On a bright and sunny day, deep in the jungle, there lived a monkey mother and her little daughter, Mimi. Now, Mimi was a sprightly little monkey with a very naughty and mischievous mind. She used to fearlessly jump from tree to tree and wanted to go out to play every day. The jungle was full of fun things for little monkeys.
“Mimi, dear, it is time for your afternoon nap,” said the monkey mother. “Do keep quiet till I come back. I have to do an errand.”
“Oh, Mammy, don’t let me nap. I’ll rest on this bough but do let me play.”
So the mother monkey went off, and Mimi sat swinging on a strong branch of a tree. All of a sudden, she saw a Banana Grove some distance off, swaying in the winds. “How I wish I could get a bunch of fresh, ripe bananas from there,” thought she. “It’s only about a dozen branches away from me.”
And she instantly started off, now jumping on one branch, and now swinging on another, till she came to the Banana Grove.
“Oh, it is so nice and fresh here! Never did I breathe in such sweet air. And what a delightful place this is! There are fresh, ripe bananas! But my mother told me not to pluck them. Nay, what does one denied bunch matter? I’ll just pluck one and then go back.”
So saying, the naughty little monkey plucked a bunch, and then another, and stuffed all she could under her chin. Just then, she saw a shadow falling over her. Looking up, what should she see but a huge, hungry tiger!
Now, as a tiger is a monkey’s greatest enemy, off rushed the naughty little creature on the nearest branch, to be safe from his claws. But, unluckily for her, the branch she chose was a rotten one, which just then gave way under her and she came rolling in fright before the open jaws of her enemy!
“Oh, please, dear uncle Tiger,” squeaked the little monkey, “don’t eat me up! Why, I could so easily help you go to a place where you could have a nice hot dinner!”
“Yes, child, and where might that be?” asked the tiger, a little surprised.
“Why,” said she, “you have only to follow me, and I surely will help you to that dinner. You come with me.”
The tiger-who was very hungry-now agreed, and off they went together to the place where the monkey had left her mother. A little distance before them, walked the two angry monkeys. “Surely, that poor little thing will never return,” said the mother; “I quite miss her to-day.”
By this time (of course without being seen) the tiger had come as near to them as possible, and lying down on the ground, made a spring at them both. The old clever monkey had, however, seen the tiger long before, and quickly jumping on a branch, saved herself. The mischievous little thing had not seen him; and what happened to her we know already.
“Oh, how unfortunate!” said the tiger, as he crushed the little monkey and made off. “What a nice dinner I have missed!”
Half an hour after the mother-mother went back to her little one, to give her some nice juicy fruit she had brought for her. But alas! she found only her lifeless form. The tiger had cruelly buried her under the sand and gone away.
“Oh, that’s what comes of disobedience!” said the poor monkey mother, as she wept and wept over her dead daughter.
And it is thus that naughty children, who disobey their parents, suffer for it, sooner or later.