The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-05-24
The Monkeys and the Baby.

The Monkeys and the Baby.
The following is the story which the
writer represents herself as relating to
ler children, and is taken from q volume
allied "Childhood in india" It will
probably amuse our readers
"When was on my way to India we
lut in for a few days at the Cape OF
food Hope, and there I heard of the oc-
urrence / am going to tell you of.
In village some distance from Cape
Gown lived poor man and his wife.
hey had a neat little cottage and gar
EN-, i'll which they planted all sorts of
vegetables to sell in the town. Near the
ottage was forest, in which numbers
t birds and animals of all kinds lived,
nd especially numbers of monkeys.
"The woman's name was Else, and
he had baby, a nice, fat little thing, a
ew months old, of which she was very
ond, and she washed and dressed this
)aby every day, and carried it about in
Ter arms in the garden in the cool of the
evening.
Zone morning, when baby had gone
10 sleep, she laid him down in his little
ped, and took basket on her head, and
started off to the town to buy some
Kings at the shops.
"'I shall be back, she thought to
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 7
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.
6 After some time her husband, Klaas,
came in, and was much surprised to see
his wife in such great trouble.
What's the matters? he said, where's
the child?'
"'He's gone my baby's gone! Oh,
dear What shall do? Oh, my baby
Oh, my darlingy sobbed out poor Else.
{" Gomez 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 SO
dull and sad to them.
Z" 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
them? 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 off
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 tel
how or where.
con the right of his path was hill
and in the side of the hill cave, hal
hidden by the tall grass and leaves thai
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 colo
Or wet weather, and also as place where
they could store up the cocoanuts anC
other fruits they live upon.
"Now, as he came near, he caugh
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 hat
given her to wash her baby in, now th,
lady's children had grown big, and gon,
to England to school.
" He looked again. A monkey, larg
one, was sitting outside this cave; on he
lap was poor little Else's baby! nice
fat, black little thing. She haC
the sponge in her hand, and wa
carefully washing the little face, now an,
again leaving off her operations to kis