9

"HER HANDS WERE FOLDED IN HER LAP" 19

MATCHES'S FUNERAL 25

"SHE FAIRLY STIFFENED WITH HORROR" 43

"AT LAST THE BLUE CUSHION WAS EMPTY, AND I SAT DOWN ON IT" 48

"'OH, YOU LITTLE TORMENT!' SHE CRIED" 63

"THEIR VOICES RANG OUT LUSTILY" 73

"ALL WENT WELL UNTIL WE REACHED AN ALLEY CROSSING" 81

"GOOD-BYE! OLD FELLOW!" 103

THE STORY OF DAGO.

CHAPTER I.

THIS IS THE STORY THAT DAGO TOLD TO THE MIRROR-MONKEY ON MONDAY.

Here I am at last, Ring-tail! The boys have gone to school, thank
fortune, and little Elsie has been taken to kindergarten. Everybody in
the house thinks that I am safe up-stairs in the little prison of a
room that they made for me in the attic. I suppose they never thought
how easy it would be for me to swing out of the open window and climb
down the lightning-rod. Wouldn't Miss Patricia be surprised if she
knew that I am down here now in the parlour, talking to you, and
sitting up here among all these costly, breakable things!

I have been wanting to get back into this room ever since that first
morning that I slipped in and found you sitting here in the
looking-glass, but the door has been shut every time that I have tried
to come in. Do you remember that morning? You were the first ring-tail
monkey that I had seen since I left the Zoo, and you looked so much
like my twin brother, who used to swing with me in the tangled vines
of my native forests, and pelt me with cocoanut-shells, and chatter to
me all day long under those hot, bright skies, that I wanted to put my
arms around you and hug you; but the looking-glass was between us.
Some day I shall break that glass, and crawl back behind there with
you.

It is a pity that you are dumb and do not seem to be able to answer
me, for if you could talk to me about the old jungle days I would not
be so homesick. Still, it is some comfort to know that you are not
deaf, and I intend to come in here every morning after the children go
to school; that is, every morning that I find the door open. I've had
a very exciting life in the past, and I think that you'll find my
experiences interesting.

Of course I'll not begin at the beginning, for, being a ring-tail
monkey yourself, you know what life is like in the great tropical