The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-05-25
The Monkeys and the Baby.

The following is the story which the
writer represents herself as relating to
her children, and is taken from a volume
called childhood in India" It will
probably amuse our readers
"When was on my way to India we
put in for a few days at the Cape of
Good Hope, and there heard of the oc-
currence am going to tell you of.
I" In village some distance from Cape
Town lived a poor man and his wife.
They had a neat little cottage and gar
den, in which they planted all sorts of
vegetables to sell in the town. Near the
cottage was forest, in which numbers
OF birds and animals of all kinds lived,
and especially numbers of monkeys.
"The womans name was Else, and
she had baby, nice, fat little thing,
few months old, of which she was very
fond, and she washed and dressed this
baby every day, and carried it about in
her arms in the garden in the cool of the
evening.
"One morning, when baby had gone
to sleep, she laid him down in his little
bed, and took basket on her head, and
started off to the town to buy some
things Mt the shops.
herself, 'by the time he wakes, and then
we can go into the garden and sit under
the trees
$50 off she went and bought the tea
and sugar and rice that she needed,
packed them in her basket, and returned
to her cottage. She put the basket down
and went up to the baby's bed. No
child was there She thought he must
have rolled off the bed, and looked under
it; but no child was there. She rushed
about the house calling Baby baby !
No little voice answered her. She ran
into the garden crying and calling out
for her baby; but all was silent, and at
last the poor woman in despair sat down
ON the ground, rocking herself backward
and forward, and weeping violently.
''After some time her husband, Klaas,
came in, and was much surprised to see
his wife in such great trouble.
What's the matterl' he said, where's
the child2
He's gone my baby's gone Oh,
dear What shall do? Oh, my baby !
Oh, my darling sobbed out poor Else.
'"Gonep said Klaas; 'he can't be
gone What do you mean?'
$50 poor Else told him how she left
baby asleep in his bed, and went to the
town, and how when she came back the
child was nowhere to be seen.
"Then he began to look about and call
baby all over the house and garden, but
could find nothing of him. And then
the two poor parents both cried for their
dear little baby the house seemed 50
dull and sad to them.
"The morning came, but no news or
sign of the child, and poor Else said to
Klaas:
"'I shall put away all baby's things
the towel dried him with, the little tub
and sponge for his bath, his frock and
%cap, are no use now, and SO she went to
find and put these things away. She
came back directly to her husband.
''Klaas, she said, they are gone too.
The tub and sponge, the towel and frock
all are gone Who can have taken
them9 First the baby, and then the
things; who can it be?'
"They could not imagine. AT last
poor Klaas took up his ak and started of
to the forest to cut wood. AS he entered
the forest the monkeys, as usual, began
chattering at him, and jumping from
branch to branch, but he took no notice
of them. He was thinking only OF his
dear little baby, gone, he could not tell
how or where.
"On the right of his path was hill,
tand in the side of the hill cave, hall
hidden by the tall grass and leaves that
grew there, but which all the men who
went into the forest knew to be used by
the monkeys as a shelter for them in cold
or wet weather, and also as a place where
they could store up the cocoanuts and
other fruits they live upon.
"Now, as he came near, he caught
sight of something which made him lool
again. A little bathing tub! A strange
thing to see out in the forest; and, be
sides. he knew it was his-the little greer
tub which his wife's kind mistress hac
given her to wash her baby in, now the
lady's children had grown big, and gone
to England to school.
"He looked again. A monkey, a large
one. was sitting outside this cave; ON he
lap was poor little Else's baby! nice
fat, black little thing. She hat
the sponge in her hand, and wal
carefully washing the little face, now an(
again leaving off her operations to kis'