GIUSEPPE NICOLI AND THE MONKEY
The next morning dawned bright and clear and cool, and Peace, hurrying
to school with her nose buried in a great bunch of early roses from the
stone house, pranced gaily down the hill chanting under her breath,
"Roses, roses, yellow, red and white, you are surely lovely, sweet and
bright--another rhyme! They always come when I ain't trying to make 'em.
I wonder if I'll ever be a big poet like Longfellow was. It must be nice
to have folks learn the things you write and speak 'em at concerts and
school exercises like I'm going to do his 'Children's Hour' next Friday.
I've got it so I can say it backwards almost. Elizabeth says I know it
perfectly. I hope Miss Peyton will think the same way. She is lots
harder to please and I 'most never can do anything to suit her."
She sighed dolefully, for her ludicrous mistakes and blunt remarks were
the bane of her new teacher's methodical life, and many an hour she had
been kept after school as a punishment for her unruly tongue.
Unfortunately, Miss Peyton belonged to that great army of teachers who
teach because they must, and not because they love the work. To be
sure, she was most just and impartial in her treatment of the fifty
scholars under her supervision, but, possessed of about as much
imagination as a cat, she failed to analyze or understand the
dispositions of her charges; and well-meaning Peace was usually in
disgrace.
But her sunny nature could not stay unhappy long, and as she thrust her
small nose deeper among the fragrant blossoms, she smilingly added, "I
guess she'll like these roses, anyway. They are the prettiest I ever
saw, even in greenhouses. There goes the first bell. I 'xpected to be
there early this morning, but likely Annie Simms has beat me again.
Well, I don't care, there is only one more week of school and then
vacation--and p'raps I can go home. Why, what a crowd there is on the
walk! I wonder if someone is hurt again. Where can the principal be?"
She broke into a run, forgetful of her cherished bouquet, and dashed
heedlessly across the school-grounds to the group of excited, shouting
boys and girls, gathered around the tallest linden, throwing stones and
missiles of all sorts up into the branches at some object which Peace
could not see. But as she drew near, she could hear a queer, distressed
chattering, which reminded her of the monkeys in the park zoo, and
turning to one of her mates, she demanded, "What is it the boys have got
treed there?"
"A monkey."
"A monkey?" shrieked Peace in real surprise. "Where did they get him?"
"I guess he b'longs to a hand-organ man. He's dressed in funny little
pants and a red cap. Thad DePugh found him on his way to school and
tried to catch him, but he run up the tree."
"And you stand there without saying a word and let them stone a poor
little helpless monkey!"
"It don't b'long to me," muttered the child, angered by the indignant
flash of the brown eyes and the scathing rebuke which seemed directed
against her alone. "Anyway, I ain't stoning it."
"You ain't helping, either. Let me through here!" She pushed and elbowed
her way into the midst of the throng and boldly confronted the
ringleaders of the tormentors, screaming in protest, "Don't you throw
another stone, you big bullies! Ain't you ashamed of yourself, trying to
kill that poor little thing!"
"We ain't trying to kill it," retorted the nearest chap, pausing with
his arm uplifted ready to pitch another pebble.
"You mind your own business!" growled another. "This monkey isn't yours.
We're trying to make it come down so we can catch it."
"You'll quit throwing things at it, or I'll tell Miss Curtis."
"Tattle-tale, tattle-tale!" mocked the throng, and another handful of
rocks flew up among the branches.
"O-h-h-h-h!" shrieked Peace, beside herself with rage. "You d'serve to
have the stuffing whaled out of you for that!"
Flinging aside the treasured roses, she seized the biggest boy by the
hair and jerked him mercilessly back and forth across the yard, while he
sought in vain to loosen the supple fingers, and bawled loudly for help.
"Teacher, teacher! Miss Curtis, oh teacher!" shouted the excited
children; and at these sounds of strife from the playgrounds, the
principal and half a dozen of her staff rushed out of the building to
quell the riot. But even then Peace did not release her grip on the
lad's thick topknot.
Pulled forcibly from her victim by the long-suffering Miss Peyton, she
collapsed in the middle of the walk and sobbed convulsively, while the
rest of the scholars huddled around in scared silence, eager to see what
punishment was to be meted out to this small offender, for it was a
great disgrace at Chestnut School to be caught fighting.
