Read Online The Mystery at Monkey House by David A. Adler - Free Book Online Page A

and resting.
    As they walked past the seals, Billy said, “Did you know that baby seals can’t swim? And do you know how seals keep warm? Their bodies are covered with lots of blubber. Blubber is fat.”
    “That’s very interesting,” Eric told Billy.

    “I know that because I read lots of books about animals. I don’t say ‘Click,’ but I have a good memory. I remember what I read.”
    The monkey house was a large brick building. Outside the building, along both sides, were cages. Part of each cage was outside the monkey house and part was inside. Cam, Eric, and Billy walked into the building.
    The monkey house smelled. And it was noisy.
    Cam sat on a bench in the middle of the house and looked from one cage to the next. Billy read the signs describing the different kinds of monkeys. Eric stood close to one of the cages and looked in.
    Eric looked at the monkeys in the first cage. He stood with his hands behind his back. Cam noticed that a very small monkey was watching Eric. And the monkey was standing with his hands behind his back, too.
    A monkey jumped onto a swing. Eric turned to look at it. The monkey watching Eric turned, too.
    Eric watched the monkey swing. Then he walked to the next cage. When Eric walked, so did the very small monkey.
    “Hey, Eric,” Cam called. “You have a friend in that cage.”
    “What?”
    Cam got off the bench. She pointed to the very small monkey and said, “That monkey is copying everything you do.”
    Eric looked at the monkey. The monkey looked at Eric. Eric reached up and put his hands on his head. The monkey reached up, too. He put his hands on his head and smiled.
    “Billy, come here,” Cam whispered. “You have to see this.”
    Cam and Billy watched as Eric jumped. The monkey jumped, too.
    Eric put his hands in his pockets, lifted one foot, and hopped. The monkey didn’t have pockets. But he put his hands at his sides, lifted a foot, and hopped many times in a big circle around the cage. Then the monkey sat on the floor of the cage, on top of a banana peel. The monkey rubbed his stomach and made a funny, laughing sound.
    “Your monkey hops better than you do,” Billy said.
    “Do something else,” Cam told Eric.
    Eric scratched his nose. The monkey scratched his nose. Eric clapped his hands and jumped. The monkey did that, too.
    “Now, I’ll do something the monkey can’t do,” Eric said.
    Eric held his hands over his head. He leaned forward, took a little jump, and stood on his hands. Eric walked like that, upside down. Then he fell to the floor.
    Eric looked up at the monkey cage. The very small monkey looked at Eric and smiled. Then the monkey stood on his hands and ran around the cage. Using his tail, he pulled himself onto a swing and made that funny, laughing sound again.
    Eric began to laugh. Cam and Billy laughed, too.
    “That monkey walks on his hands better than you do,” Cam said. “He hops and scratches his nose better, too. But I’ll bet you’re better at spelling and long division.”
    “I’m not so sure,” Billy said. “Some monkeys are very smart.”

    Cam put her arm around Eric’s shoulder. As they walked out of the monkey house, Cam said, “Well, no monkey is as smart as my friend Eric.”
    Billy followed Cam and Eric out of the monkey house. There was a small crowd near the seal pool. Cam, Eric, and Billy went there to see what was happening.
    It was feeding time for the seals. A woman was standing at the edge of the pool holding a bucket filled with small fish. The woman threw the fish to the seals. The seals caught some of the fish with their mouths. The other fish landed in the pool, and the seals swam to get them.
    A baby seal was sitting on a large rock. It tried to reach the fish that landed nearby. But one of the bigger seals always got there first.
    “Oh, give the baby something to eat,” a man in the crowd called out.
    The woman threw some fish to the other side of the pool. The big seals all swam after them. Then the