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Updated: May 23, 2025
Quick, attentive, he acquitted himself perfectly, changing the plates, bringing dishes, pouring out water, all with a gravity which gave intense amusement to the settlers, and which enraptured Pencroft. "Jup, some soup!" "Jup, a little agouti!" "Jup, a plate!" "Jup! Good Jup! Honest Jup!"
Upon reaching the wharf, I noticed a scythe and three spades, all apparently new, lying in the bottom of the boat in which we were to embark. "What is the meaning of all this, Jup?" I inquired. "Him syfe, massa, and spade." "Very true; but what are they doing here?"
We were wishing for some vegetable, when Jup undertook to obtain a cabbage. Fastening a belt round his waist and the trunk of the tree, he worked himself up to the summit, when, drawing his knife from his belt, he cut out the vegetable. He then chopped off a number of the large leaves from the summit for the purpose of forming a palmetto hut, which might afford us shelter.
As to his name the sailor begged that in memory of another ape which he had known, he might be called Jupiter, and Jup for short. And so, without more ceremony, Master Jup was installed in Granite House. The settlers in Lincoln Island had now regained their dwelling, without having been obliged to reach it by the old opening, and were therefore spared the trouble of mason's work.
Now and then a wolf would approach, or a puma, or ocelot; but a shout would send them to the rightabout. As soon as daylight appeared, with the aid of Jup, who accompanied me, I succeeded in getting to the top of a tall pine. On looking out I was convinced, from the clear green to the north of the lake, and from its flat appearance, that it was swampy.
"De bug, Massa Will! de goole bug!" cried the negro, drawing back in dismay "what for mus tote de bug way up de tree? d-n if I do!" "If you are afraid, Jup, a great big negro like you, to take hold of a harmless little dead beetle, why you can carry it up by this string but, if you do not take it up with you in some way, I shall be under the necessity of breaking your head with this shovel."
Jup and Top, who knew when to be silent, ran in advance. The cart came out, the gate was reclosed, and the onaga, led by Pencroft, advanced at a slow pace. Certainly, it would have been safer to have taken a different road than that which led straight from the corral to Granite House, but the cart would have met with great difficulties in moving under the trees.
Jup wielded his weapon valiantly, and it was in vain that they endeavored to keep him in the rear. Endowed doubtless with sight which enabled him to pierce the obscurity, he was always in the thick of the fight uttering from time to time a sharp hissing sound, which was with him the sign of great rejoicing.
And Jup gravely puffed out clouds of smoke which seemed to give him great satisfaction. Harding did not appear to be much astonished at this incident, and he cited several examples of tame apes, to whom the use of tobacco had become quite familiar. But from this day Master Jup had a pipe of his own, the sailor's ex-pipe, which was hung in his room near his store of tobacco.
I was afraid, however, that while trying to shoot the bird, I might wound the black. Jup shouted at the top of his voice, hoping to keep the eagle at bay. "Come down, Jup! come down!" I cried. "Bery well to say dat, massa, but not so easy to do dat," answered Jup, who preserved his presence of mind. I united my voice to his, and we were soon joined by Tim, who shouted as lustily as the black.
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