16 THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE HEMPSEED.

air which would have made any one laugh who could not
see why the poor cat did it.

Very changeful in his cruelties, Rol put in force a
strange kind of punishment against the monkey Zug, in
whose favour the prince had so uselessly spoken to his sister
Olympia. He began by boring several holes in two large
walnut shells, which he then placed over little heaps of _
Turkish grain—a food that Zug liked very much. In order
to get at the grain, Zug thrust his fingers greedily through
the holes in the nut-shells; and when he felt the grain
underneath, he closed his hands, which is the habit of crea-
tures of his species. Then he put the shells to his mouth;
but he could not possibly eat the Turkey corn—the shells
were in the way. He ought to have let the grain fall
first, and the shells next, and then have picked up the corn,
which was a plan simple enough no doubt, but quite beyond
the instinct of monkeys. And Rol knew that perfectly
well. Caught in this shameful net, Zug would sometimes
scamper all across the park, climb up the trees, or run along
the tops of walls, holding the shells all the while in his
hands without being able to make up his mind to let them
go in order to get at the Turkish corn. Thus he usually
went without any Turkish corn at all!

You must confess that such a man was as bad as the
Roman emperor Nero, who was as cruel to man as Rol was to
animals, Every one has ever since hated the name of Nero.

The donkey, another of Rol’s victims, had nothing to
protect him save the hardness of his skin. How many
knotted sticks had been broken over his back! And yet
he was the most good-natured and active of donkeys. . His
coat was grey and as smooth as the varnished wood of a
fig-tree: he was also striped like that of a zebra. He gal-
loped, when he chose, as quick as the wind, with his ears
upright, his eyes beaming with satisfaction, and his nostrils
snuffing the welcome odour of the clover and sainfoin, as he