CHAPTER PAGE
I. ABOUT MONKEYS 1
II. ABOUT JAMAICA 28
III. AUNT ANNIE’S STORIES ABOUT HORSES 78
IV. FOUR MONTHS IN CAMP 105
V. ABOUT DOGS 168
VI. ABOUT BOYS 200
VII. ‘EDINBURGH CASTLE’ 230
VIII. THE GRAVE BY THE RAKAIA 266
LIST
OF
ILLUSTRATIONS.
TURK AND JESSIE _Title-page_
‘ONE LILLY BLACK GENLEMANS TO SEE MASSA’ _Frontispiece_
MASTER GRANNY AND HIS PETS _To face page_ 82
NETTLE AND THE ELEPHANT „ „ 144
PUNCH’S TOILET „ „ 180
⁂ _Of these Stories some are reprinted from the pages of ‘Good Words for
the Young.’_
_ABOUT MONKEYS._
I never can tell a story properly unless there are several little
listeners gathered round me, and I like to have one rosy-cheeked darling
to cuddle up on my lap; so now we must fancy all these preparations
made, a bright fire burning, before which we have settled ourselves
comfortably, and we know that nurse is not coming with her fatal tap at
the door (which must be instantly obeyed, remember) for a whole hour
yet. I think I hear a chorus of little voices say, ‘Go on, please.’ What
shall the stories be about to-night? Let me see; what do I know about
monkeys? not out of books, or from other people’s lips; these will be
monkeys of my personal acquaintance.
In case any little boys or girls wish very much to have a monkey for
their very own, I will first warn them by telling them of three attempts
I made to set up one of these animals as a pet. My first monkey was
brought to me early one morning at Lucknow, a great city in India, a few
years ago. I had only been a fortnight in India, and about two days at
Lucknow. The evening before, at a dinner-party, I happened to say how
much I should like to have a monkey, and immediately four voices said,
‘Oh! I will give you mine with pleasure.’ When I thought of this
afterwards, it looked very suspicious that the owners of the monkeys
should be so ready to part with them; it seemed as though they had been
rather troublesome pets; but at the time I only felt how good-natured
everybody was, and how much I should like to be able to accept all four
monkeys; but as this was impossible, I contented myself with selecting
one whose master gave him an excellent character. My last thought at
night and my first in the morning was one of joy and impatience to see
my new pet. It is the custom in India, as I daresay you have heard, to
get up very early, so by six o’clock I was dressed in a loose muslin
wrapper, and sitting under the shade of a beautiful clump of trees in
the garden. The lady with whom we were spending a few days was with me,
and we had some delicious coffee and biscuits on a table before us for
our _chotahasseri_, or ‘little breakfast.’ Our husbands had gone to a
review, and we two ladies intended to be very industrious, and take a
lesson in Hindoostanee from a Moonshee with a long white beard. The old
gentleman had not yet arrived to teach us, so I inquired whether my dear
monkey had made its appearance, and heard that it was in the ‘compound’
or courtyard, and that its late master had sent the servant who always
took care of it, in case I wished to secure his services. I wanted to
have the monkey brought to me at once, but as the Moonshee could now be
seen coming slowly up the garden walk, looking very clean and nice with
his snow-white robes and turban, Mrs. R—— persuaded me to wait till our
lesson was over.
