thousand four hundred and forty-one pounds
six shillings and threepence farthing has
been given to me for the orphans."
Probably, by Christmas next, the sum will have
amounted to about a hundred thousand
pounds!

THE MONKEY-KING.

AT Macao, a few years ago, lived Polydore
Marasquin, son and heir of Juan Perez
Marasquin, proprietor of one of the most famous
menageries in the world, and celebrated for
his skill in taxidermy. Unfortunately Juan
was killed one day, while endeavouring to
take a young tiger alive. On his death-bed
he made his son swear that he would
relinquish his dangerous profession. Polydore
took the oath; and committed perjury. Far
from abandoning his menagerie he
embellished and added to it, until it became one of
the wonders of the Eastern world. He
lighted it with gas; until then unheard-of in
Macao. He gilded and burnished the cages
until they shone like gold, and filled them
with the rarest specimens of wild animals to
be found in the two hemispheres. But his
chief speciality was in monkeys; of which he
had innumerable hosts of every race and
species.

It is as well to mention here, the notable
change of character which came over
Polydore after his father's death. From being
the friend, companion, confidant, and student
of his animals, he became their tyrant:
his former government of kindness,
patience, sympathy, and comprehension he
exchanged for one of mere brute force, of
whips and scourges: seeing in them all,
accomplices of the tiger who had so murderously
objected to being taken alive. In consequence
of this change, instead of being able to enter
the cages as formerly, without weapon and
without fear, he dared not trust himself
within paw's reach of one: so that he
and his beasts lived in a state of enmity
and warfare which boded no good to either
side.

The English Vice-Admiral Campbell,
landed at Macao. He went to Marasquin
for pets wherewith to beguile his voyage
when Malay pirates were scarce. Now among
his monkeys Polydore had four of especial
mark. Two were male baboons, named
Karabouffi First and Second; tall, powerful,
and intelligent as men, but horribly wicked
and cruel; the other two were chimpanzees,
male and female, called Mococo and Saïmira;
mild, melancholy, intelligent, and beautiful,
deeply enamoured of each other, perfectly
well-bred, and holding the poet's place in
the world of apes. Mococo was Marasquin's
"groom." He waited at table, changed the
plates, poured out the wine, and, when
invited, ate at the same table, with unfailing
grace and distinction. The master's love for
the two little Chimpanzees filled the rest of
the menagerie—the objects of his severity—
with rage and jealousy.

Now, Karabouffi the First was in love with
Saïmira.

The Vice-Admiral made some purchases,
and the ship's crew followed his example.
Each man bought a male and female monkey,
in exact imitation of the commander. He,
himself took Karabouffi the First. Mrs.
Campbell insisted on buying Mococo and
Saïmira; and, after a few struggles of the
heart, the keeper of the menagerie—
"merchant before all else"—sold her his pretty
favourites: beseeching the purchaser, however,
to keep them out of the way of Karabouffi
the First. The little lovers wept like children
at parting with their friend; they clung to
him and embraced him piteously; but, finally,
the embarkation of the monkey host was
effected: and Macao confessed to having never
witnessed such a day. The rage of Karabouffi
the Second, at being thus deprived of his
companions, knew no bounds. He yelled, and
howled, and tore about his cage like a demon;
and,from that hour, conceived the most deadly
hatred against Marasquin. But a hatred
that showed itself rather by extreme sullenness
and a black kind of dumb revenge, than
by any overt act of violence.

A year after this sale, Marasquin was
awakened one night by the suffocating smell
of fire. He started up to find the whole
place in a flame. His mother could not be
rescued; his menagerie blazing; his superb
birds fluttering and screaming; his magnificent
tigers howling and writhing. In the
midst of all, grinned, chattered, leaped,
and danced, the demon Karabouffi, with a
lighted torch in each hand. He had stolen
matches from the pocket of the gas-lighter;
and, in imitation of him, had turned on the
gas, lighted it, and set fire to the place. Some
one shot him as he capered through the
flames: but Marasquin was none the less
ruined, and his mother was none the less
burnt to death.

To recruit his fortunes, and restock his
menagerie, Marasquin set out for New Holland,
chartering a Chinese junk for the
voyage. But his crew of Chinamen and
Lascars quarrelled; a storm came on, the
men got drunk, and the unhappy junk
foundered in mid seas. After battling with
the waves for a miraculous length of time,
Marasquin, half-dead, was cast upon a small
island: the only man saved of the whole
ship's company. Recovering from his
swoon, he found himself lying on the shore,
alone; not a human being near him, not
a human habitation in sight. Gathering
his scattered senses together, he walked
slowly forward into the interior of the
island; when suddenly he saw a human form
at an immense distance,—he made for it—the
man, or savage, fled—he pursued—the savage
darted like lightning in and out among the
trees, until at last Marasquin found