2 
ALMOST HUMAN 
tore off the plate that bore her name and country of origin. One of the 
keepers found it on the ground, and it was at once replaced. Again it 
was found where she had flung it and put back; and a third time she 
undid the work of the hammerer. Then it was decided that the label 
must be put high above her head so that she could not reach it. No 
sooner said than done, and all believed that she was beaten. Mollie 
made a number of vain attempts to get at it with her fingers, but she 
discovered that no straining would enable her to even get within a foot 
of it. So she resorted to other means of accomplishing her object. She 
folded up one of her sleeping bags into a long tight wad, pushed it outside 
her prison bars, and began to hit at the plate, keeping up a steady, tireless 
flicking at one point until she managed to loosen the nails. A little 
longer, and the plate drooped, again a little further effort, and it swung 
down, hanging by the nails of one side only. It was then the work of 
a moment for triumphant Mollie to seize it and send the offensive descrip- 
tion flying across the road. 
Satisfied that she had won her point, and was at last mistress of the 
situation, Mollie curled herself up to sleep off the strain of her exertions. 
When next the label was affixed to her cage it was done when she was 
not looking, and it hangs in a spot where she cannot possibly see or feel 
it. It was a mean advantage for human brains to take over a monkey’s, 
but what else could be done under the circumstances? 
IN HER YOUTH. 
When Mollie was young they tried to teach her to ride on the donkey’s 
back, but Merriwee disapproved of the arrangement even more than 
Mollie did, and so the training was not persisted in, but it caused great 
fun for the onlookers while it lasted. Merriwee did not like the immense 
number of hands that Mollie seemed to be able to bring into action, nor 
her marvellous success in pinching up a very considerable quantity of 
skin with each one of them, although he was so fat it had hitherto 
seemed a matter of impossibility to raise even a crease in his sleek 
sides. She sat his back easily enough, but gripped him very hard, 
proving thereby that she was not as comfortable as a cursory glance 
might seem to indicate. But Merriwee was worse — he was merely a 
bundle of nerves the whole time she sat astride him. He kept shaking 
his skin violently to try to loosen her hands, and his ears moved 
incessantly in his fear of something worse. Mollie was always glad to 
get back to her cage, and seemed to have no yearnings after fuller 
liberty. Her one attempt at getting away was not such a success that 
she craved for more. One day, in her restless search for novelty, she 