I am sadly afraid that, although I was big enough and old enough to know
better, the poor Moonshee had one rather idle and inattentive pupil that
morning, and I was very glad when the time came for shutting up the
books with their dreadful crabbed letters, and Mrs. R—— kindly said,
‘Now, shall we send for the monkey?’ I need not tell you how eagerly I
answered ‘Yes,’ to this proposal; and a few moments afterwards I saw a
tall swarthy Indian servant approaching us, making low bows down to the
ground at every step. He was leading a monkey by a chain round its
waist, and carrying a plate in the other hand. I could not tell the
height of the animal on account of its shambling way of half-walking
half-crawling, but it turned out afterwards to be about as tall as the
table; it was not quite black, but very glossy. When they were within
two or three yards of us, the ‘mater’ (as that class of low-caste
servant is called in India) said, ‘Salaam, Bobbee,’ and Bobby put his
black paw up to his forehead, and slapped it several times, bending low
as he did so, exactly in the way the mater had been going on ever since
he came in sight. It is the Indian way of saying ‘How do you do?’ or
‘Good morning.’ I was delighted of course, and thought Bobby had
charming manners, but when he came closer I did not quite like his being
so big and strong, or so very inquisitive; he did not seem in the least
shy, but made himself at home directly, and when his servant put the
fruit and cake which he had brought for him on the table before me,
Master Bobby quickly climbed up and seated himself on my knee, as if he
had known me all his life. As soon as he had finished his breakfast,—and
he did not take long about it,—the mater took away the empty plate, and
with many more salaams retired leaving Bobby still on my knee, very busy
examining my buckle and ear-rings, pricking his fingers with my brooch,
and every now and then stroking my hair. I was not at all easy in my
mind, but sat quite still, and tried to conceal from Bobby that I
disliked his company or felt frightened. After a little while he noticed
some ribbon on my sleeve, and tried to pick it off with his finger and
thumb, as if it had been a flower; he next set to work diligently to
roll up the wide open sleeve of my dressing-gown into a long narrow
bundle: this he did very slowly and neatly, chattering softly to himself
all the time. By degrees he got it all rolled up to my shoulder, leaving
my arm quite bare. I sat patiently waiting to see what he was going to
do next, when he gave a sort of yell, dug his nails and teeth into my
arm, and tore it down to the wrist, leaving four or five rows of
bleeding scratches on it. I jumped up with a scream, which brought all
the servants out to see what was the matter; not one of them would touch
him, but some ran to call the mater, who carried Master Bobby off
kicking and fighting like a naughty child. He had fastened on poor Mrs.
R——’s foot after I had shaken him off my lap, and was biting and
scratching it with all his might.
In the meantime my arm was smarting dreadfully; it did not bleed much,
but the pain was really very severe, and I had to keep wet cloths
wrapped round it all day. The servants told us that the mater had
already confessed that Bobby was ‘very bad to Mem-sahibs,’ and did not
like them at all; so after our breakfast I wrote a polite little note to
his former master, and returned Bobby to him with many thanks. This was
the end of my first attempt to have a pet monkey; he was only mine for
two hours.
A year or so afterwards I was on my way back to England, and the ship
stopped at Ceylon for a few days. I had been told that most beautiful
little monkeys were to be bought there; and all the time we were at
Point-de-Galle I tried very hard to find one to purchase, but it was too
early in the spring for the young ones to be taken from their mothers,
so there were none in the market. I returned, after a week’s absence on
shore, very disconsolately to the ship without having succeeded in
procuring a monkey; but the first person I met on board was the fat,
good-natured old captain nursing tenderly in his arms a wee monkey of a
beautiful tawny-golden colour, and with the gentlest, sweetest little
face. The moment the dear old gentleman saw me he came up, and before I
could speak, handed me the treasure, saying, ‘I knew you would not be
able to get one at this time of year, and a friend of mine promised to
keep one for me, so here it is for your very own.’ You may imagine how
delighted I was; this was exactly the sort of monkey I had always
wanted, and I did not know how to leave off thanking the captain. For
the next day or two I nursed and fondled my monkey incessantly; it was
very shy, and as quiet as a little mouse, but the most engaging gentle
creature. Its timidity was not at all like stupidity, for it was very
intelligent, but seemed completely dazed by the noise and bustle of a
large steamer full of passengers. There was a squalling baby on board,
whom it never tired of watching, I suppose because it was nearest its
own size; and when this infant was on deck and set up one of its shrill
shrieks, the monkey used to stop its ears with its tiny fingers, and
look up piteously in my face, as much as to say, ‘What a horrid noise!’
