CAN OF GUNPOWDER TIED TO HIS TAIL 103

THE MOST PRECIOUS OF ALL IS GUM 113

CHAPTER I

There is no such thing as an immortal monkey, but this monkey was as
near it as possible. Talk of a cat's nine lives--this monkey had ninety!
A monkey's business in the world is usually to make everybody merry, but
the special mission of this one, I fear, was to make everybody as angry
as ever they could be. In wrath-producing power, in fact, this monkey
positively shone.

How many escapes the monkey had before the run-away slave presented it
to the missionary--from whom I first heard of it--no one knows. It
certainly had not much hair on when it arrived, and there was an ominous
scar on its head, and its ears were not wholly symmetrical. But the
children were vastly delighted with it, and after much kind treatment
the creature was restored to rude health, and, I must confess, to quite
too rude spirits. The children wanted him baptized by the time-honoured
title of 'Jacko'; but by a series of exploits in which the monkey
distinguished himself at the expense of every member of the household in
turn, it became evident that only one name would fit a quadruped of his
peculiar disposition; and that was 'Tricky.' Tricky, therefore, he was
called, and as Tricky he lived and--did _not_ die.

[Illustration: TRICKY UPSET EVERYTHING]

There was no peace in the home after Tricky came. He ate everything,
upset everything, broke everything, stole everything, did everything
that the average monkey ought not to do. If they shut him up in a room,
Tricky got out by the chimney. If they put him out of the room, Tricky
came in by the chimney. What could you do with such a creature? He could
not be kept in, and he could not be kept out; so a court-martial was
held, and Tricky was sentenced to be given away.

But by this time the whole place knew Tricky, and no one would have him.
Such an unusual refusal of a present was never known before. Even the
run-away slave smiled sweetly when his old friend was offered to him,
and protested that, to his deep regret, he was unable to buy nuts enough
to keep him.

The idea of 'wandering' Tricky in the woods, of course, occurred to the
genius of the village, and a detachment of boys set off one Saturday to
carry it into effect. But you might as well have tried to wander a
carrier pigeon. Like Mary's little lamb, everywhere these boys went,
that monkey went. When t