Of course I'll not begin at the beginning, for, being a ring-tail
monkey yourself, you know what life is like in the great tropical
forests. Perhaps it would be better to skip the circus part, too, for
it was a very unhappy time that followed, after I was stolen from home
by some men who came on a big ship, and carried me away to be sold to
a travelling showman.
It makes my back ache to this day to think of the ring-master's whip.
I was as quick to learn as any of the other monkeys who were in
training, but an animal who has done nothing all his life but climb
and play can't learn the ways of a human being all in one week. I was
taught to ride a pony and drive a team of greyhounds, and to sit at a
table and feed myself with a silver folk. One half-hour I was made to
be a gentleman, and wear a dress suit, and tip my hat to the ladies,
and the next I would be expected to do something entirely different;
be a policeman, maybe, and arrest a rowdy dog in boxing-gloves. Oh, I
couldn't begin to tell you the things I was expected to do, from
drilling like a soldier to wheeling a doll carriage and smoking a
pipe. Sometimes when I grew confused, and misunderstood the signals
and did things all wrong, the ring-master would swing his whip until
it cracked like a pistol, and shout out, in a terrible voice, "Oh, you
stupid little beast! What's the matter with you?" That always
frightened me so that it gave me the shivers, and then he would shout
at me again until I was still more confused and terrified, and
couldn't do anything to please him.
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