my skill as a roundsman,
And talent in keeping the peace,
That I rose in a year to be Captain,
And then to be Chief of Police!

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

And then, as my years were advancing,
So great was their honor and trust,
That they twined me a chaplet of laurel
And sculptured in marble my bust.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Yet often I dreamed of the jungle--
Its song and the rustle of wing--
And sometimes still talked in my slumber
With Tusky, our elephant king.

When, lo, my political party,
That now was in power and supreme,
Conferred a most noble appointment
That realized all of my dream.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

For they made me their African envoy,
And soon I went sailing again,
To meet my old playmates and tell them
The ways and the customs of men.

To calm the dusk native, and gather
My people in sun-haunted nooks
To tell them my story, and teach them
The wisdom that cometh of books;

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

The words and the ways of _their fathers_,
And deliver my race from its ban,
For man did not spring from the monkey,
But monkey _descended from man!_

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Autobiography of a Monkey, by
Albert Bigelow Paine

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