Chapter 2 The Adventure of Toto

The author’s grandfather was very fond of collecting animals and made a zoo at home. Toto was in the control of a Tonga owner. The grandfather felt pitying with the monkey and thinks that his private zoo would be a better place for the Toto . So, he purchased that Toto from the Tonga wallah for five rupees.

Toto was a pretty and mischievous monkey. He had bright shining eyes with mischief beneath the eyebrows and his teeth were pearly white. But his hands looked dried-up as if they had been in the sun for several years. Yet his fingers were very quick and wicked. He uses his tail as a third hand. He could use it to hang from a branch and was completely capable of latching onto any delicacy that might be out of reach of his hands.

Toto was really a mischievous monkey and annoyance for every living soul in the house. Other animals in grandfather’s zoo were a Toto’s mercy during the night. So, grandfather decided to provide some relief to the other animals living in the zoo and thought of taking toto to shaharanpur. The ticket collector was performing his duty as there seems to be no rule regulation for fixing a monkey’s fare so he equated Toto with the dog and charged a similar.

Toto takes bath in a tub of warm water by putting legs in the water one by one and applies soap as well. As monkeys are good at replicating others, Toto has learnt the proper steps of bathing by watching the narrator. Toto is fond of bathing with the warm water by checking the temperature. Being an animal he is not much intelligent or enough to understand the risk of boiling water so he keeps popping his head up and down in the kettle. Toto kept on doing this until the grandmother sees him and pulled him out in the proper time.

Though Toto was pretty and clever, very mischievous and damaged the house by breaking the dishes, tearing all the clothes and curtains. He also scared away the visitors in the house by tearing their dresses. Furthermore, he didn’t get good along with the other animals in the house too. One day he crossed the line by picking up a dish of pulao and then climb up on a branch to eat it. When scolded, he threw off the pulao plate and broke it. That’s when grandfather decided that Toto was not the sort of pet to keep for long time and he had enough of the losses.