172 APES AND MONKEYS 



my presence ; but the keeper said that while I was away 

 he was often gloomy and morose. As long as he could see 

 me or hear my voice, he would fret and cry for me to come 

 to him. When I had left him, he would scream as long as 

 he had any hope of inducing me to return. 



A few days after the death of Elisheba the keeper put 

 a young monkey in the cage with him, for company. This 

 gave him some relief from the monotony of his own society, 

 but never quite filled the place of the lost one. With this 

 little friend, however, he amused himself in many ways. 

 He nursed it so zealously and hugged it so tightly that the 

 poor little monkey was often glad to escape from him in order 

 to have a rest. But the task of catching it again afforded 

 him almost as much pleasure as he found in nursing it. 



Thus for a few weeks he passed his time ; then he was 

 seized by a sudden cold, which in a few days developed into 

 an acute type of pneumonia. I was in London at the time 

 and was not aware of his sickness ; but feeling anxious 

 about him. I wrote to Dr. Cross, in whose care he was left, 

 and received a note in reply, stating that Aaron was very 

 ill and not expected to live. I prepared to go to visit him 

 the next day, but just before I left the hotel I received a 

 telegram statins; that he was dead. The news contained 

 in the letter was a greater shock to me than that in the 

 telegram, for which in part the former had prepared me ; 

 but no one can imagine how deeply these evil tidings 

 affected me. I could not bring myself to a full sense of 

 the fact. I was unwilling to believe that I had been thus 

 deprived of my devoted friend. I could not realize that 

 fate could be so cruel to me ; but, alas ! it was true. 



