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Show CHEEPS: A MONKEY FIREMAN By Florence A, Evang. Such forlorn little creaturea as both the bos and the monkey werel And as for the organ. It was only by the strong, est exercise nf one's Imagination tint one could have discovered tho filnt-est filnt-est resemblance to music In the wheezy squeaks given foith by that antiquated Instrument. The snow wns filling heavily and business wns bad. Joe, the rnuill organ-grinder hud been turning turn-ing the crank slme early morning, whlje Cheeps, the mnnkes. had danced and held out his bedraggled red tap for pennies until he was tired, but, though the dav was now nenrlng Its close, only 3 tents had rewarded their efforts f-io painfully, for hla hands were numb and swollen with the cold, ho be-gnn be-gnn to turn the crank, while poor ( hceps, creeping from the bag In which ho usually traveled from one stopping place to another, wearily began to danco and make his queer little bows to nn one In pirtlculir. And ns the cracked tones of tho organ floated out on the air u golden-haired little child, attended bs n foreign-looking nurso-maid, nurso-maid, appe.irel nt a. second-story window, win-dow, which they presently opened to drop some sin ill change, which the monkey lost nn time In collecting. To his great delight Joe saw thit he would lion have enough money to alias al-ias his father a wrath, nnd, grinning his thinks, after making t'heeps repented-Is repented-Is doff his lap, he wns Just shouldering shoulder-ing tho henvs organ to begin the wciry march downtown when a terrible thing happened. There was a sudden irs' from the basement, a mufllcd explosion and, In nn Instnnt, nn It seemed, the entire first floor of the house vns i raging sea of Itnmes A mm passing nn tho other side of the street nn to tho corner nnd turned In nn nlarm, nnd then a croud begin to gather while waiting for tho engines, which, perhaps per-haps on account of tho storm, seemed ns though they would never arrive. Joe stood their vvlth the rest, his heart filled with a terrible diead Tho llro vi as spreading rapidly and n vers few moments' delay would mean a certain nnd awful .death to the lovely child nnd the nurse, who hnd taken pltv on him so shortly before. Ho strnlnod his ears, but there was still no sign of the engines Flames were now showing through the window next to vvhein tho nurso nnd her charge, pile and tnrrl-fled, tnrrl-fled, were looking out on the helpless crowd below. Could nothing bo done to save them? Tic rope attached to Cheeps' rollir was a new one nnd long enough to reach from the window to the ground To be sure. It was not a thick one: still, neither tho nurse nor the child wnK heavs; he would make tho monkey mon-key tnko help to them. On tho house next to the doomed ono, and quite close to the window where the woman stood, was a lightning rod nnd before the crowd could guess what was going on, Cheeps, at the bidding of his master, mas-ter, had climbed up this, leaped acioss the Intervening space to tho window Bill and stood beside tho nurse, hhe hastily unfastened his collar ns the quickest was of getting the rope, and then, at Joe s call the monkey returned as he hod come, while tho worn in, making mak-ing fnst tho rope, which stood tho strain nobis, first lowered the child to safety nnd then slid down heiself. Just as the flames shot through the window win-dow where sho had stood hut an Instant In-stant before. Just then, for this had all happened In n much shorter tlmo than It tnkes to tell, tho engines camo dashing around the corner, but tho housn wns plainly doomed, nnd tho firemen do-vottd do-vottd their efforts largely to preventing prevent-ing tre spread of tho tiro to tho neigh-borlnc neigh-borlnc buildings And while tho cinwd was -it 111 watching the blizo a cab samo up the avenue at a gallop and a hindsomels'-dressed woman sprang out and caught In her anna tho gol-den.halred gol-den.halred child whom the monkey had helped to rescue. Many eager tongues told her the tale of how ho had been saved, and Joe and Cheeps, who had been trjlng to slink uwny unobserved In the excitement, worn piished forward for-ward to be overwhelmed with thanks by the relieved mother. It Is scarcely necessary to say that the boy nnd the monkey nevor went hack to the cruel man of whom they stood In such dread. Mrs Honen. the mother of the rest tied child, siw to that. Joe wns sent to a boirdlng-school, boirdlng-school, where he received a good education edu-cation and grew up to be a credit to his native rlty, while Cheeps wns, for the remainder of his life an honored member and pet of the Hon en household. |