Laura Spencer Portor

“ Nevertheless, he dwelt rather sentimentally on the thought of how Tonio and Philippa must be missing him, Tonio with the greater excitement. For when Alessandro had sometimes found life almost unendurable because of homesickness, it was Tonio who would lift the little drooped head with one finger and say, with pity or alarm: "Ecco! Philippa! He pines! He pines for the Jungle!" and Philippa would give an extra jerk to the frying-pan and, without even turning her head, would say, "Well, then, he is a little fool!" ”

“ Shall the paca, feasting on nuts, lift its head and say, "I am lord of these matters"? or the tree-shrew its muzzle from the bark and its ant-eating and declare, "I have power to change the ancient law"? Shall the night-hawk put on the daylight feathers of the peacock, or the monkey the plumage of the macaw? ”

“ She need not have been anxious. Not one of them but observed him absorbedly. Even the "Bold-faced One," whom, as a rule, everybody watched, had his eyes now on Alessandro.
The chattering had ceased. There was not a sound. Silence in the Jungle is an impressive thing.
Alessandro turned about again on all-fours and glanced again at those on the branches above him. The old association of fear was strong in him and his heart shook. Yet what had he to fear? Here was no butcher's boy, here no Tonio with dark face, here no chain. He was his own master. They believed in his greatness. ”

“ They are weaklings, of course, for the most part; they have to be dragged everywhere in automobiles like bundles, whereas Tonio and Philippa, now, went about anywhere, everywhere, from one end of the city to the other, on their own legs and dragging the hurdy-gurdy at that! Then, too, if you could see what the poor rich women are obliged to bear on their heads—burdens of brims and feathers and plumes and maybe even a parasol over all this—whereas Philippa wore nothing on her head and dared let the sun shine on her direct. ”

“ They began coming at dawn, with whirring wing or nimble feet, or deliberate, stealthy, padded paw. There were soon a deafening chatter and screaming in the upper air, the shrill parakeets making themselves heard highest of all and well above the chatter of the monkeys. From the animals below there were mutterings and an occasional growl. By and by the "Lonely One" came slowly, carrying a cocoanut. Every one paid him the homage of silence as he passed by them. No one knew, or guessed, even, what he might know, he who had seen the Hunting Party. ”

“ If he was displeased with any one, or if he wished to disperse a company, he had only to put his head back in that way and presently up and along the branches, down and through covert openings, the Jungle folk would go, or creep, or crawl, or slink, until in a few moments not a soul but himself remained. Then he would gather up the stone he always carried with him and make off through the trees, climbing with the aid of his powerful blue-soled feet and one strong hand, the other holding the stone secure. ”

“ In that quarter the women do not throw their heads back, like my queenly Philippa, and laugh louder than the macaw; nor scream, when they choose, like the parrot, telling their next-door neighbor what they think of them. They are very subdued and sad, the poor women of the rich quarter. I have seen a great many of them, but I never yet saw one of them put her hands on her hips and fall into a dance to the music of the hurdy-gurdy ”

“ The "Lonely One" had knocked his cocoanut three times on the ground and had listened to it, and then, with a peculiar cry, had made off through the Jungle toward the direction in which the Hunting Party had once passed. And the rest had followed, followed, up limb and stem and along vine, stopping only to gather a few tamarinds or plums as they ran. ”

“ Then at last he told how he had managed, one summer night when Tonio and Philippa were asleep on the wharf, to stow away in the hold of the right ship, the one that had brought the cocoanuts and the other things from home and was about to leave (this he knew by the cursing of the sailors) on her return journey.
Ah, how they listened!
Every so often the very old brown chimpanzee, who was known throughout the Jungle as the "Lonely One" (because of his knowledge, no doubt) , would venture to interrupt and ask what this or that might mean. "Automobiles," for instance; "wharves"; "hurdy-gurdys"? ”

“ On the contrary, the children there go about singly or in twos or threes, sedate and sad, under the charge of sometimes terrible-looking caretakers and keepers known as nurses and governesses, who tell them what they may or may not do, and sometimes (I have seen it myself) slap the hands of the littlest ones and speak to them in a language that is not their own. ”