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Updated: May 10, 2025
It looked cool and green there, much better than the hot, dusty road, down which the circus procession was rumbling, with the big red, green and gold wagons. Mappo was much disappointed when he reached the woods. He could not see any cocoanuts or bananas, and those were the things he liked best of all. "I wonder what I shall eat," said Mappo, for he was quite hungry.
He was sure it was the same one at whom he had thrown the cocoanut, and he wondered how the fierce, strong beast had been caught. Then Mappo looked at the crate in which the tiger was being carried along through the jungle. "Ha! That is a good, strong crate!" thought Mappo. "It is much stronger than the one I am in. I guess the tiger can't get out, and I am glad of it.
And some day soon, in another book, I shall tell you the many adventures of Tum Tum, the jolly elephant. "Well, now for a new trick," said the circus man to Mappo, one morning. "Soon it will be time for the circus to go out on the road, under the big tents, and I want you to do many tricks for the boys and girls." "I'll do all I can!" chattered Mappo, in his monkey language.
"You had better come down," spoke the man who had let Mappo out of the cage. "I think he'll come down for me." In his hand he held some lumps of sugar, of which Mappo was very fond. "Come on down, old chap," called the sailor. "No one will hurt you. Come and get the sugar." Now whether Mappo had had enough of being loose, or whether it was too cold for him up on the mast, I can't say.
"Who is after you?" asked Squinty. "The circus men. They must have found out I ran away." Mappo and Squinty looked through the bushes, and they saw a number of men in red coats and blue trousers coming through the woods. Squinty also saw something else. "Oh, look!" cried the little pig. "What is that funny animal with two tails? I'm afraid of him, he's so big!" Mappo looked and laughed.
It was the first time he had been loose since he had been caught, and he was so glad to run about, and use his legs and tail, that, before he knew what he was doing, he had jumped right over the sailor's head, and had scrambled up on the ship's deck. "Oh, a monkey's loose! One of the monkeys has gotten away!" cried the sailors. "Never mind! I'll catch him!" said the one who had been kind to Mappo.
Side by side, slung in their crates on the poles, over the shoulders of the black natives, Mappo and Sharp-Tooth, the tiger, were carried through the jungle. The tiger kept walking back and forth in his cage. It was just long enough to allow him to take two steps one way, and two steps the other way.
Mappo waited until the sailor was almost up to him, and then, quick as a flash, Mappo swung himself out of the way by another rope, and, just as he had done in the jungle, he went over to the top of another mast. "There he goes!" cried the sailors on deck. "Yes, I see he does," said the sailor who had tried to catch Mappo.
Mappo thought for a minute. He was a smart little monkey, and he feared if he opened the tiger's cage for him, the big chap might be so hungry that he would eat the first thing he saw, which would be Mappo himself. "Will you open my cage for me after dark?" asked Sharp-Tooth. "I'll think about it," answered back Mappo. But he had no idea of letting out that tiger.
"This cocoanut I now have has the outer shell still on it. That is why it is not round, like some you may have seen. Inside this soft covering is the round nut, and inside that round nut is the white meat. Now, Mappo, you are a smart little monkey, let me see if you will know how to open the cocoanut. And, when you do, you may all have some to eat." Mappo took the cocoanut and looked at it.
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