ou goes.'

'Oh! wait a minute,' said the wretched Cyril, feeling how foolishly yet
well-meaningly he had carried out the Psammead's instructions. 'Just
tell me one thing. What do you want for the mangy old monkey in the
third hutch from the end?'

The shopman only saw in this a new insult.

'Mangy young monkey yourself,' said he; 'get along with your blooming
cheek. Hout you goes!'

'Oh! don't be so cross,' said Jane, losing her head altogether, 'don't
you see he really DOES want to know THAT!'

'Ho! does 'e indeed,' sneered the merchant. Then he scratched his ear
suspiciously, for he was a sharp business man, and he knew the ring of
truth when he heard it. His hand was bandaged, and three minutes
before he would have been glad to sell the 'mangy old monkey' for ten
shillings. Now--'Ho! 'e does, does 'e,' he said, 'then two pun ten's my
price. He's not got his fellow that monkey ain't, nor yet his match,
not this side of the equator, which he comes from. And the only one ever
seen in London. Ought to be in the Zoo. Two pun ten, down on the nail,
or hout you goes!'

The children looked at each other--twenty-three shillings and fivepence
was all they had in the world, and it would have been merely three and
fivepence, but for the sovereign which Father had given to them 'between
them' at parting. 'We've only twenty-three shillings and fivepence,'
said Cyril, rattling the money in his pocket.

'Twenty-three farthings and somebody's own cheek,' said the dealer, for
he did not believe that Cyril had so much money.

There was a miserable pause. Then Anthea remembered, and said--

'Oh! I WISH I had two pounds ten.'

'So do I, Miss, I'm sure,' said the man with bitter politeness; 'I wish
you 'ad, I'm sure!'

Anthea's hand was on the counter, something seemed to slide under it.
She lifted it. There lay five bright half sovereigns.

'Why, I HAVE got it after all,' she said; 'here's the money, now let's
have the Sammy,... the monkey I mean.'

The dealer looked hard at the money, but he made haste to put it in his
pocket.

'I only hope you come by it honest,' he said, shrugging his shoulders.
He scratched his ear again.

'Well!' he said, 'I suppose I must let you have it, but it's worth
thribble the money, so it is--'

He slowly led the way out to the hutch--opened the door gingerly,
and made a sudden fierce grab at the Psammead, which the Psammead
acknowledged in one last long lingering bite.

'Here, take th