54 



FOUR-HANDED FOLK. 



in fact he did everything ; that he could be un- 

 welcome anywhere never occurred to him. The 

 moment the bars were set up, he made one flying 

 leap across the room and landed upon them. 

 He ran all over those small sticks as if they 

 were a level floor, using his tail as a balancing 

 pole ; he turned hand somersets (if I may call 

 them so) over them ; hung from one or both 

 feet, head down and arms stretched out, and in 

 this attitude often washed his face. He flung 

 himself from one post to another, never missing 

 his hold, though the whole thing shook and 

 creaked with his violence. He went up the cor- 

 ner post hand over hand, using all fours, and 

 stood upright on the top, looking up for more 

 worlds to conquer. One moment he swung by 

 his hands, his long legs drawn up, and the next 

 he seized a bar with the right hand and foot, and 

 whirled over it, coming up in the same position, 

 a sort of side somerset. There was nothing 

 possible to a monkey that he did not do, and I 

 never saw a monkey half so lively. The little 

 fellow was so happy, and we so entertained, that 

 the clothes-bars became for a time a part of the 

 parlor furniture. 



The bars, too, helped Koko to solve a prob- 

 lem that he had been revolving since he first 

 came to us. He longed to explore the top of a 

 tall old-fashioned bookcase, as we knew by his 