The grave-faced principal looked from the pitiful heap of misery at her
feet to the blubbering bully who had retreated to a safe distance and
stood ruefully rubbing his smarting cranium, minus several tufts of
hair; and though inwardly smiling at the spectacle, she demanded
sternly, "Peace Greenfield, aren't you ashamed of yourself for fighting
Thad--"
"Yes," hiccoughed Peace with amazing promptness and candor; "I'm
terribly ashamed to think I _touched_ him--he's so dirty. But I ain't
half as ashamed of _myself_ as I am of him."
Even Miss Peyton caught her breath in dismay. But the principal had not
forgotten her own childhood days, and being still a girl at heart, and
secretly in sympathy with the small maid on the ground, she only said,
"Explain yourself, Peace."
"It ain't half as bad for a little girl like me to fight a big bully
like him, as it is for a big bully like him to fight a little monkey--"
"I wasn't fighting the monkey," sullenly muttered the boy, hanging his
head in shame.
"You were stoning him, and he couldn't hit back, so there!"
"What monkey?" demanded the principal, glancing swiftly around the yard
for any evidence of such a creature.
A dozen hands pointed toward the linden tree, and one small voice piped,
"He's up there!"
"A real monkey?"
"Yes, dressed up in hand-organ pants," Peace explained, scrambling to
her feet and peering up among the thick leaves for a glimpse of the
frightened animal, which had ceased its wild chattering and sat huddled
close against the tree trunk almost within reach. "See it? Poor little
Jocko, I won't hurt you!" She stretched out her hands at the same moment
that unknowingly she had spoken its name, and to the intense amazement
of teachers and pupils, the tiny, trembling creature unhesitatingly
dropped upon her shoulder, threw its claw-like arms about her neck and
hid its face in her curls.
"Whose monkey is it?" gently asked Miss Curtis, breaking the silence
which fell upon the group watching the strange sight.
"I never saw it before," Peace answered.
"But you called it by name," chorused the children, crowding closer
about her.
"That was just a guess. There's a story in our reader about Jocko, and I
happened to think of it. I didn't know it was this monkey's name."
"How odd!" murmured the primary teacher.
"She's the queerest child I ever saw," confided Miss Peyton; but the
principal had seen the janitor approaching the open door to ring the
last bell, and being at loss to know what to do with the unwelcome
little animal in Peace's arms, she suggested that the child take it home
and put it in a box until the owner could be found. This Peace was only
too delighted to do, for as no one in the neighborhood seemed to know
where it came from or whose it was, she had fond hopes that no one would
inquire for it, and that she might keep it for a pet.
So she joyfully carried it back to the parsonage, and burst in upon the
little household with the jumbled explanation, "Here's a stone I found
monkeying up a tree and Miss Curtis asked me to bring it home and box it
till the owner comes around after it. And if he doesn't come, I can keep
it myself, can't I, Saint John? He jumped right into my arms and won't
let go, but just shakes and shakes 'sif he was still getting hit by
those rocks. I pulled Thad DePugh 'most bald headed, and didn't get
scolded a bit hardly. She made him go to the office, though, and I hope
he gets licked the way I couldn't do but wanted to."
"Here, here," laughed the minister, looking much bewildered at the
twisted story. "Just say that again, please, and say it straight. I
haven't the faintest idea yet how you got hold of that little reptile or
what Thad's hair had to do with it."
"It isn't a reptile!" Peace indignantly denied. "It's a monkey which hid
in the linden tree at the schoolhouse to get away from the boys and they
stoned it."
Little by little the story was untangled, while the monkey still
tenaciously clung to Peace's neck and wide-eyed Glen hung onto her
skirts.
"So you think there is a chance of your keeping him for a pet?" said the
preacher, when at length the tale was ended.
"Can't I?"
"You are hoping too much, little girl. If this animal belongs to an
organ-grinder, he will be around for him very soon, you may be sure. It
is the monkey's antics that bring in the pennies. He can't afford to
lose such a valuable. Besides, Peace, the poor little thing is almost
dead now."
"Oh, Saint John, he is only scared. S'posing you were a monkey and
hateful boys stoned you, wouldn't you tremble and shake?"
