Treasure
Gertrude Singleton Mathews
Paperback
(RareBooksClub.com, May 14, 2012)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 Excerpt: ...that really happened was that he hoisted his loin cloth or G string. But if there had been trousers they would have been hitched up, as sure as sure. As though in answer to his fantastic beckoning an old-man-monkey started to come out to the very end of a branch. The Bush nigger below; up gun, hop-hop, curtsy to the ground! Then stretching his arms out as far as he could from his chest, with the gun held in the palm of the right hand, he fired! And to my absolute amazement he hit M. Monkey. The charge must have been very heavy indeed, as I saw the Bush nigger's arm smash down by the kick of the gun against his chest. But the old monkey, vitally wounded, was hanging on by one hand to the extreme limit of the branch. In shooting monkeys a hunter is by no means sure to get what he hits. Unless killed outright they clutch with tail or hand and may hang wounded until the hunter's patience is exhausted or starvation drives him home. The Bush nigger began violently to shake the barrel of his gun down toward the ground. He pranced about as he shook. His gesticulations became more decided, but it was always the same motion, gun barrel pointed downward toward the earth. It kept up so long I went and got Ban and asked him why he was doing that. Ban looked at me quite soberly. "To help shake the monkey out of the tree," he answered, as though it was obviously the thing to do. The poor old beast was dying fast. At last, with a sort of a shudder, he relaxed his hold and dropped dead at the Bush nigger's feet. Then Ban expatiated with an odd contradictory air of unwilling belief, "You see, sir, these people know just how to do that. If you or I had shot that monkey it would have stopped up there. Now he will go home and tell the story, acting it all out bef...