One night (I think I was ten or eleven years old) my sister and I were woken and told to go downstairs to see what Dad had brought home for us. We ran downstairs and were told to watch a jacket of Dad’s that was on the mat. Slowly from one arm piece a little head appeared and two bright eyes looked at us. Gradually the little creature edged his way out and looked around. It was a small monkey. We were very excited but eventually had to return to bed. Dad decided to put Joey in the scullery for the night because he said the monkey was mischievous. During the night I awoke to the smell of gas. I woke my parents and we all went downstairs. The smell got very much stronger so we had to wait while Dad went to discover what was wrong. We heard him enter the scullery and open the window and door. My mother went to help and we heard her gasp. “Oh my goodness what a mess! Is the monkey dead?” At that we ran forward in great concern for the monkey who was unconscious and was taken out into the air. In the scullery which was small combining kitchen and laundry, was our gas cooker and along the other wall was a copper with a tall wooden mangle. On a shelf above these were some tins of paint. Joey had turned all the gas taps on and had overturned the tins of paint so that various coloured paints had run down onto the copper and mangle. We looked in horror, wondering what our washerwoman would say when she saw the mess. She was a very excitable little lady. Joey was not dead, so Dad made him a bed in an empty chicken run outside where he recovered. We found Joey very amusing and he soon got to know which was our bedroom on the first floor and then made a habit of climbing up and tapping on our window for attention. He took a real liking to our next door neighbour Edith, and loved it when she came to the fence to talk to us because she had beautiful long black hair. He enjoyed picking it over looking for fleas while she fed him with fruit. Her hair was often left in a sticky mess! Our neighbour on the other side Joey really disliked. One day when Dad was talking to this man who at the time was dressed in his dinner suit because he was a Councillor on his way to a very special Council meeting. Joey was playing with us in the yard and he quickly picked up an egg from a chicken run and threw it at our neighbour. It hit him between the eyes and, oh, what a mess! My sister and I were scolded because we laughed so much. Our neighbour was furious, for now he was covered in egg! Joey was jumping up and down, racing round and round, squealing with great joy and satisfaction. One day later on, some blankets were pegged on the clothesline to dry and the next time we looked, they were down on the ground. Nobody could think how that had happened as there was no wind. So they were again pegged up but this time we watched from a window and saw Joey run along the line throwing the pegs in all directions! We had lots of fun with Joey but his mischievous ways eventually made Dad decide to give him to a friend who ran a Public House in the country. Dad decided that here Joey’s antics would not cause so much inconvenience. Joey enjoyed the life there and men in the bar loved to watch his antics. But they often gave Joey beer until he was drunk, and although Dad was disgusted with this there was nothing he could do. It was good for trade of course! Later he heard from Joey’s owner that Joey had climbed a huge tree and refused to come down. So Dad was asked to help. When Joey had lived with us he was very friendly with our dog and they often romped together so Dad decided to take the dog with him. Joey was high in the tree and came half-way down when Dad called him, but would not come right down. Our dog ran around the tree barking at Joey, but even then it took some long time before he came down to play with the dog so that they were able to catch him. Joey had another friend when he lived with us - Nancy our pet goose. Nancy reigned supreme in the yard, and every morning she tapped with her beak on our back door until she received her breakfast. She laid beautiful eggs which when fried filled a dinner plate. Naturally every one wanted one, so eventually it was decided that each member of the family would take turns to enjoy her eggs. They had a delicious flavour and we thoroughly enjoyed them, feeling very fortunate because none of our friends had tasted a goose egg. |
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