In the famous forest of “Guess It” there lived at one time a family of seven monkeys,—papa, mamma, and five little monkeys as large as pineapple cheeses.
This family lived among the branches of a giant tree, in the middle of the forest, and paid fifteen plums’ rent every year to an old overbearing gorilla, who had taken it into his head to be a proprietor.
Four of these little monkeys had skin and hair the color of chocolate, but the other, the smallest of them all, whether it might be a trick of nature or no, the fact was that he was covered all over, except his little face, with a fine hair that was fleshy red, just like the leaves of a rose. For this reason, even in his home and amongst the neighbors, they all called him Beppo,—a word that means, in the spoken language of monkeys, rose-colored.
Beppo did not resemble either his brothers or the other monkeys in the neighborhood. He had a quick and intelligent face, a pair of cunning eyes that never stood still a minute, a small mouth that always laughed, and a dry and flexible personality, like the stem of a bulrush. He was, in fact, as it is customary to say, a “perfect little monkey.”
At first sight one would have almost thought him a little boy of eight or nine years old, because Beppo made a noise and trifled away his time just like a boy. He ran after the butterflies and went in search of birds’ nests, like a boy. He was most greedy of fruit, like a boy. He ate everything and ate always, like a boy. After having eaten enough, he cleaned his mouth with his hands, as some boys do, especially those boys who are not very neat.
But do you wish to know what the greatest passion of Beppo was?
It was that of imitating everything he saw men do.
One day, while he was going through the forest in search of crickets and grasshoppers, he saw, sitting at the foot of a tree, a young man tranquilly smoking a pipe.
At that sight, Beppo opened his eyes wide and became like one enchanted.
“Oh,” he said to himself, “if I only could have a pipe! Oh, if I could make those beautiful clouds come out of my mouth! Oh, if I could go back home smoking like a chimney! Oh, with what envious eyes my four little brothers would look at me!”
While these beautiful ideas rushed through Beppo’s head, the young man, being either tired or warm, gave two or three great big yawns and, placing his pipe on the ground, went to sleep.
What, then, did that little scoundrel of a Beppo do? He approached very softly on the tips of his toes the spot where the young man was sleeping. Holding his breath, he stretched out his paw very slowly, grabbed the pipe with incredible velocity, and ran away as fast as the wind.
As soon as he arrived home, he quickly called his papa, mamma, and brothers, and in their presence placed the pipe between his lips, and began to smoke with the airs of an old sailor. His mamma and the four brothers, seeing the clouds of smoke come out of Beppo’s mouth, laughed like mad; but his papa, who was a monkey full of common sense and worldly experience, said to Beppo in a tone of warning:—
“Take care, Beppo! If you begin to imitate men, one day you really will become a man—and then! Then you will bitterly repent, but it will be too late!”
Impressed by these words, Beppo threw away the pipe, and smoked no more. However, you must know that stolen pipe carried with it some disgrace. A few days after, Beppo was struck with a great misfortune! The poor, unfortunate little fellow lost forever his beautiful tail,—a tail so beautiful that, once seen, it could never be forgotten.
How did he happen to lose that magnificent tail?
It is a cruel and sad story. Only thinking about it will make tears come to your eyes. I will tell it to you in this next chapter.