Chapter Four, The Author's Way of Traveling Several Adventures That Happened to Him.
Besides the box in which I was usually carried, the Queen ordered a smaller one to be made for me that would more easily fit into Glumdalclitch's lap.
This traveling closet was about twelve feet square, with a window in the middle of three of the sides.
Each window was covered with iron wire to prevent accidents.
On the fourth side two strong staples were fixed so that the person carrying me could attach the box to his or her belt.
I had a closet in this box and a hammock hung from the ceiling.
The box also had two chairs and a table, all screwed to the floor.
A coach was allowed to glumdleclitch in me, in which her governess often took her out to see the town or go to the shops.
I was always carried in my box, though my nurse would often take me out and place me in her hand so that I could more easily see the houses and people as we passed along the streets.
I may have lived happily enough in that country if my smallness had not led to several ridiculous and troublesome accidents.
The greatest danger I faced there was from a monkey who belonged to one of the kitchen clerks.
Glumdalclitch had locked me in her room while she went somewhere on a visit.
The weather was very warm and the windows to Glumdalclitch's room had been left open, as well as the windows and door of my bigger box in which I usually lived.
As I sat at my table, I heard something bounce in at the window.
I was startled and I looked out my window and saw the animal jumping about.
He leaped up and down until he came to my box.
After some time peeping and grinning in all of the windows, he spied me and reached one of his paws in the door, as a cat does with a mouse.
I did my best to avoid him, but he grabbed the end of my coat and dragged me out.
He held me as a nurse does a child.
When I tried to struggle, he squeezed me so hard that I thought it best to surrender.
He held me in this way for a while, stroking me as if I were one of his children, until there was a noise at the door.
Suddenly he leaped out of the window, still holding me in his paw, and clambered up onto the roof.
Soon half the palace was in an uproar.
The servants ran for ladders and the monkey was seen by hundreds sitting upon the edge of the building, holding me like a baby in one of his forepaws.
He crammed into my mouth some leftover food he had stolen from the kitchen and patted me when I would not eat.
Many of the people below were laughing.
I cannot truly blame them, as the sight was surely funny to everyone but myself.
The ladders were set up on all sides now.
The monkey saw himself surrounded and not being able to get away without the use of all four paws, he dropped me on the ledge and ran off.
I sat there for a while, 500 yards from the ground, expecting every moment to be blown off the roof, to my death.
Finally, one of the servants reached me.
I almost choked to death on the filthy stuff the monkey had crammed down my mouth.
But my dear little nurse picked it out of my mouth with a small needle.
Still, I was so sick and bruised that I kept to my bed for a week.
The king, queen and all of the court asked about my health daily, and the monkey was sent away with orders that no such animal be kept around the palace.
Later I visited the king.
He asked me what my thoughts were while I lay in the monkey's paw.
He wanted to know what I would have done had something similar happened in my own country.
I told my majesty that in Europe We had no monkeys, except ones that were so small that I could deal with a dozen of them together if they attacked me.
As for that animal who had carried me away, which was indeed as large as an elephant, I told the king that if I had been able to make use of my knife, I might have given him such a wound when he poked his paw into my chamber as to make him remove it faster than he had put it in.
I spoke these words as bravely as I could, but the response was nothing but laughter.
