BILLY AND HANS 



antics there were as amusing as those 

 of a monkey. Toward the end of the 

 year Billy developed an indolent habit, 

 which 1 now can trace to the disease 

 that finally took him from us ; but he 

 never lost his love for my writing-table, 

 where he used to lie and watch me at 

 my work by the hour, Hans soon 

 learned to climb down from their 

 window-bench, and up my legs and 

 arms to the writing-table, and down 

 again by the same road when he was 

 tired of his exercises with the pencils 

 or penholders he found there, or of 

 hunting out the nuts which he had 

 hidden the day before among the 

 books and papers ; but I never could 

 induce him to stay in my pocket with 

 Billy, who on cold days preferred 

 sleeping there, as the warmth of my 

 body was more agreeable than that of 

 their fur-lined nest. There was some- 

 's 