"I don't doubt it, girlie, but it isn't only fear that ails that animal.
Look here at his back--just a solid mass of sores. Elizabeth, isn't that
shocking? This is surely a case for the Humane Society. It is a shame to
let the creature live, suffering as it must be suffering from those
cruel wounds. His owner ought to be jailed."
"Oh, Saint John, you aren't going to kill Jocko, are you?"
"No, dear, he is not my property, and I have no legal right to put him
out of his misery, but we must call up the Humane Society and notify
them at once. They will be merciful. It is better to have him die now
than live and suffer at the hands of a brutal owner, Peace. You must not
cry."
For great tears of pity were coursing down the rosy cheeks, and Glen was
trying his best to wipe them away with his fat little fists. Elizabeth
supplied the missing handkerchief, and as Peace raised it to her face,
the monkey gave a sudden convulsive shudder, the tiny paws loosed their
grasp about the warm neck, and Jocko lay dead in the child's arms.
For a full moment she stared at the pitiful form, and Elizabeth expected
a storm of grief and protest; but instead, the little maid drew a long,
deep breath as of relief, and said soberly, "Saint John is right. Jocko
is better off dead, but I'm glad he died in my arms, knowing I was good
to him, 'stead of being stoned to death by those cruel boys in the tree.
Where is Saint John? Has he already gone to telephone the Human Society?
He needn't to now. The monkey is dead. I'll run and catch him on my way
back to school. Good-bye."
She was off like a flash down the hill once more, but the preacher had
either taken a different route or already reached his goal, for he was
nowhere in sight. So Peace continued her way to the schoolhouse, racing
like mad to make up lost time. As she panted up the steps into the
dimness of the cool hall, she stumbled over a trembling figure crouching
in the darkest corner by the stairway, and drew back with a startled
cry, which was echoed by her victim, a frail, ragged, young urchin with
a thatch of jet black curls and great, hollow, dusky eyes.
"Who are you?" demanded Peace, not recognizing him as one of the regular
pupils at Chestnut School. "And what are you doing here?"
"Giuseppe Nicoli," answered the elf, looking terribly frightened and
shrinking further into his corner. "Me losa monk'. He come here but gona
way. W'en Petri fin', he keel me." The thin face worked pathetically as
the little fellow bravely tried to stifle the sobs which shook his
feeble body; and Peace, with childish instinct, understood what the
waif's queer, broken English failed to tell her.
"Is Petri your father?" she asked.
"No, no, no!" He shook his head vehemently to emphasize his words.
"Then why are you afraid of him?"
"He playa de organ, me seeng, me feedle, de monk' he dance and bring in
mon'. Monk' los', Petri keel me."
"The monkey is dead." The words escaped her lips before she thought, but
the frozen horror on the boy's face brought her to her senses, and she
hastily cried, "But he was _so_ sick and hurt! His back was just a mess
of solid sores. It is better that he is dead!"
"Oh, but Petri keel me!"
"Sh! The teachers will hear you if you screech so loud. Come upstairs
with me. Miss Curtis will know what to do. She won't let Petri get you.
Don't be afraid, Jessup. I wouldn't hurt you for the world."
He did not understand half that she said, but the great brown eyes were
filled with sympathy, and with the same instinct which had led the
monkey to leap into her arms a few moments before, the ragamuffin laid
his grimy fists into hers, and she led him up the winding stairs to the
principal's office.
When the worthy lady had heard the queer story, she could only stare
from one child to the other and gasp for breath. Peace was noted for
finding all sorts of maimed birds or sick animals on her way to school,
but never before had she appeared with a human being, and Miss Curtis
almost doubted now that little Giuseppe was a real human. He looked so
pitifully like a scarecrow. What could she do with him? It would be
criminal to let the brutal organ-player get him again if the lad's story
were true, and she did not doubt its truth after the waif had slipped
back his ragged sleeves and showed great, ugly, purple welts across his
naked arms.
"Poor little chap," she murmured. "Poor little chap!" As she gingerly
touched the bony hands, she was seized with a happy inspiration, and
bidding the children sit down till she returned, she entered a little
inner office, and Peace heard her at the telephone. "Give me 9275."
There was a pause; then the child grew rigid with horror. The voice from
the adjoining room was saying, "Is this the Humane Society?"
It was to the Humane Society that Saint John had intended telephoning,
in order that they might come up and kill the poor monkey. Was Miss
Curtis a murderer? Surely Giuseppe was not to be killed, too. Then why
had she telephoned the Humane Society?
Tiptoeing across the floor to the Italian waif's chair, she clutched him
by the hand, dragged him to his feet, and signalling him to be quiet,
she stole cautiously from the room with him in tow. Down the long stairs
they hurried, and out into the bright sunshine, though poor, frightened
Giuseppe protested volubly in his own tongue and the little broken
English which he knew, for once on the streets, he feared that the bold,
bad Petri would find him and drag him away to dreadful punishments
again. But the harder he protested, the faster Peace jerked him along,
repeating over and over in her frantic efforts to make him understand,
"Petri shan't get you, Jessup. But if we stay there the Human Society
will, and that's just as bad. They killed Deacon Skinner's old horse in
Parker, and Tim Shandy's lame cow, and were coming to finish Jocko when
he died of his own self. You don't want to go the same way, do you?"
Poor Peace did not know the real mission of the Humane Society, or she
would not have been so shocked at the idea of little Giuseppe's falling
into their hands; but her fear had its effect upon the struggling
urchin, and his feet fairly flew over the ground, as he tried to keep
pace with his leader. When only half a block from the parsonage, Peace
abruptly halted, and the boy's dark eyes looked into hers inquiringly,
fearfully. What was the matter now? This was certainly a queer child at
his side. Perhaps it would have been wiser had he stayed with the
gentle-faced lady in the schoolhouse.
"Run," he urged, tugging at her hand when she continued to stand
motionless in the middle of the walk. "Petri geta me."
"No, no, Petri shan't have you, I say!" Peace declared savagely. "But if
I take you home to Saint Elspeth, like as not the Human Society will be
right there to nab you; and if they ain't now, Miss Curtis will send 'em
along as soon as she finds we've run away. Where can I take you?"
Anxiously she looked about her for a hiding place, and as if in answer
to her question, her glance rested upon the stone house, surrounded by
its tall hedges. "Sure enough! Why didn't I think of that before? My
Lilac Lady will take care of you, I know, until Saint John can find some
nice place for you to live always. Come on this way."
She whisked around the corner, threw open the gate, and ushered the
trembling waif into the splendid garden, with the announcement, "Here is
the place I mean, and there is the Lilac Lady under the trees."
The boy surveyed the masses of brilliant flowers, the sparkling
fountain, the shifting shadows of the great oaks above him where birds
were singing. Then he turned and scanned the white, sweet face among the
pillows, and clasping his thin hands in rapture, he breathed, "Italy!
Oh, eet iss Paradise!" And as if unable to restrain his joy any longer,
he burst into a wild, plaintive song, with a voice silvery toned and
clear as a bell. Peace paused in the midst of a turbulent explanation to
listen; Aunt Pen came to the door with her sewing in her hand; Hicks
stole around the corner of the house, thinking perhaps the young
mistress had broken her long silence; and the lame girl herself lay with
parted lips, charmed by the glorious burst of melody.
The song won her heart, even before she heard the pitiful story of the
wretched little musician, and when Peace had finished recounting the
morning's events, the mistress of the stone house turned toward her aunt
with blazing, wrathful eyes, exclaiming impetuously, "Isn't that
shocking? Oh, how dreadful! We must help him, Aunt Pen. Poor little
Giuseppe! See the Humane Society about him at once--Now don't look so
horrified, Peace. They don't kill little boys and girls. They take good
care of just such waifs as this, and provide nice homes for them. Even
if Giuseppe were related to Petri, the Humane Society would take the
child away from him on account of his brutality. He is worse than a
beast to treat the boy so, and Giuseppe shall never go back to him as
long as I can do anything. He shall go to school like other children and
get an education. Then we'll make a splendid musician of him; and who
knows, Peace, but some day he will be a second Campanini?"
Peace had not the faintest idea of what a Campanini was, but she did
understand that Giuseppe Nicoli had found a home and friends, and she
was content.