THE MONKEY'S STORY OF HIS MOST NARROW ESCAPE
The next evening the Cub Bear and all the animals were sitting in the cave, just before the little Cub Bear was to go to bed, and the little Cub Bear teased his papa for a story, but his papa said he was too tired to tell a story, for he had hunted all day, trying to find a honey tree, and had not found one. The little Cub Bear kept on teasing for a story, but his papa said he was so tired he could not think of a story to tell.
Then the monkey said, "I will tell you a story, little Cub Bear, if you wish me to."
And the Cub Bear said, "Yes, tell me a story of your most narrow escape from death."
"Well," said the monkey, "I once belonged to a man who owned a drug store, in a large city. He had another monkey, named Jim, and a parrot. The parrot was a large, green bird, and he had learned to talk like a man. He could say, 'Good-by,' 'Good-day,' 'Good-night,' 'Polly wants a cracker,' and 'See what you did.'
"One day Jim and the parrot and I were all down in the cellar, and the druggist forgot and shut the door, so that we had to stay down there. But we had a fine time, running about and jumping over everything that came in the way. We jumped up to the ceiling, and jumped from one beam to another, and then down to the floor. I pulled Jim's tail and ran away. He would run after me and pull mine, and jump away quickly. And once or twice the parrot got hold of us, but he really hurt us with his great bill and his claws, so that we kept out of his way most of the time. In fact, he hurt me so badly once, that I pulled a couple of his tail feathers out, just to show him how it felt.
"Jim and I were scampering across the floor, when we struck a great carboy—a great bottle—larger than a pail, and knocked it over on the cement floor, where it broke. The stuff that was in it ran out on the floor. And the parrot said, 'See what you did! See what you did!'
"This big bottle had on it in large letters 'S-u-l-p-h-u-r-i-c A-c-i-d.' We were sorry that we had tipped over the bottle, but we didn't feel very bad until Jim found that he had some of the stuff on the end of his tail, and it was burning him terribly. It burned so much that he tried to run away from the end of his tail. But he was so careless in jumping about, that he struck another big carboy sitting on the floor, and he knocked that over, too, and spilled the stuff that was in it.
"And the parrot said, 'See what you did! See what you did!'
"This bottle had on it in big letters, 'N-i-t-r-i-c A-c-i-d.' This stuff ran out all over the floor, and ran into a hole in the center of the floor, that was shaped something like a bowl. I got some of it on my foot, and it didn't feel very good. So I commenced to run around, too, and jump up to the ceiling, and thought I would keep off the floor.
"There we found a great big can filled with glycerine. Do you know what glycerine is? It tastes sweet, like honey. I dipped my foot in the glycerine, to see if it would stop the smarting, and Jim put the end of his tail in it, too. But we were so excited, that the first thing we knew, we tipped over the entire can of glycerine on the floor, and that went into the same hole where the other stuff was.
"And the parrot said, 'See what you did! See what you did!!'
"After we tipped over the glycerine, we noticed a horrible smell, so Jim and I and the parrot all went back in the corner, as far away as we could get, and stayed there about two hours. But after a while, Jim's tail hurt him so badly, and the smell was so awful, that he commenced to run around in the most reckless way. He jumped all over the cellar, and finally, just as he was over this hole, where all the stuff had been spilled, he knocked down a great stone jug, and that dropped right into the stuff, and there was the most awful explosion that you can imagine. The drug store and everything in it was blown away up into the air, and poor Jim flew up so high that we never saw him again.
"The parrot was terribly frightened, but when he looked up and saw Jim go up out of sight in the air, he said, 'Good-by, good-by.' And then he looked over at me, and saw that nearly all of my hair was burned off, and he looked at himself, and saw that his feathers were nearly all gone. He said: 'See what you did! See what you did! See what you did!'"
When the monkey had finished his story, the little Cub Bear said:
"Well, what was it that made such a terrible explosion?"
The monkey said, "I don't know; but afterward I saw some men walking around the ruins of the drug store, and they saw a broken carboy and an empty can of glycerine, and they said the stuff must have become mixed, and made nitro-glycerine."
Then the little Cub Bear said, "That stuff must be a good deal like the stuff we found in the box that opened the way into the beautiful cave for us."
And the monkey said, "Yes, I heard one man say that nitro-glycerine and dynamite were the same; that dynamite was just nitro-glycerine mixed with a kind of clay."
The next night, just before bedtime, little Cub Bear said he wanted to hear the story the little bird had promised to tell them. All of the animals said they wanted to hear it, too, so the little bird began: