XXX.- BABBY JOHN.

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL.

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1. BABBY1 JOHN was not a baby at all, but the Caffre corruption of the Dutch word similar to the English baboon. Babby John-"a fellow of infinite jest, of a most excellent fancy"

was my tame baboon.

2. When I became possessed of this treasure, I was living in the colony of Port Natal, South Africa, and cultivating the acquaintance of the brute creation, of which I had a collection which made gardening out of the question. I laid out, or rather left alone, my little domain to be a miniature menagerie, and of all living things to grace it I coveted a baboon. Now, Babby John was an established favorite at a hotel in the town; but the proprietor became bankrupt, and on the sale of his property I became the delighted purchaser of his pet.

3. Arrived at home, my first care was to lodge my new inmate for the night, till I could secure him properly in the morning. Among his native wilds, his genius might have found a thousand ways of diverting itself; but being in captivity, Babby John was wont 4 to employ the whole powers of his mind in the devising, 5 and the whole powers of his body in the perpetration, of mischief. For the first night, I tied him to a post

in the veranda.

He had a bit of bread and half a cup of coffee, then curled himself up and went to sleep, as I thought, for the night.

4. Early in the morning I was awaked by loud cries. from my Caffre servant, and on proceeding to learn

the cause, discovered Babby John, though it was barely light, at work with a zeal worthy of a better cause. He had pulled up all the tiles, forming the pavement of the veranda, within his reach, broken all he could, and thrown the rest away. When I came to interrupt his pastime, he was hard at work on the house-wall, picking out the mortar with his long, lean forefinger. He had already removed two or three bricks, and bade fair to make a considerable excavation7 in an hour or two. Without stopping for a moment in his work, he was making most hideous grimaces whenever the Caffre approached him.

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5. Next I tied him up in a grove of Syringa trees, where he made war against all passengers. Threatening, chattering, screaming, showing his teeth, wrinkling his brows, and exhibiting his white eyebrows till he seemed as if he was moved by a string inside, in the manner of a doll, he effectually stopped all passage. Once or twice he laid ambuscades by concealing himself on a bough, and suddenly dropping on the head of any one passing beneath.

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6. Next I fastened him to a tree in a hedge where he could do no possible harm. But here again his talent for ambuscades was so conspicuous that I heard screams all day long. His custom "of an afternoon" was to lie snugly concealed at the top of the hedge, and when any one approached unsuspectingly on the road, Babby John would launch himself at his or her head; and though always brought up by his chain, still, to say the least of it, the totally unexpected apparition of a flying baboon was trying to the

nerves.

7. I soon began to feel that I had a most troublesome

pet in Babby John, and to think that if those ancient mariners of Solomon, who, in company with the navy of Hiram, went to Tarshish for apes and peacocks,* returned with a cargo of Babby Johns, they had but a wearisome passage home.

8. He showed a decided taste for natural history. It was clear that all insect life was to be inquired into and banished; and accordingly very few beetles or small insects of any kind escaped a strict investigation. He was afraid of lizards, and, when he met one, screamed and made faces at it till it retired. All the frogs and toads he saw, he chased, caught, and then threw away.

9. But on removing a thick tuft of grass, he discovered a snake. Then his terror knew no bounds: it was by turns abject and frantic. He flew round his pole till it resembled a fire-work, and tugged at his chain till it snapped. When free, he rushed into the house, and sought shelter under my bed. Extracted 10 from this hiding-place by the tail, he clung with the most suffocating fondness to my neck; nor till he was satisfied that the snake was really gone, could he be induced to return to his pole.

10. Babby John frequently broke loose from his chain. It was to no purpose that I bought new and stronger chains: some part would in time yield to the efforts prompted by the thoughts of freedom which throbbed in that little hairy bosom. When he did get free, one was not kept long in ignorance of the fact; shrieks of chattering joy from the escaped prisoner, yells from the Caffres, screams from passers-by, and

2 Chronicles ix 21.

the clash of chains over neighboring roofs, proclaimed the glad news.

11. At times he contented himself with taking possession of my own roof, where his favorite pastime was to pull off the tiles, and throw them down the chimney. The only way to get him down from "that bad eminence" was by the offer of a glass of gin and water. This was a treat he, like many of his human brethren, could not resist. It cost him a pang, to be sure he knew that he would be seized by the tail, and consigned 11 again to captivity, if he descended to obtain the refreshment; but the temptation was generally too strong.

12. At times, however, he would rush off at once to neighboring premises. He seemed to know that his career of freedom would be short, and therefore, on these excursions, endeavored and I must do him the justice to say generally with success to eat the greatest quantity of fruit, and do the greatest amount of mischief, in the shortest given time. In upsetting anything, his talents came out very strong. Once I caught him on my dinner-table, busily employed in mixing the vinegar with the mustard- an operation which he effected with the air of a philosopher performing a chemical experiment.

13. The end of Babby John was tragic,12 though strictly in keeping with the tenor 13 of his life. I gave him to a pastry cook; and after a week's residence in his new quarters, one night he broke loose, entered into the shop, and the next morning, was found stiff and stark on the floor. He had eaten so abundantly of the tarts and cakes of his master that a fit of indi

gestion was the result which brought his life to a sudden

1. THE old sexton soon got better, and was about again. He was not able to work; but, one day, there was a grave to be made, and he came to overlook the man who dug it. He was in a talkative mood;1 and Nelly, at first standing by his side, and afterwards sitting on the grass at his feet, with her thoughtful face raised towards him, began to converse with him. 2. "You were telling me," she said, "about your gardening. Do you ever plant things here?"

3. "In the churchyard?”

"Not I."

returned the sexton.

4. "I have seen some flowers and little shrubs about," the child rejoined; "there are some over there, you see. I thought they were of your rearing; though, indeed, they grow but poorly."

5. "They grow as Heaven wills," said the old man; "and it kindly ordains 2 that they never shall flourish here."

6. "I don't understand you."