Looking up, he saw in the tree far above his head, a large baboon, grinning and chattering, and turning over the leaves of his beloved herbarium with no gentle hand. But Mr. Reed had no idea of losing his book, and immediately began to climb the tree. The baboon grasped his stolen property, firmly, and swung himself lightly to the next tree. Seeing the folly of attempting to follow the animal, Mr. Reed returned to his companions, finding his way with some difficulty; and implored them to recover for him this lost treasure. They laughed at him, but good-naturedly accompanied him to the place of the theft, though they did not expect to find the monkey there; much less did they suppose the book to be still entire. But, on reaching the spot, there, on a low branch of a tree, was the baboon, busily engaged in turning the book over and over, as if anxious to make out what manner of thing he had got hold of. [Illustration: THE COMBAT WITH THE BABOON.] He did not take any notice of the party of men, and it would have been easy to have shot him. But the botanist made this impossible, for no sooner did he get a sight of the thief, thus displaying his booty, than he rushed forward to seize his precious volume; in this way getting between the gun and the animal. The baboon, instead of retreating, as he had done before, sprang to the ground, and rushed upon the botanist. A fierce battle ensued. Sometimes the baboon was uppermost, and sometimes Mr. Reed. But the monkey had weapons in its claws, whereas the man had nothing but his fists, and great physical strength. The hunters tried to shoot the baboon, but this they found they could not do without danger to Mr. Reed. Finally one of them, watching his chance, when the beast was uppermost, split its head with a hatchet, and ended the combat. Early in the fight Mr. Reed had got hold of his book. It was somewhat crushed, and a few of the specimens destroyed, but, on the whole, it was in pretty good condition. This was the last serious adventure that befell Mr. Reed. He met with some mishaps, but these he did not mind, and soon forgot them after his return to Cape Town, where he had the pleasure of showing his beloved herbarium, and of describing to his friends the plants he had found, and their characteristics. SOMETHING TRUE ABOUT THE MOON. [Illustration: THE FULL MOON.] In another part of this book I told you something about the moon, which did not even pretend to be true. No body can go to the moon, although very many people have traveled more miles than the distance between the earth and its lunar companion. Any one who has sailed from New York to Liverpool and back forty times has gone over a greater distance than that from here to the moon, which is less than 240,000 miles away. Many a sea-captain has sailed more miles than these. A ship came into New York Bay very recently that had sailed, in one voyage over 110,000 miles.