NCERT Book Class 9 English (Moments) Chapter 2 The Adventures of Toto

2. The Adventures of Toto

Have you ever had a baby monkey as a pet? Toto
is a baby monkey. Let’s find out whether he is
mischievous or docile.

GRANDFATHER bought Toto from a tonga-driver for the sum of five
rupees. The tonga-driver used to keep the little red monkey tied
to a feeding-trough, and the monkey looked so out of place there
that Grandfather decided he would add the little fellow to his
private zoo.
Toto was a pretty monkey. His bright eyes sparkled with
mischief beneath deep-set eyebrows, and his teeth, which were a
pearly white, were very often displayed in a smile that frightened
the life out of elderly Anglo-lndian ladies. But his hands looked
dried-up as though they had been pickled in the sun for many
years. Yet his fingers were quick and wicked; and his tail, while
adding to his good looks (Grandfather believed a tail would add
to anyone’s good looks), also served as a third hand. He could
use it to hang from a branch; and it was capable of scooping up
any delicacy that might be out of reach of his hands.
Grandmother always fussed when Grandfather brought home
some new bird or animal. So it was decided that Toto’s presence
should be kept a secret from her until she was in a particularly
good mood. Grandfather and I put him away in a little closet opening
into my bedroom wall, where he was tied securely — or so we
thought — to a peg fastened into the wall.
A few hours later, when Grandfather and I came back to
release Toto, we found that the walls, which had been covered
with some ornamental paper chosen by Grandfather, now stood
out as naked brick and plaster. The peg in the wall had been
wrenched from its socket, and my school blazer, which had been
hanging there, was in shreds. I wondered what Grandmother