They are very
kind to me. I'll go down and get some of that sweet cocoanut."
Now Mappo was not a very wise little monkey. He had not lived long
enough to know all the dangers of the jungle. There were dangers from
tigers and other wild beasts.
Some of those dangers Mappo knew about, and he also knew how to keep out
of their way. But there were other dangers from men--from hunters--and
these Mappo did not know so well. For, as yet, he had never seen a
man--a human being. Mappo had only lived in the jungle where men very
seldom came, and those men were brown or black men.
But men knew monkeys were in the woods, and men wanted the monkeys for
circuses, for menageries and for hand-organs. That is the reason men
try to catch monkeys.
Mappo looked all around the forest from the top of the tree where he had
come to rest. He saw no signs of danger. He saw only white pieces of
cocoanut on the ground.
"I'll go down and get some, and then I'll run on and find my papa and
mamma and brothers and sisters," thought Mappo. "They will want some of
this cocoanut."
Down he went, and began picking up the bits of cocoanut. They were
rather small pieces and Mappo had to eat a great many of them before he
felt he had enough. Each piece was a little way beyond the next one, and
Mappo kept on walking along slowly as he picked them up.
Finally he saw a very large piece. He reached for it with his paw, and
then, all at once something happened.
Something like a big spider's web seemed to fall down out of a tree
right over Mappo.
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