Unfortunately for my pretty little pet, I fell ill, and could not have
the monkey in my cabin, but I was assured that the head steward, in
whose care it was solemnly placed, looked after it, and reported well of
its state of health. As soon as ever I could get on deck I asked for my
monkey to be brought to me, but saw at once that something was wrong,
for every one to whom I applied put me off with a different excuse; so
after dinner, in the cool of the evening, when our dear old captain came
to speak to me, I begged him to take me ‘forrard’ (as the front part or
bow of a ship is called) that I might find out how and where my monkey
was. I could only walk very slowly, for I was weak still; and whilst we
were crawling towards the place where the sheep and poultry were kept,
the captain told me there was a very large fierce monkey also on board
called ‘Jenny,’ belonging to the crew, and that she had caught sight of
my poor little darling, seized it in her arms, and that nothing would
induce her to part with it for an instant night or day. She seemed very
fond of it, but her affection was evidently so disagreeable to my little
pet, that the sailors had watched her incessantly to try and get it out
of her clutches; however, as she always vented her rage at these
attempts on the unoffending monkey, whom she cuffed and shook heartily,
the men thought it best to leave her alone, hoping she would tire some
day of her plaything. When the captain and I came upon her she had my
poor monkey tucked under one arm, and was skipping about the bulwarks.
You never saw anything so forlorn as the little one looked. One of its
eyes was bleeding from a scratch its nurse had just given it, and it
went to my heart to see the melancholy way it put its little black paw
up to the wound, and showed me the blood on its fingers.
Weak and ill as I still was, and armed only with my parasol, I
determined at once to rescue my monkey from Jenny’s tender mercies, so I
let go the captain’s arm; and though, he and everybody else entreated me
to take care, for Jenny was very ferocious when roused, I boldly
attacked her, and fairly drove her into a corner where there were no
ropes by which to escape up the rigging. I made up my mind not to care
in the least for scratches or bites; I suppose Jenny perceived that I
was desperate, and, sooner than let me have her favourite plaything, she
seized it by its tail, whirled it round her head, and flung it into the
sea! Oh! how grieved and angry I felt. It was quite useless to attempt
to save my poor little pet, for we were going full speed, and no one
could see even where it fell: it must have been drowned in a minute. I
fairly sat down and cried, and I should have liked Jenny to have been
well punished; but no one dare touch her, so she escaped to the rigging,
from which she chattered defiance at us.
My third and last pet monkey was not mine at all! Joey belonged to some
one else in the house, but attached himself to me from the moment he
arrived, as his friend and protectress, and I never saw any animal so
fond of a human being as Joey was, and I may say is, of me, though he no
longer lives in the same house, having been exchanged by his owner for a
musical box! Since his departure from his first home I have been to call
on him once or twice, and he is always delighted to see me, and cries
piteously when it is time for me to go away.
Joey came last year from the great forests near Panama, and when I first
saw him after his sea-voyage I thought him more like a little black imp
than anything else. He was very small and hideous, quite black, with a
white beard and enormous eyes; having lived in a rough box or cage on
board, he had rubbed all the hair off his body and tail, and was very
thin and dirty besides: he was made to undergo a whole course of warm
baths on his arrival, which he hated; but they improved him immensely,
and in a few weeks he became completely clothed in a coat of long glossy
black hair, and as handsome as he was capable of looking, which,
however, is not saying much. Joey never was shy; his intelligence and
cleverness were extraordinary; but it was impossible to make a pet of
him on account of his incurably dirty habits, and his unceasing
mischief. He was never still for a second, and _always_ doing something
wrong, and yet he was so inexpressibly ridiculous that no one had the
heart to punish him; he quite understood that he had been naughty, but
he had a way of scratching his head when we were scolding him, and
looking at us as much as to say, ‘Well, now, really I didn’t think that
was any harm.’ Our home at that time was in the country, so Joey had a
wide field for mischief; and, as he arrived whilst it was still summer,
he commenced some extensive gardening operations of his own at once,
which resulted in depriving me of every leaf and blossom on my creepers.
