house, but some men stopped her.
"The firemen will get your baby," they said.
"Oh, they will never be in time!" the woman cried.
Just then Mappo's circus trainer came running up.
"Oh, here you are!" he cried to Mappo. "I was afraid you had run away
again."
"No! No!" chattered Mappo, in his own language.
Mappo reached up, and put his arms around the keeper's neck. Just then
the woman cried again:
"My baby! Oh, my baby is left behind in the room, and the stairs are all
on fire. How can I get him?"
"What, is there a baby in the house?" cried Mappo's trainer.
"Yes. In that room where the window is," she said. "Oh, but we can't get
him."
"Yes, I think we can!" said the circus man. "Mappo, my monkey is very
strong, and he is a good climber. There is a rain-water pipe going up
the side of the house, close to the window. I'll send my monkey up the
pipe, and he can go in through the window, get the baby, and bring it
down to you."
"Oh, a monkey could never do that!" sobbed the woman.
"Yes, my monkey can," the man replied. "Here, Mappo!" he called. "Up you
go!" and he pointed to the rain-water pipe on the side of the house. "Go
in the window and get the baby--get the little one and bring her safely
down."
"Yes, yes!" chattered Mappo, only he spoke in his language and the man
talked as we talk. But Mappo understood. Many times he had been sent up
rain-water pipes by the hand-organ man. Of course this was a bit
different, for this house was on fire. But there were not many flames on
the side where the pipe was.
Mappo sprang for the pipe, and began to climb up it. He did not know
exactly what he was going after, but he knew it must be something
important, or his master would not be so excited.
"Get the baby! Get the baby!" cried the circus man, for the firemen had
not yet come up with their ladders. Of course they could have saved the
baby, if they had been in time. But it would soon be too late.
Up and up the rain-water pipe went the nimble Mappo. In a few seconds he
was on the window sill of the room. He stood there, looking down at his
master.
"Go on in! Get the baby and bring her down!" called the circus man,
waving his arms at Mappo.
Down into the room jumped Mappo. He knew at once it was a bedroom, for
he had been in such rooms in the home of the boy who found him in the
woods. And, in a little bed, close to the window, was something that
Mappo at first thought was a large doll, such as the sisters of the boy
used to play with.
"I wonder if this is the baby," said Mappo. "I guess it is. I'll carry
it down."
The baby was asleep. Mappo took her up in one of his strong hairy arms,
and, very luckily he picked her right-side up. Some monkeys would carry
a baby upside down, and think nothing of it. But Mappo was different.
With the baby held closely, the monkey jumped to the window sill again,
and how his master and the others yelled when they saw him!
"He has her! Oh, he has your baby!" cried the circus man.
Down the rain-pipe came Mappo carrying the little baby, which was just
beginning to wake up and cry. Mappo gave the little one to his master,
who put the baby in its anxious mother's arms.
"There's your child," he said.
"Oh, what a smart monkey, to save her!" sobbed the woman, but her tears
were tears of joy. Then the firemen put out the fire in the house, and
no one was hurt. Mappo choked a little from the smoke, but he did not
mind that.
"You surely are a smart monkey!" said the circus man, as he took him
back to the tent to do his tricks. The show went on after a while, and
Mappo was more looked at than any animal, for every one heard how he had
saved the baby.
And, after the show was over that night, the father of the baby went to
the circus man and said:
"I want to buy the monkey that saved my little girl. Please sell him to
me. We will give him a good home, and we will always love him, for what
he did for us."
"Well, I don't like to lose such a good trick monkey," said Mappo's
master, "but I will let you have him. Be kind to him, for he is a good
little chap."
"Oh, we'll be very kind to him," the baby's papa promised. "We have a
dog named Don, and a cat named Tabby. I am sure Mappo will like them.
We will be very good to him."
And so Mappo, after having lived in the jungle, and afterward joining a
circus, went to live at the home of the baby, after it was built over,
for it was badly damaged by the fire. And Mappo made friends with Don
and Tabby and had a lovely time.
But there are other animals of whose lives I can tell you, and the next
book in this series is going to be called "Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant:
His Many Adventures."
"Weren't you afraid when you climbed up that rain-water pipe to get the
baby?" asked Don the dog of Mappo, one day.
"I wasn't afraid of climbing, but I was a little afraid of the fire,"
said the monkey.
"I wish I were as brave as you," said Tabby, the cat. "Come on, let's
have a game of tag."
And the three animal friends played a game very much like our tag; and
now we will say good-by to them.
THE END
GOOD STORIES FOR CHILDREN
(From four to nine years old)
THE KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES
By RICHARD BARNUM
[Illustration]
In all nursery literature animals have played a conspicuous part; and
the reason is obvious, for nothing entertains a child more than the
antics of an animal. These stories abound in amusing incidents such as
children adore, and the characters are so full of life, so appealing to
a child's imagination, that none will be satisfied until they have met
all of their favorites--Squinty, Slicko, Mappo, and the rest.
1 Squinty, the Comical Pig.
2 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel.
3 Mappo, the Merry Monkey.
4 Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant.
5 Don, a Runaway Dog.
6 Dido, the Dancing Bear.
7 Blackie, a Lost Cat.
8 Flop Ear, the Funny Rabbit.
9 Tinkle, the Trick Pony.
10 Lightfoot, the Leaping Goat.
11 Chunky, the Happy Hippo.
12 Sharp Eyes, the Silver Fox.
13 Nero, the Circus Lion.
14 Tamba, the Tame Tiger.
15 Toto, the Rustling Beaver.
16 Shaggo, the Mighty Buffalo.
Cloth, Large 12mo., Illustrated.
***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAPPO, THE MERRY MONKEY***
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