THE MONKEY BRIDGE. A party of long-tailed monkeys came to a small river, over which there was no bridge. At first, they did not seem to know how to cross the river, and so began to chatter and talk with one another, as if they were asking what should be done. After a little while they ran to a tree that stood by the bank of the river. The largest and strongest monkey climbed the tree, and took hold of a strong branch with his tail. came down over him, holding on with his tail, and the first one holding him by the legs. Then another monkey came down over both of the others, and so on, until a long string of monkeys hung nearly to the ground. What do you suppose they did next? I will tell you. The monkey nearest the ground began to make the long string swing backward and forward by putting his paws on the ground. The string of monkeys went faster and faster, and farther and farther, each time. By and by it swung so far that the last monkey could catch hold of a tree on the other side of the river. Then this monkey climbed the tree, and went up until he was as high as the first monkey on the other side. This, of course, made a bridge of monkeys from one side of the river to the other. Then the first monkey let go his hold of the tree, and the long bridge swung over to the other side. The monkeys now climbed up over each other until they all got into the tree. Then they began to chatter again, and made a great noise. They seemed to think they had done a great thing, and I think they had, don't you? LANGUAGE LESSON. Let pupils tell, in their own language, how the monkeys crossed the river. Let pupils write, syllabify, and accent the "New Words" at the head of this lesson. |