No chain could keep him confined; it was merely a question of time. Joey
sat down to consider how to get rid of every attempt to fasten him up,
and his little clever fingers always contrived to free himself. He would
eat or drink almost anything, but he was not at all greedy; the food he
liked best was bread and milk, but he took very little of even that. How
you would have laughed to see Joey and his favourite companion the
kitten sharing their morning meal of milk! He soon taught the kitten
that he was to have the first drink, and would lift the little cup up to
his lips, take as much as he wanted, placing it on the floor for the
kitten afterwards; but whilst she was lapping slowly and with great
difficulty, Joey would get impatient, and shake the cup to hasten her
movements, walk all round her, tweaking her tail or nipping her fur; but
the kitten never stopped lapping, and when he could bear it no longer he
used suddenly to drag her head up by both her ears, snatch away the cup,
and either break it to pieces as the shortest way of disposing of it, or
nimbly mount up on a table or chair and put it out of poor Pussy’s
reach. The worst of this playfellow for Joey was that she wanted to play
all night and sleep all day, whereas Joey never was still for a second
in the daylight, but, as soon as it became dusk, he rolled himself up in
his blanket and went to sleep. He could not bear to be disturbed, and
used to get into furious rages with the kitten, after vainly trying to
persuade her to be quiet and share his blanket with him. I had to watch
Joey incessantly on account of his love of hearing the crash china made
in falling; the cook could not keep a cup or plate on the dresser—they
had to be stowed away in drawers, and for several weeks Joey tried to
get at a thermometer which hung outside the house: it baffled him for
some time, but at last he discovered a projecting nail, round which he
curled his long tail, swung himself up, and had the great satisfaction
of making a splendid smash of it. Fortunately the only room in the house
into which he would not venture alone was the drawing-room. On each side
of the fireplace stood screens of stuffed Indian pheasants of bright and
gaudy plumage. Joey was horribly afraid of these, and when I took him
into the room never ceased clinging tight round my neck with one slender
paw, whilst he covered his face with the other, and peeped at the birds
with evident awe. One day I heard extraordinary sounds of choking
proceeding from a bedroom as I passed it; the door was closed, but not
fastened, so I first knocked, and then, as no one answered, looked in.
There was Joey seated on the dressing-table, with his head back, waving
his long arms, his eyes starting out of his head, and at the last gasp
for want of breath. I found he was trying to swallow a large signet-ring
which he had found, and it had stuck in his throat; there was enough of
it in his mouth for me to take hold of, and I got it up with much
difficulty; but that was very nearly Joey’s last trick, for if some one
had not passed he must have died soon. He had previously put everything
in the room which could be squeezed down its neck into the water-jug;
the soap and sponges were there, so were several trinkets lying about
and a small pincushion; the candles (he had broken the candlesticks) and
a slipper were sticking out at the top.
I must tell you one more amusement of Joey’s, and that will be the last
about him—for a wonder it was not destructive mischief. I missed him one
morning, and spent at least two hours in hunting for him, feeling sure
he was doing something very naughty by his being so quiet. I searched
the house first thoroughly, then the stables, even the coal shed, looked
into the washhouse, without seeing him, when just as I was leaving the
last place I heard a very gentle chirrup proceeding from behind a pile
of empty boxes, and I immediately went softly to see what he was doing.
In one of the boxes was a quantity of feathers, and on these the old cat
and her kitten had lain down to have a quiet sleep. Joey had found them
out, and as they would not wake up and play with him, he amused himself
as well as he could by covering them up with feathers; he had succeeded
in hiding the kitten completely, and the cat’s ear was the only part of
her to be seen. Joey was doing his best to hide this also, but however
gently he laid a small feather on it, the cat twitched her ear, and the
feather came off. Joey hunted among the boxful for a still lighter
feather and tried again, laying it down with the utmost care, but in
vain. After many attempts he brought me one and made me try, but my
clumsy touch had no chance when his tiny paw had failed. I left him
still trying to cover that restless ear.
