We are told of a retired admiral and his wife who had a monkey as one of their home pets. The admiral had a habit of reading the paper aloud to his wife and would strike it in a testy way when he read something that made him angry. One day his wife, hearing a strange noise in the dining-room, looked in to see what caused it. What she saw was very amusing.
In the arm chair sat master monkey, with the admiral's smoking-cap on his head and the admiral's spectacles on his nose. In his hand was an open newspaper, and this he shook and patted, just as he had seen his master do, jabbering away in a very funny manner to the cat that lay blinking on the hearth. So close was the imitation to the tone and manner of the testy old sea-dog that the lady broke up the performance with a shout of laughter.
A Mrs. Loudan tells us of a case of the same kind, but with a different audience from the cat. It is told of Father Casaubon, a priest, who had a favorite Barbary ape that grew very fond of him and tried to follow him wherever he went. One day, when he set out for church, the ape in some way got loose and followed him unseen. When the church was reached the ape slipped in and climbed up to the sounding-board, where he lay quiet till the sermon began.
While the reverend father spoke, the ape perched itself just above his head and watched his actions, and soon began to imitate the gestures made by him. The congregation could not help smiling and tittering at this. Casaubon scolded them severely for their behavior, suiting his actions to his words, while the monkey imitated all his movements in a very amusing manner.
At this the congregation could not keep still, but broke into a roar of laughter, in which the angry priest joined when its cause was pointed out to him. He took good care that his ape should not attend church again.
These are perhaps enough of this sort of stories, though there are one or two others which you may care to read. One is of a painter who, on going into his studio, saw his pet monkey seated before his nearly finished picture, with brush and painting implements in hand, laying on the colors with a free touch that made bad work of the artist's masterpiece.
A second has to do with an English vicar and his family, who came home to dinner one Sunday after the morning service. On entering the dining room they saw the table-cloth, which had been laid for dinner, spread out smoothly on the floor, with all the plates and dishes, knives and forks, laid upon it in a way that showed how well the lesson had been learned. Beside it sat the pet monkey, with a look of satisfaction that showed it was very proud of its work.
A monkey, in fact, knows very well when it has done a thing as it should be done, and likes to be praised for it. I cannot say that they always get praise, certainly not for jobs like those just told, in which the element of mischief is mixed with that of good work.
But when we talk of the intelligence of animals we must admit that the monkey goes ahead of the dog, cat, or other household pet. Certainly none of these would think of a piece of work like that, laying the table-cloth on the floor and properly placing on it all the table ware.