And some of them asked, "But can you not
even eat and drink without paying?"
But Chee-Chee shook his head. And then he
told them that even he, when he was with the
organ-grinder, had been made to ask the
children for money.
And the Chief Chimpanzee turned to the Oldest
Orangoutang and said, "Cousin, surely these Men
be strange creatures! Who would wish to live
in such a land? My gracious, how paltry!"
Then Chee-Chee said,
"When we were coming to you we had no
boat to cross the sea in and no money to buy
food to eat on our journey. So a man lent us
some biscuits; and we said we would pay him
when we came back. And we borrowed a boat
from a sailor; but it was broken on the rocks
when we reached the shores of Africa. Now
the Doctor says he must go back and get the
sailor another boat--because the man was poor
and his ship was all he had."
And the monkeys were all silent for a while,
sitting quite still upon the ground and thinking
hard.
At last the Biggest Baboon got up and said,
"I do not think we ought to let this good man
leave our land till we have given him a fine
present to take with him, so that he may know
we are grateful for all that he has done for us."
And a little, tiny red monkey who was
sitting up in a tree shouted down,
"I think that too!"
And then they all cried out, making a great
noise, "Yes, yes. Let us give him the finest
present a White Man ever had!"
Now they began to wonder and ask one another
what would be the best thing to give him.
Pages:
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59