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What Nan Saw · The Bobbsey Twins at Cherry Corners

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  Chapter twenty of The Bobbsey Twins at Cherry Corners by Laura Lee Hope. This
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  LibriVox recording is in the public domain. What Nan saw now? Look here,
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  Nan exclaimed Bert, as he took hold of his sister's arm. There's
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  no use of being frightened just because you saw what you think was an animal's
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  tail. I didn't think it, I know it, insisted Nan. And
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  there was more than one. I dropped the bag of sugar. I was
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  so scared. What bag of sugar the one I went to the store to
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  get for Dinah. Come on back and show me where you saw those tails,
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  suggested Bert with a laugh. I guess you'll find out. It was
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  only some dangling wild grape vines swinging in the wind. Do you think so?
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  And Nan was calmer. Now, I'm pretty sure it was, went
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  on her brother. There aren't any animals with long tails in these woods.
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  It was just swinging vines. Well maybe it was, admitted Nan. But
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  I surely thought they were tails. And when I heard them, chatter chatter,
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  cried Bert. Do you mean the tails chattered? No, but the
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  animals the tails belonged to chattered and yelled, went on Nan I'm sure I
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  heard them. I guess you must have fallen asleep and dreamed it all,
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  said Bert, looking curiously at his sister. Come on back and show me,
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  Oh Bert, I don't want to. I'm afraid. Come on,
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  there's nothing to be afraid of. We have to get the bag of sugar
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  you dropped. Anyhow, Yes, I suppose so, agreed Nan, But
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  you go ahead. I don't want to see those tails again, nor hear
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  the chattering. I guess what you thought was chattering was the wind blowing through
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  a hollow tree, chuckled Bert, and the tails were vines. I'm sure
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  it would be great, though, if there were some wild animals in these
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  woods, great, cried Nan. I call it terrible. After a little
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  more talk, she told where she had dropped the bag of sugar to begin
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  running home, and Bert finally persuaded her to walk along behind him and point
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  out the place. As the two older Bobbsey twins neared the spot, Nan
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  looked anxiously around, Finally close to a dense thicket of bushes on one side
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  of the path through the clump of trees, the girl pointed to a large
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  rock and said, I dropped the bag of sugar there, you couldn't have
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  retorted her brother. It isn't there now the bag is, said Nan,
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  taking another look. But there isn't any sugar in it. See it's empty,
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  So it is, agreed Bert, who, now that he was a
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  little closer, could see the crumpled bag all too plain. It was empty.
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  The sugar had been taken out, But little heaps of white grains here
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  and there on or near the path showed what had happened. The long tails
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  took the sugar, exclaimed Nan in a whisper. Oh, Bert, let's
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  not stay here. Wait a minute, he said, I want to find
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  out more about this. If there are wild animals with long tails who eat
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  sugar in these woods, Dad and the other farmers will want to know about
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  them. I'm going to take another look. Don't leave me, Bert begged
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  Nan, as the boy moved farther along on the path. Then come on
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  up closer, he suggested, I can't see from here. There's nothing to
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  be afraid of. Truly, there did not seem to be. The woods
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  were very quiet save for the rustling of leaves in the wind, and the
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  sun was shining brightly outside of the little grove. But Suddenly, as Nan
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  and Bert moved closer to that empty sugar bag, the girl grasped her brother's
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  arm, and, pointing upward into a tree, whispered, there's one now
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  one, what asked Bert, one of the long tails. And there's another
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  and another. Oh, Bert, there's a whole lot of them. Why
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  Bert, they're monkeys, they're long tailed monkeys. At that instant, Bert
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  also saw them, a group of monkeys huddled in a heap on the branch
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  of a tree, over the heads of the boy and girl. Monkeys with
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  their long tails, either clutching the limb or switching from side to side.
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  Monkeys, monkeys, murmured Bert, hardly able to believe what his eyes saw.
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  How did they get here? Nan did not answer. She was watching
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  one of the larger of the long tailed animals and saw it licking its fore
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  paws. Look, Bert, His sister whispered, he must be one of
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  those who took the sugar out of the bag after I dropped it. His
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  paws are all sticky, so they are. Bert agreed, there's another liquor
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  his paws too, Nan. They took your sugar, all right, But
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  where did the monkeys come from? Nan wanted to know, while she and
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  Bert continued to gaze up into the tree at the long tailed band, and
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  what a lot of them? There are? One, two, three?
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  She lost count because the monkeys began moving about, but Bert said there must
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  be a dozen of them. Then, as if they did not like to
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  be talked about, the monkeys began chattering, screaming, and scolding in high
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  voices. There cried Nan, that's what I heard before, And I did
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  see their long tails. Bert, Yes, I guess you did. And
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  it must have been kind of scary when you didn't know what they were.
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  The Bobbsey lad was forced to admit, I thought you imagined it all.
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  Phew, this is great. Nan was not frightened now. She was just
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  curious, as was Bert, as to how the monkeys could have got to
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  the woods. Look out. Bert suddenly cried, Nan, they're coming down.
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  They're going to chase us. Whether this was so or not, the
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  two Bobbsey twins did not stop to see. Certainly, some of the monkeys
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  began swinging down from the upper branches of the tree, and a few of
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  them appeared to be coming in the direction of the boy and girl. They
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  kept up a shrill chattering and shrieking, and though Bert and his twin were
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  not cowards, they had read enough about big and little apes to know that
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  an angry one can do a great deal of harm. Come on, Bert
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  cried, seizing NaN's hand. We'll go and tell Dad about these monkeys.
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  He'll know what to do. Dad has gone to the city, explained Nan.
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  Well, then we'll tell mother and mister Winton and mister Tansey. These
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  monkeys ought to be caught. They may pick all the rest of the cherries,
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  but for the present it seemed to be the children who were likely to
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  be caught by the long tailed animals, and not the monkeys by their human
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  enemies. For the the whole troop made a sudden dash at Nan and Bert,
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  and the boy and girl ran as fast as they could to get into
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  the open. Very likely the monkeys were only going to a new place to
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  perch and were not thinking of chasing Nan and Bert, for they did not
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  follow the children more than a few feet, then up into other trees.
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  The long tailed beast swung themselves with more chattering and scoldings, but Nan and
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  Bert did not think it safe to linger, and ran on, not stopping
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  until they reached home, where their mother, who was on the porch,
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  saw them coming and wondered at their haste. Strange news, children, Strange
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  news, she called to them, waving in one hand a newspaper, a
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  weekly one published in a town not far from Cherry Corners. The gazette has
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  just come, my DearS, said missus Bobbsey, and it tells about a
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  lot of monkeys that escaped from the circus train when it went through here the
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  other day. Just think of it. Eighteen monkeys fresh from the jungle escaped
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  from the circus train. Isn't that great news? We have stranger news than
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  that, cried Bert. You have, what is it? Asked his mother,
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  Nan, And I saw those monkeys. They're in the oak grove down
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  by the brook. Eighteen monkeys with long tails. End of Chapter twenty read
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  by Martha Heaton, September twenty twenty three.