At least, that was what the Major supposed. And with something a good
deal like a chuckle he ate the dainty greedily. It was the first bit
of sugar he had tasted since he came to Pleasant Valley. And Major
Monkey was very fond of sweets.

Johnnie Green, or his father, or the hired man seemed all at once to
grow terribly careless with maple sugar. The Major hardly ever visited
the henhouse without finding a lump somewhere. And if his liking for
eggs hadn't brought him thither daily, his taste for sugar would have
been enough to make him continue his visits.

At last there came a day when Major Monkey discovered a thick pitcher
on the henhouse floor. A chain was looped through its handle and
nailed to the wall.

The Major grinned when he saw the chain.

"They don't want this pitcher to run away," he said to himself.

Being of a most curious turn of mind, he looked into the pitcher. And
then he promptly thrust in a hand.

There was a good-sized lump of sugar inside. And Major Monkey's
fingers closed upon it greedily.

His queer face wrinkled with annoyance when he found that he could not
withdraw his hand. Empty, it could easily have slipped through the
mouth of the pitcher. But with the sugar clutched in it, his hand
stuck fast.