At this point in the book, Fritz and his father are walking home from their journey on the island and they discover a group of apes only because their dog Turk has rushed forth and driven by hunger was tearing one apart leaving it's little baby to fend for itself. Well, as soon as it sees Fritz, it jumps on him and won't let go. It is now adopted. This chapter, I think, is a little bit about how Fritz gets a taste for raising a young child.
When Fritz asks his father if he can keep the baby ape this was his reponse: pg 31 "Well, let the little orphan be yours, you bravely and kindly exerted yourself to save the mothers life. Now you must train her child carefully, for unless you do so, it's natural instinct will prove mischievous instead of useful."
I love this part. Eventually the dog comes back from eating the apes mother, and the little ape is uneasy when Turk is close by. Fritz then has this amazing Fatherly instinct to train this little one not to be afraid of the dog, so what does he do? He ties the monkey to the dogs back with some rope, fastens the rope like a leash and hands it to the ape to overcome it's fear of the dog. Now the dog must listen to the one who's mother he just killed. Isn't this something. Fritz being the father of the monkey now, realized the two of them are going to have to get along so what does he do? Forces them to unit in the most radical way. The monkey and the dog were trained within 10 mins of having to be attached to one another and now were in no need of being fastened to each other. They were now companions. This boy himself has been trained well by his father. To know "Well, if they won't get along, we will have to teach them how and then all will be fine" is pretty cool, instead of just letting them hate each other for who knows how long.
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