Now I think perhaps you would like to hear a little of monkeys who were
not pets by any means. Whilst I was in India we went up to Simla very
early in the season, before the houses were filled with people; and as
the place is nearly deserted in the cold winter months, the monkeys,
bears, and panthers get very tame, and I am told almost live in the
verandahs of the empty houses. I never saw either a bear or a
panther,—they betake themselves to the woods the moment they catch sight
of any one more alarming than the two or three old watchmen who take
care of the town for four months of the year; but the monkeys are not so
easily dislodged. Soon after I arrived at Simla, I had to complain to my
ayah or maid, that every night the lamp went out, and it was not to be
wondered at, for when I examined it in the morning there was no oil in
it. In vain she protested that it was regularly filled—if ever I awoke
the room was dark, and I did not like this, especially as, though it was
an upstair room, and consequently safe from thieves, my window was open.
I determined to watch, and saw a big monkey come in very softly at the
window and blow out the light, then I could hear him drinking off the
oil and smacking his lips over it. On another occasion I was told I
could not go out riding because my saddle was unstuffed. As it was
perfectly new, I was very much surprised, but it turned out that when my
syce or groom was leading my horse with the saddle on, he had lain down
to rest, taking the saddle off first, lest the horse should hurt it by
rubbing. The syce fell asleep, and when he awoke a crowd of monkeys were
gathered round my poor saddle, out of which they had taken every bit of
horsehair stuffing. I suppose in time they would entirely have destroyed
it, but the lining was the easiest for their strong clever fingers to
unpick first.
I had a little terrier who could not endure monkeys, and barked and
chased them whenever he saw them. They soon learned to dread and hate
him, and when Fury and I were out walking alone, pieces of dry stick,
showers of leaves, and boughs of rhododendron blossom would come down on
our heads, but Fury only barked and chased our assailants more
ferociously than ever. One day the narrow path led through a very thick
clump of evergreen oaks, with branches hanging low down on the path. As
Fury and I were making our way under these boughs, a long skinny arm was
stretched down, Fury was grasped firmly by his long hair, and carried
off. I was in despair. I heard my poor dog’s snaps and barks and yelps,
but could do nothing. The sounds mounted higher and higher, till at last
I caught a glimpse of poor Fury handed about from one to another among a
group of monkeys, who were pinching, and pulling, and buffeting him
well. When they were tired of this amusement, and had tortured their
little enemy to their hearts’ content, they dropped him over the
precipice, and there was an end of poor Fury at once.
But the worst trick the large mountain monkeys (‘langours’ they call
them at Simla) ever played me was one evening when I had a dinner-party.
I must explain to you that the house we lived in was placed on the top
of a sharp-pointed hill, and the very little flat ground which remained
after the house was built had been left in front of it, so that at the
back, where the dining-room stood, there was quite a precipice steep
down, with large rhododendron and oak trees growing against the side of
the hill. Their trunks were out of sight, but the topmost branches came
against the windows, and it was very beautiful to see clusters of bright
crimson flowers almost thrusting themselves into the room.
