Our Little Siamese CousinWade, Mary Hazelton Blanchard
General
Our Little Siamese Cousin
Wade, Mary Hazelton Blanchard
Children -- Thailand -- Juvenile literature
"Then the crocodile began to play a game himself. He shut his eyes and
pretended to be asleep. Down swung the monkeys, straight over his head.
His jaws opened suddenly in time to seize the little fellow who had
been teasing him. That was the last of the silly little monkey, whose
brothers and sisters fled up into the tree-tops as fast as they could
go. I didn't see them again, but we could hear them crying and wailing
as long as we stayed near the place."
"I wish I had been there," sighed Chie Lo. "It must have made you laugh
to watch the monkeys before they were caught. But they are easily
scared. I shouldn't be afraid of monkeys anywhere."
Chin smiled when his sister said these words.
"If there were enough monkeys together, Chie Lo, and if they were all
angry and chasing you, I don't think you would exactly enjoy it.
"Father told me of a time when he was off with a party of men in a
deep forest. They caught a baby monkey, and one of the men was going
to bring it home. It made the mother wild to have her child taken from
her. She raised a loud cry and started after the men. Her friends and
relatives joined her, crying and screaming.
"But this was not all, for every other monkey in the forest seemed to
get the idea of battle. On they came by the hundreds and the thousands.
Do you think those men weren't scared? They hurried along as fast as
they could, stumbling over bushes and floundering in the mud. They were
only too glad to reach the bank of the river, where they jumped into
the canoes and paddled quickly away. The monkeys crowded on the shore
and screamed at them. I wish I could have seen them."
Chin lay back and laughed as he finished the story.
"We mustn't stop to talk any more, for it is getting late," said Chie
Lo. "But I love to hear you tell these stories, Chin. I hope you will
remember some more to-morrow night. Now we must paddle home as fast as
we can go."
CHAPTER IV.
WORK AND PLAY
THE next morning the children were awakened early by the cawing
of large flocks of crows. These noisy birds were leaving their
resting-places in the trees near by, and starting out to search for
breakfast in the fields and gardens of the country.
Chie Lo and her brother jumped out of bed, and a moment afterward were
taking a refreshing swim in the waters of the river. The water felt
cool and pleasant before the hot sunshine had warmed it.
"Come to breakfast," called their mother, as they were in the midst of
a game of chase around the platform. "Come and eat the fine hoppers I
have just bought from the baker."
The children did not need to be called twice, for they loved the
delicious cakes made of rice flour and cocoanut milk. The breakfast was
soon eaten, and then Chin and his sister made haste to load Chie Lo's
boat with the fruit she must sell on the river.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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