THE SPIDER MONKEY. 127 



At last, after Gila had held her three or four 

 hours, one of the servants declared she would 

 make her give her up, so she armed herself with 

 a stick and went towards Gila. That cunning 

 creature knew what was wanted as soon as she 

 saw her coming, and quick as a flash she took 

 Kit in one hand, and held her down to the 

 ground behind her, while with the other she 

 snatched up an old parasol to defend herself. 



There was one member of the family against 

 whom Gila had the greatest spite, and it is 

 curious that all over the world monkeys have 

 the same feelings. It was a parrot, which at 

 first was placed on the same bar with the mon- 

 key. Whether jealous of her gay dress, envy- 

 ing her because she could talk, or whatever the 

 cause, nothing so pleased Madame Gila as to 

 play a trick on the unfortunate stranger. 



The sly creature would begin by sitting 

 quietly, and with the greatest seeming indiffer- 

 ence, on her usual seat. Apparently she was 

 deeply engaged in studying the state of things 

 on the ground, carefully examining her own 

 toes, arranging her glossy hair, even sometimes 

 pretending to be asleep, or at least too sleepy 

 to feel the slightest interest in any parrot. 

 After keeping her eye on the enemy for some 

 time Poll grew careless, plumed her gay feath- 

 ers, and looked out sharply to see if anything to 



