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[Illustration: MONKEY IN CHURCH. Page 88.]
[Illustration: MINNIE and her PETS.
BY MRS MADELINE LESLIE.
MINNIE'S PET MONKEY.]
MINNIE'S PET MONKEY.
BY
MRS. MADELINE LESLIE,
AUTHOR OF "THE LESLIE STORIES," "TIM, THE SCISSORS-GRINDER,"
ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD,
SUCCESSORS TO PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO.
1864.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
A. R. BAKER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
ELECTROTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.
TO MY YOUNG FRIEND,
HENRY FOWLE DURANT, JR.
=These Little Volumes=
ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
BY THE AUTHOR,
IN THE EARNEST HOPE THAT THEY MAY INCREASE IN HIM THAT
LOVE OF NATURE AND OF RURAL LIFE WHICH HAS EVER
EXERTED SO SALUTARY AN INFLUENCE IN THE
FORMATION OF THE CHARACTERS OF
THE WISE AND GOOD.
MINNIE AND HER PETS.
Minnie's Pet Parrot.
Minnie's Pet Cat.
Minnie's Pet Dog.
Minnie's Pet Horse.
Minnie's Pet Lamb.
Minnie's Pet Monkey.
MINNIE'S PET MONKEY.
CHAPTER I.
JACKO AND HIS WOUNDED TAIL.
Did you ever see a monkey? If you have not, I suppose you will like to
hear a description of Jacko, Minnie's sixth pet.
He was about eighteen inches high, with long arms, covered with short
hair, which he used as handily as a boy, flexible fingers, with flat
nails, and a long tail, covered with hair, which seemed to answer the
purpose of a third hand.
Though monkeys are usually very ugly and unpleasant, from their
approaching so nearly to the human face, and still bearing so strongly
the marks of the mere brute, yet Jacko was a pretty little fellow.
He had bright eyes, which sparkled like diamonds from beneath his
deep-set eyebrows. His teeth were of the most pearly whiteness, and he
made a constant display of them, grinning and chattering continually.
But I ought to tell you about his passage in uncle Frank's ship.
On one of Captain Lee's voyages, he touched upon the coast of Africa,
where he saw the little fellow in a hen-coop, just about to be carried
on board a whaler. The gentleman had often thought he should like to
carry his favorite niece a little pet; but as she already had a parrot,
he did not know what she would wish.
But when he listened to the chattering of the monkey, and heard the
sailor who owned him say what a funny little animal it was, he thought
he would buy it and take it home to her.
On the voyage, Jacko met with a sad accident. The hen-coop in which he
was confined was too small to contain the whole of his tail, and he was
obliged, when he slept, to let the end of it hang out. This was a great
affliction to the poor animal, for he was very proud of his tail, which
was indeed quite an addition to his good looks.
It so happened that there were two large cats on board ship; and one
night, as they were prowling about, they saw the tail hanging out while
Jacko was sound asleep; and before he had time to move, one of them
seized it and bit it off.
The monkey was very indignant, and if he could have had a fair chance at
his enemies, would have soon punished them for their impudence. It was
really amusing to see him afterward. He would pull his bleeding tail in
through the bars of the hen-coop, and give it a malicious bite, as much
as to say,--
"I wish you were off. You are of no use to me now; and you look terribly
short."
When they reached New York, at the end of their voyage, Captain Lee took
Jacko out of the hen-coop, and put him in a bag, which was carried into
the depot while he was purchasing his ticket. The monkey, who must needs
see every thing that was going on, suddenly poked his head out of the
bag, and gave a malicious grin at the ticket-master.
The man was much frightened, but presently recovered himself, and
returned the insult by saying,--
"Sir, that's a dog! It's the rule that no dog can go in the cars without
being paid for."
It was all in vain that the captain tried to convince him that Jacko
was not a dog, but a monkey. He even took him out of the bag; but in the
face of this evidence, the man would persist in saying,--
"He is a dog, and must have a ticket before he enters the cars."
So a ticket was bought, and Jacko was allowed to proceed on his journey.
The little fellow was as pleased as the captain when he arrived at the
end of his journey, and took possession of his pleasant quarters in the
shed adjoining Mr. Lee's fine house. He soon grew fond of his little
mistress, and played all manner of tricks, jumping up and down, swinging
with his tail, which had begun to heal, and chattering with all his
might in his efforts to please her.
Mr. Lee, at the suggestion of his brother, the captain, had a nice
house or cage made for Minnie's new pet, into which he could be put if
he became troublesome, and where he always went to sleep. The rest of
the time he was allowed his liberty, as far as his chain would reach.
Jacko came from a very warm climate, and therefore often suffered from
the cold in the northern latitude to which he had been brought.
Mrs. Lee could not endure to see a monkey dressed like a man, as they
sometimes are in shows. She said they looked disgustingly; but she
consented that the little fellow should have a tight red jacket, and
some drawers, to keep him comfortable. Minnie, too, begged from her some
old pieces of carpeting, to make him a bed, when Jacko seemed greatly
delighted. He did not now, as before, often stand in the morning
shaking, and blue with the cold, but laughed, and chattered, and showed
his gratitude in every possible way.
Not many months after Jacko came, and when he had become well acquainted
with all the family, Fidelle had a family of kittens, which she often
carried in her mouth back and forth through the shed. The very sight of
these little animals seemed to excite Jacko exceedingly. He would
spring the entire length of his chain, trying to reach them.
One day, when the kittens had begun to run alone, and were getting to be
very playful, the cook heard a great noise in the shed, and Fidelle
crying with all her might. She ran to see what was the matter, and, to
her surprise, found Jacko sitting up in the cage, grinning with delight,
while he held one of the kittens in his arms, hugging it as if it had
been a baby.
Cook knew the sight would please Minnie, and she ran to call her. But
the child sympathized too deeply in Fidelle's distress to enjoy it. She
tried to get the kitten away from Jacko, but he had no idea of giving it
up, until at last, when Mrs. Lee, who had come to the rescue, gave him a
piece of cake, of which he was very fond, he relaxed his hold, and she
instantly released the poor, frightened little animal.
Fidelle took warning by this occurrence, and never ventured through the
shed again with her babies, though Jacko might seem to be sound asleep
in his cage.
Jacko had been at Mr. Lee's more than a year before they knew him to
break his chain and run about by himself. The first visit he made was to
Leo, in the barn, and he liked it so well that, somehow or other, he
contrived to repeat the visit quite as often as it was agreeable to the
dog, who never could endure him.
After this, he became very mischievous, so that every one of the
servants, though they often had a great laugh at his tricks, would have
been glad to have the little fellow carried back to his home in Africa.
I don't think even Minnie loved her pet monkey as well as she did her
other pets. She could not take him in her arms as she did Fidelle and
Tiney, nor play with him as she did with Nannie and her lamb, and he
could not carry her on his back, as Star did.
"Well," she said, one day, after discussing the merits of her animals
with her mamma, "Poll talks to me, and Jacko makes me laugh; but if I
should have to give up one of my pets, I had rather it would be the
monkey."