harp little teeth and made such a fierce demonstration of its
intention to bite, that they felt constrained to leave it alone. At
last Ailie held her hand towards it and said--

"Won't it come to me, dear, sweet pet? _Do_ come; I'll be as kind to
you almost as your poor mother." The monkey looked at the child, but
said nothing.

"Come, monkey, dear puggy, _do_ come," repeated Ailie, in a still more
insinuating voice.

The monkey still declined to "come," but it looked very earnestly at the
child, and trembled a good deal, and said, "Oo-oo-wee; oo-oo-wee!"

As Ailie did not quite understand this, she said, "Poor thing!" and
again held out her hand.

"Try it with a small taste o' mate," suggested Briant.

"Right," said the captain. "Hand me the biscuit-bag, Glynn. There,
now, Ailie, try it with that."

Ailie took the piece of biscuit offered to her by her father, and held
it out to the monkey, who advanced with nervous caution, and very
slowly, scratching its side the while. Putting out its very small hand,
it touched the biscuit, then drew back the hand suddenly, and made a
variety of sounds, accompanied by several peculiar contortions of
visage, all of which seemed to say, "Don't hurt me, now; _don't_ deceive
me, pray." Again it put forth its hand, and took the biscuit, and ate
it in a very great hurry indeed; that is to say, it stuffed it into the
bags in its cheeks.

Ailie gave it a bit more biscuit, which it received graciously, and
devoured voraciously; whereupon she put forth her hand, and sought to
pat the little creature on the head. The attempt was successful. With
many slight grins, as though to say, "Take care, now, else I'll bite,"
the small monkey allowed Ailie to pat its head and stroke its back.
Then it permitted her to take hold of its hand, and draw it towards her.
In a few minutes it showed evident symptoms of a desire to be patted
again, and at length it drew timidly towards the child, and took hold of
her hand in both of its delicate pink paws. Ailie felt quite tenderly
towards the creature, and stroked its head again, whereupon it seemed
suddenly to cast aside all fear. It leaped upon her knee, put its
slender arms as far round her neck as possible, said "Oo-oo-wee!"
several times in a very sad tone of voice, and laid its head upon her
bosom.

This was too much for poor Ailie; she thought of the dead mother of this
infant monkey, and wept as she stroked its hairy little head and