98 



FOUR-HANDED FOLK. 



playmate, they dropped in a wriggling heap on 

 the floor. Through all the fun I was amused to 

 see what good care they took of their long tails, 

 — twice as long as they were. During their mad- 

 dest pranks the tail was held one side, and often 

 the only thing I could see in a squabble on the 

 floor was a mass of gray fur and two tails stick- 

 ing up, waving frantically in the air. 



Their cage was furnished with all desirable 

 gymnastic appliances, — two bars, a wire bas- 

 ket, and a hanging cord. Over and under and 

 around and through these, the monkeys frisked 

 like — well, like nothing but lively monkeys. 

 They hung head down, from one hand, or two ; 

 they ran across, hanging back down from the 

 perch, like the pictures of the sloth ; and they 

 turned somersets of the wildest kind. When 

 anything startled them, they darted into their 

 sleeping-box, which was fastened up under their 

 roof, with a round door just big enough for one 

 to go in. A droll performance this was, for the 

 instant one was in, and had jerked his long tail 

 in behind him, his head appeared at the door 

 to see what had happened in that half second. 



Their floor was carpeted with newspaper, and 

 that gave them as much fun as it used to give 

 my little half-monkey. They frolicked over and 

 under it ; they tore it to pieces and scattered 

 the fragments far and wide ; and they in some 



