you that you are a
monkey, too. This is the story they tell to show us how it all came
about.

Once upon a time when the world had just been made and there was only
one kind of banana, but very many kinds of monkeys, there was a little
old woman who had a big garden full of banana trees. It was very
difficult for the old woman to gather the bananas herself, so she made
a bargain with the largest monkey. She told him that if he would
gather the bunches of bananas for her she would give him half of them.
The monkey gathered the bananas. When he took his half he gave the
little old woman the bananas which grow at the bottom of the bunch and
are small and wrinkled. The nice big fat ones he kept for himself and
carried them home to let them ripen in the dark.

The little old woman was very angry. She lay awake all night trying to
think of some way by which she could get even with the monkey. At
last she thought of a trick.

The next morning she made an image of wax which looked just like a
little black boy. Then she placed a large flat basket on the top of
the image's head and in the basket she placed the best ripe bananas
she could find. They certainly looked very tempting.

After a little while the biggest monkey passed that way. He saw the
image of wax and thought that it was a boy peddling bananas. He had
often pushed over boy banana peddlers, upset their baskets and then
had run away with the bananas. This morning he was feeling very
good-natured so he thought that he would first try asking politely for
the bananas.

"O, peddler boy, peddler boy," he said to him, "please give me a
banana." The image of wax answered never a word.

Again the monkey said, this time in a little louder voice, "O, peddler
boy, peddler boy, please give me a banana, just one little, ripe
little, sweet little banana." The image of wax answered never a word.

Then the monkey called out in his loudest voice, "O, peddler boy,
peddler boy, if you don't give me a banana I'll give you such a push
that it will upset all of your bananas." The image of wax was silent.

The monkey ran toward the image of wax and struck it hard with his
hand. His hand remained firmly embedded in the wax.

"O, peddler boy, peddler boy, let go my hand," the monkey called out.
"Let go my hand and give me a banana or else I'll give you a hard,
hard blow with my other hand." The image of wax did not let go.

The monkey gave the image a hard, hard blow with his othe