In an instant he was all tangled up--his paws and tail
were caught. He yelled and chattered in fright, and tried to get loose,
but the more he tried, the tighter the meshes of the net fell about him.
Poor Mappo was caught. He had been caught by a hunter's net in the
jungle, and the pieces of cocoanut were only bait, just as you bait a
mouse trap with cheese.
"Oh!" cried Mappo, in his shrill, chattering voice. "Oh dear! I am
caught!"
Tighter and tighter the net closed over him.
CHAPTER IV
MAPPO IN A BOX
Poor Mappo was not a merry monkey just then. Usually he was a jolly
little fellow, laughing and chattering in his own way, and playing
tricks on his brothers and sisters. Now he felt very little like doing
anything of that sort.
"And to think that I was going to play a trick with the empty cocoanut
shell, just a little while before this happened to me," thought Mappo,
as he tried very hard to get loose from the net in which he was all
tangled up. "I wonder what has happened to me, anyhow," said Mappo to
himself.
And, as Mappo did not find out for some little time I will tell you. He
had been caught by a native hunter, in a net made from long pieces of a
trailing vine, which was as strong as a rope.
In the country where Mappo lived there were many people called
natives--that is they had never lived in any country but their own, and
they were a queer sort of people.
They wore very few clothes, for it was too hot to need many.
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