CHAPTER VII.

A STRANGE COMPANION.

BINNEY and Mackey, the lemur, soon became great friends, and every day after dinner they had a good frolic in the drawing-room. Binney would come up to Mackey as he sat on his master's foot before the fire, and by all sorts of odd motions invite him to play. Mackey was very ready to accept the challenge, and in an instant would jump on Binney's back, or on his broad, flat tail, and off again to the tables and chairs, skipping and dancing, and making a hundred motions to Binney's one.

Binney would shuffle and prance in his clumsy way, run after Mackey with his mouth open, and slap his tail on the carpet till he made all ring again; but they never quarrelled in their play. They often had cake, nuts, and other dainties given them, which they always shared in the most amiable manner, and upon the whole they were very happy.

One day when Binney was left alone in his master's dressing-room, he thought he would try to build a dam. To be sure, he had no twigs, sticks nor stones with which to build; no mud nor moss for mortar, and there was no water to run over the dam when it was done; but he thought it would make things seem a little like home again. So to work he went in a corner of the room, and dragged together tongs and shovels, the hearth-broom and warming-pan, his master's canes and umbrellas, and a broom and dusting brush which Mary the housemaid had left behind her that morning. These things he piled up as well as he could, till he had made quite a high dam.

Just as he finished it, Mackey, who had been asleep on the mantel over the fire, waked up, and jumped down to see what his friend was about.

"I am building a dam," said Binney; "only there is no water."

"A dam!" said Mackey. "What is a dam? I never heard of such a thing."

"We always built dams at home," said Binney. "Where I used to live there was such a big one—O! as long as this house, and almost as high as this room. Its use is to set back the water in the brook, and make a pond, in which we build our houses."

"Are you going to build a house now?" asked Mackey.

"Yes, under that high bureau. Don't you want to help me? When it is all done, we will sit in it and tell our own histories."

"O what fun," cried Mackey, and he set to work at once, for lemurs, like monkeys, are very fond of imitating what they see any one else do. So the two friends dragged together boots and slippers, and all the small things they could find, with which they filled up the spaces between the legs of the bureau, and thus made a very nice little house.

"Now we ought to have some hay to put into it," said Binney, "but I don't know where to find any."

Mackey cast his great keen eyes round the room till they fell upon a tall press full of clean linen, which had been accidentally left open.

"I know, I know!" cried Mackey, clapping his tiny hands in great glee. "I know where there is plenty of nice hay."

And with one jump, he was on the top shelf of the press, where he found a great quantity of clean sheets, tablecloths, napkins, and towels. These he threw down to Binney, who dragged them into the house which they had made, till it was half full of the nice clean linen. When it was all done, they lay down in the midst of the nest, and began telling their stories. Binney told Mackey about the dam and they pond, the deep woods and the meadows, the tame and good beavers in the town and the wild beavers in the woods; but as you have heard all that before, I shall not repeat it. Then Mackey told his own story, as follows:

"I was born a great many thousand miles from London, in the island of Madagascar. There is never any cold weather in that island. Water never freezes as it does here, and there is no snow nor sleet; but it rains a great deal in one part of the year. Almost the whole island is covered with thick, deep woods, in which grow all sorts of curious and beautiful things. There are many large vines which run from tree to tree for long distances, making the nicest bridges in the world for us lemurs to run upon. There are tall, many-colored canes, which shoot up fifty or sixty feet without a leaf, and as smooth as if they had been varnished. There are palm trees like great green plumes, which bear the cocoanuts they sell here; other palms which bear dates, and others still with large broad leaves as long as this room. There are beautiful plants with leaves like green lace, which grow under the water, and others which grow upon the branches of tall trees, and bear lovely, wax-like flowers.

"There are bright colored birds, like bits of Mrs. Smith's cap ribbons, which live upon trees, and others which stay on the ground. Then you may see the loris, or slow-monkey, which sleeps nearly all day, and crawls about the trees at night so slowly that you can hardly see him move. You would think a snail could far outrun him any day, and yet he manages to catch game enough to live upon very nicely. No one would ever take him for my cousin."

"I should say not," remarked Binney. "Slowness is not one of your faults, Mackey."

"For all that, he is always kind and good-natured," resumed Mackey. "Nothing can put him out of temper, except being hurried. Then there are tigers and wildcats, and many other such creatures, besides poisonous snakes, whose bite would kill you in a few minutes, and huge serpents big enough to kill a deer, squeezing him to death, and swallowing him whole afterwards."

"Really and truly, Mackey? Or are you joking?" asked Binney.

"Really and truly, Binney. I have seen with my own eyes one of these serpents kill a huge goat and swallow him, and I know that they kill cows in the same way. After they have taken this big mouthful they lie asleep and stupid for three or four weeks before they want any more."

"It is a good thing that they do not want to eat very often," said Binney.