MONKEYS WHO WORK, 



191 



nothing to help pass away the tedious hours ; 

 and it is not necessary that it should be so. 



Should pet monkeys, then, be allowed to 

 smash the vases, scrub the wax-dolls, choke the 

 baby, and perform the thousand other pranks 

 their four busy hands ache to do ? 



No, indeed ! There 's a better way. They 

 can be cured of mischief, just as two-handed little 

 people are, — by giving them something to do ; 

 by teaching them to work. 



This is not so hard a task as one might think. 

 Monkeys that live with people are always imi- 

 tating what they see done, and work is as easy 

 to learn as mischief, — if one only thinks so. 

 Why, then, should they not be taught to work ? 

 Long ago in Egypt it was discovered that four 

 hands can be more useful than two, when prop- 

 erly trained. In those far-off days our four- 

 handed relative was employed in certain services 

 about the gardens. He it was, instead of a 

 clumsy man-servant, who was sent into the trees 

 to gather figs and other fruits. He handed them 

 down to his master below, as we learn from the 

 old sculptures ; though, to be sure, the picture- 

 story does not fail to add that he did not entirely 

 forget himself, and that many a tempting mor- 

 sel found its way into his mouth. Would a boy 

 have done any better ? 



This useful Egyptian servant belonged to the 



