down on a branch in front of the
tree house where he lived.

"That wasn't very nice of that tiger to chase us!" said Mappo, when he
could get his breath.

"No, indeed," said Mrs. Monkey. "Tigers are not often nice. After this
you children had better stay in the tree--until you are a little larger,
at least."

"But it's more fun on the ground," said Mappo.

"That may be," said Mrs. Monkey, as she looked down through the branches
to see if the tiger were still waiting to catch one of her little ones.
"But, Mappo, you and your brothers and sisters can run much better and
faster in a tree than on the ground," said Mrs. Monkey.

And this is so. A monkey can get over the ground pretty fast on his four
legs, as you can easily tell if you have ever watched a hand-organ
monkey. But they can travel much faster up in the trees. For there is a
hand on the end of each monkey's four limbs, and his curly tail is as
good as another hand for grasping branches. So you see a monkey really
has five hands with which to help himself along in the trees, and that
is why he can swing himself along so swiftly, from one branch to
another.

That is why it is safer for monkeys to be up in a tree than on the
ground. There are very few other animals that can catch monkeys, once
the five-handed creatures are up among the leaves. And monkeys can
travel a long way through the forest without ever coming down to the
ground. They swing themselves along from one tree to another, for miles
and miles through the forest.

"Is it safe to go down now, Mamma?" asked Mappo of his mother, in monkey
talk. This was a little while after the scare.

"No, not yet," she said. "That tiger may still be down there, waiting
and hiding. You and Jacko and Bumpo, and Choo and Chaa stay up here, and
pretty soon I will give you a new lesson."

"Oh, a new lesson!" exclaimed Jacko. "I wonder what kind it will be. We
have learned to swing by our tails, and to hang by one paw. Is there
anything else we can learn?"

"Many things," said the mamma monkey, for she and her husband had been
teaching the children the different things monkeys must know to get
along in the woods.

So the four little monkeys sat in the tree in front of their home, and
waited for their mother to teach them a new lesson.

If you had seen Mappo's house, you would not have thought it a very nice
one. It was just some branches of a tree, twined together, over a sort
of platform, or floor, of dried