Page:Indira and Other Stories.pdf/190

 our discussion in the safe shelter of these branches."

The first monkey: "A very proper precaution. Otherwise, if we were recognised, we might some day meet one of these gentlemen, and furnish an untimely meal for his inextinguishable hunger."

The second monkey: "Now what evil have you to say of these brutal tyrants?"

The first monkey: "In the first place, they talk most ungrammatically. We monkeys are admittedly experts in grammar. Their grammar differs lamentably from our monkey grammar."

The second monkey: "True. What else?"

The first monkey: "Their language is very disagreeable to the ear."

The second monkey: "Exactly. They do not use monkey speech."

The first monkey: "For instance, their president used this cumbrous expression, 'it is the high destiny of the race of tigers, firstly, to educate men, and, secondly, to devour them.'