"I think Tiny is the very best plaything that ever I had," said Elsie, again stroking and patting the little fellow. "Cousin Ronald, won't you please make him talk a little more?"
"Why do you want me to talk so much, little mistress?" Tiny seemed to ask.
"Oh, because I like to hear you and you really mean what you seem to say. Do you like to be with us on this nice big yacht?"
"Pretty well, though I'd rather be among the big trees in the woods where I was born."
"I think that must be because you are not quite civilized," laughed Elsie.
"I'd rather be in those woods, too," Tee-tee seemed to say. "Let's run away to the woods, Tiny, when we get a chance."
"Ho, ho!" cried Ned, "if that's the way you talk you shan't have a chance."
"Now, Ned, you surely wouldn't be so cruel as to keep him if he wants to go back to his native woods," said Lucilla. "How would you like to be carried off to a strange place, away from papa and mamma?"
"But I ain't a monkey," said Ned. "And I don't believe he cares about his father and mother as I do about mine. Do you care very much about them, Tee-tee?"
"Not so very much; and I think they've been caught or killed."