The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-06-10
MOGGS' MONKEY.

possible for boy to be.
AS for Moggs, he was Pills father,
and his real name was Moggridre,
though no one, not even his most dis
tant acquaintance, ever thought of call
ing him by it.
He was a street acrobat, and conjuror,
and earned scanty and precarious liv-
ing by performing on square of carpet
set in. the roadways, attired in a
gorgeous ffesh-colored costume, with
spangles, while his head was bound with
fillet of gold braid.
When Phil was quite a little fellow,
almost baby, he had taken part in
these exhibitions; had been tossed about
like ball by his father, and led around
among the spectators by his mother to
carry the hat and beg for coppers, in
which latter line of the business he had
always been highly successful.
When Moggs had first started in the
public exercise of his profession, he had
possessed quite respectable company
of performers; he had poodle who
could walk on his fore paws, dance on
his hind legs, march like a soldier. and
shoulder a musket, and monkey who
was one of the cleverest and most anus
ing of his kind; but, in the course of
time, the poodle had been stolen, and
the monkey went off in a consumption
and died, and Moggs and Phil were left
to carry on the business alone.
1t was then that the boy came out in
a new character, and acquired the name
by which he was ever afterwards known,
''Moggs' Monkey"
He had a mask like monkeys head,
and used to clap it on over his own sun
ny face, and then, DOMINIC a little red
cap and a jacket to which had been art
fully fixed a long monkeys tail, he
would go through all poor Jacko's
tricks, as nimbly and cleverly as the de-
funct animal itself had done.
1t used to draw crowds of lookers-on
but for all that the business was poor
one, and the father and son had fflto-
gether a very liberal allowance of |shard
time" Perhaps it was this which made
the poor draggle-tailed wife age prema-
turely, and at last, following in the
monkeys steps, go off in a rapid con-
sumption and die, to the great grief of
the husband and child, who wept sin
cerely over her grave in the poor quar-
ter of crowded London cemetery, and
then went drearily back to their daily
toll of tumbling and conjsring, feeling
as though they were becoming a very
small and forlorn band indeed.
Phil missed his mother terribly; they
had loved each other passionately in
their poor common way, and the boy 5
heart ached for the love and sympathy
which had so frightened his hard Bit
ter life.
For, despite his gay dress, his pink
stockings, and spangles, and his laugha-
BILE monkey disguise, it was often very
dreary life indeed.
There were days when the wind was
cold and keen, when no sun shone, and
the roads were wet and muddy, and
when, OF course, it was eminently I'M
pleasant to have to 90 out in his light
breezy costume; days, too, when he had
to wear a merry face, and tumble about,
feeling dreadfully hungry and misera-
BILE. and times when the public were
stingy and indisposed to bestow their
coppers, and the police harassed them,
and drove them about from pillar to post,
until they were ready to drop from NOR
LITIGATION and WEAKNESS.
Yet still they stuck together, and
loved each other, and hoped for better
times. and then all at once into Phil 3
heart there crept something warm and
bright, which nestled there, and made
a ROSY glow of happiness in the midst of
his blacklist troubles.
The fact was that Phil fell in love.
Yes, though he was only a boy of
ten wears Of age, he fell as hopelessly
and earnestly in love as though he had
been twenty, and romantic into the bar
gain.
His idol was little girl of nearly his
own age, the daughter of a stage-car-
penter, who lived in the rooms next his
own; brown-eyed, dark-haired lassie,
full of life and fun, and with a heart as
warm and true as Pills.
They were playmates, when they had
any time for play, and they always sym
pathised with each Others woes, and
| Shared each others joys-whether they
came in the shape of halfpence or APP
Piles, cold pudding or cake.
In short, Jennie reeiprocated Pills
affection, and they had plighted their
troth, one moonlight Sunday night, in
the attic which was Pills home.
They had promised to be true to each
| other, and love each other for ever, eyei
when they were grown up, and Jennie
was to be Pills wife and trudge afteI
him through London streets, and carry
| round the hat for the money as Phifs
mother had done.
And when in their childish innocence
Lney WENT 10 buGlI bAo ldehCAos +" ~
were playing at cribbage by the fireside,
they We're quite hurt and offended because
the men laughed. Indeed, Moggs laugh
ed so heartily that the tears ran dowT
his cheeks, and yet his laugh ended in g
sob. which sounded rather like crying
| as he bent and kissed first Jennie ane
| then Phil.
.sWell, well,n said Tom Brown, who
was ,Jennie's father, s.this beats every
| thing | ever heard on. The dramar isn't
anythink TO it. And so you re gong ts
| be my son-in-law, young feller?
Phil nodded gravely.
s.And you're thinking as my Jennie
is poinr on the everlasting tramp witt
| YOU. ehP It won't do for her, Phil; she {
| die on it in a month. You must strike
| out better line afore You marrles my
oiri. Now don't you think I'm rightP
Phil unused for few moments He
was thinking of his mother. and how
| thin and faded, and limpand shabby she
had been, and how she had plned, ane
suffered. and died. and he answered a
last that he thought Tom Brown wa:
rirht. and that he shouldn't ike tt
see Jennie. leading the life and dying thu
| death his own poor mother had, and al
chat evening Phil sat very still III a cor
ner BY the fire, holding his little love
hand. and staring dreamily into the EN-
bers, irving to find out 8 sbettef me
| for himself than street-tumbilng.
| He used to be puzzling At 1t nignl an
day, and the more lle puzziPd ane
4 a - +s.V, HfsatS