nd give her something to play with was
happiness enough for her, and I almost think she preferred such a life
to the freedom of her Amazon forests. But you cannot afford to turn one
out of the cage in a room where there is anything that can be torn or
broken, as they enjoy such mischief in the highest degree. Nellie would
beg me so piteously to be taken from her little iron prison that I could
not have the cruelty to refuse her, even at the cost of some trouble in
preparing the room for her; and as we retain these little captives
against their will, and treat them worse than slaves by keeping them in
close confinement, I think we should at least try to amuse them. It is
true they do not have to toil, but I think it would be more humane to
make them work in the open air than to confine them so closely, and then
deprive them of every source of pleasure. As an act of humanity and
simple justice, I would impress upon those who keep such little pets how
important a thing it is to keep them supplied with toys. They are just
like children in this respect, and for a trifle one can furnish them
with all the toys they need. It is cruel, absolutely cruel, to keep
these little creatures confined in solitude and deny them the simple
pleasure they find in playing with a bell, ball or marbles; and besides
this, a trifling outlay in this way will very much prolong their lives.
A monkey is always happy if he has something to play with and plenty to
eat. [Sidenote: NELLIE WITH THE MATCH-BOX] I do not know of any
investment of mine which ever yielded such a great return in pleasure as
one little pocket match-safe which cost me twenty-five cents, and which
I gave to Nellie one evening to play with. I had put into it a small key
to make it rattle, and also some bits of candy. She rattled the box, and
found some pleasure in the noise it made. I showed her a few times how
to press the spring in order to open it, but her little black fingers
were not strong enough to release the spring and make the lid fly open.
However, she caught the idea, and knew that the spring was the secret
which held it; and when she found that she could not open it with her
fingers, she tried it with her teeth. Failing in this, she turned to the
wall, and standing upright on the top of her cage, she took the box in
both hands and struck the spring against the wall until the lid flew
open. She was perfectly delighted at the result, and for the hundredth
time at least I c