I was very anxious that this, my first party, should be a pretty one,
and instead of the heavy, old-fashioned Indian dinners, with quantities
of food in big silver dishes, I had the table arranged _à la Russe_. I
wonder if my little readers know what that is. All the meat and puddings
and pies were to be handed by the servants, and nothing was put on the
dining table except pretty things. There were little white china boys
holding baskets of fruit, vases of flowers, preserved fruits and
bon-bons from Gunter’s, all sorts of new-shaped goblets and water-jugs,
&c. &c. I took a great deal of trouble to see all this properly done by
my crowd of stupid servants, and when it was at last arranged stopped to
take one more look at it before going to dress, thinking it was all as
pretty and nice as possible. I desired one of the men to remain in the
room, and went off quite happily to make my toilette. When I had
dressed, instead of going into the drawing-room, I thought I should like
to have one more look at my dinner-table, and went softly into the
dining-room. What a sight met my eyes! No servant was there, he had gone
off to smoke his hubble-bubble the moment my back was turned, and the
table was surrounded by monkeys, who had got in by the trees which grew
close to the windows. They had not contented themselves only with eating
up my fruit and cakes, but they had upset the glass dishes, and smeared
the preserves all over the table-cloth; they had broken the water
bottles, knocked the heads off half my little china boys; in short, you
never saw such a mess in your life, and there they stood grinning and
chattering, hardly moving even when I rushed at them brandishing my fan
as if it had been a poker. I rang the hand-bell furiously, and that
frightened them more than anything else. In a moment the old khansamah,
or butler, and half-a-dozen other servants came up. I pointed to the
table, for I was too angry to speak; and the khansamah, bowing low,
joined his hands, and tried to console me by saying in Hindoostanee,
‘Pearl of the Universe, it is the will of Heaven.’ I could not stop to
argue this point with him, as my guests were arriving, so I told him to
get dinner ready in the usual way as quickly as possible, and went to
the drawing-room feeling very much as if I should like to have a good
cry over the ruin of all my pretty things. In conclusion, I may tell you
that we did not get any dinner at all for more than an hour, and that it
was extremely nasty when it came, for everything was over-cooked and
spoiled; so I think, considering all things, I have a right to feel
angry with langours whenever I remember that unfortunate evening.
We have just five minutes more before nurse comes, so I will end with a
short story my father told me, of something which happened many years
ago in Jamaica. A new Governor was expected to arrive by the following
steamer; he was coming from Demerara, where monkeys abound; his wife was
very fond of these pets, and had sent on before her a large iron cage
full of monkeys of all sorts and sizes, in charge of a servant. These
animals created great excitement on their arrival in Spanish Town,
especially among the negroes, who had never seen a monkey, and fancied
they were inferior beings of the same class as themselves. The cage was
fastened outside the ‘King’s House’ (where the Governor was to live),
and for a few days all went well. I must explain to you that the next
house to this was one where the President of the Council lived, and was
only separated from it by a large garden. Owing to the carelessness of
the servant, the cage door was found open one morning, and the monkeys
were disporting themselves in the President’s garden, making sad havoc
among his fruits and flowers. They were all captured after a little
time, except one huge baboon, who climbed into a high tree, and hid
himself so cleverly that he could not be found. When the coast was
clear, Mr. Monkey came down, and set out on his travels, making his
first visit to the President. The black hall-porter was so astonished
and alarmed at this unwonted visitor, that he hastily ran upstairs, the
baboon following him closely, flung the door of the breakfast-room open,
and said in trembling tones: ‘One lilly black genlemans to see massa,’
and then retreated as fast as he could, shutting the door behind him.
Now the poor old President had only one leg, and his wooden substitute
lay on a chair near him, for he never put it on unless he wanted to move
about. He was very indignant at the impudence of his uninvited guest,
who immediately began to help himself to the dainties on the table, and
he flung his wooden leg at the intruder, never reflecting that he could
not stir without its help. When my father happened to look in an hour
afterwards he found the old gentleman speechless with rage, still
helpless on his chair, and the monkey scrimmaging all over the room,
upsetting inkstands, breaking china, and creating the greatest havoc
among the President’s books and papers.
Now, there is nurse; do you know those charming lines at the end of Miss
Procter’s pretty poem, ‘The Comforter?’—
So good night to my darling Effie:
Keep happy, sweet heart, and grow wise;
There’s one kiss for her golden tresses,
And two for her sleepy eyes.
_ABOUT JAMAICA._