Dialogue

Nora: Good afternoon, Mrs. Wood. You are looking pleased. Have you found out who took your missing spoons?

Mrs. Wood: Yes, it's really very funny, I must tell you. Of course, I've been awfully nervous since yesterday, my husband being away and there being nobody else in the house. And then coming back from shipping this afternoon I found the back gate open and suspicious noises coming from the house!

Nora: Goodness!

Mrs. Wood: Thinking that if I went for help the fellow would get away, I decided to catch him myself.

Nora: How very brave of you!

Mrs. Wood: And then, looking in through the kitchen window what should I see but —

Nora: A man?

Mrs. Wood: No — a monkey!

Nora: A monkey?

Mrs. Wood: Yes, a monkey, sitting on my kitchen table, and taking all my knives and forks out of the table drawer.

Nora: Wherever had it come from?

Mrs. Wood: I just couldn't think at first. And then I suddenly remembered that the house at the end of the road has just been taken over by an old sailor who has all sorts of strange pets.

Nora: I know — Mr. Benbow. So the monkey sitting on the table was his. What extraordinary creature — taking your spoons one day and coming back for your knives and forks the next! Did you manage to catch him?

Mrs. Wood: I couldn't catch him myself, but I fetched Mr. Benbow and he soon did it.

Nora: And did you discover what the monkey had done with your spoons?

Mrs. Wood: Yes, we found them hidden at the end of our own garden!

Nora: How very funny! With the police hunting everywhere for a criminal too. Still, «All's well that ends well!»

Meet the Parkers