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diff --git a/old/ntrfk10.txt b/old/ntrfk10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fd35c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ntrfk10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,899 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Nature Faker, by R. H. Davis +#16 in our series by Richard Harding Davis + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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For three years she had tried to persuade him this +could not be, and finally, in order to convince him, married some +one else. When the woman he loves marries another man, the rejected +one is popularly supposed to take to drink or to foreign travel. +Statistics show that, instead, he instantly falls in love with the +best friend of the girl who refused him. But, as Herrick truly +loved Miss Catherweight, he could not worship any other woman, and +so he became a lover of nature. Nature, he assured his men friends, +does not disappoint you. The more thought, care, affection you give +to nature, the more she gives you in return, and while, so he +admitted, in wooing nature there are no great moments, there are no +heart-aches. Jackson, one of the men friends, and of a frivolous +disposition, said that he also could admire a landscape, but he +would rather look at the beautiful eyes of a girl he knew than at +the Lakes of Killarney, with a full moon, a setting sun, and the +aurora borealis for a background. Herrick suggested that, while the +beautiful eyes might seek those of another man, the Lakes of +Killarney would always remain where you could find them. Herrick +pursued his new love in Connecticut on an abandoned farm which he +converted into a "model" one. On it he established model dairies +and model incubators. He laid out old-fashioned gardens, sunken +gardens, Italian gardens, landscape gardens, and a game preserve. + +The game preserve was his own especial care and pleasure. It +consisted of two hundred acres of dense forest and hills and +ridges +of rock. It was filled with mysterious caves, deep chasms, tiny +gurgling streams, nestling springs, and wild laurel. It was +barricaded with fallen tree-trunks and moss- covered rocks that +had +never felt the foot of man since that foot had worn a moccasin. +Around the preserve was a high fence stout enough to keep +poachers +on the outside and to persuade the wild animals that inhabited it +to linger on the inside. These wild animals were squirrels, +rabbits, and raccoons. Every day, in sunshine or in rain, +entering +through a private gate, Herrick would explore this holy of +holies. +For such vermin as would destroy the gentler animals he carried a +gun. But it was turned only on those that preyed upon his +favorites. For hours he would climb through this wilderness, or, +seated on a rock, watch a bluebird building her nest or a +squirrel +laying in rations against the coming of the snow. In time he grew +to think he knew and understood the inhabitants of this wild +place +of which he was the overlord. He looked upon them not as his +tenants but as his guests. And when they fled from him in terror +to +caves and hollow tree-trunks, he wished he might call them back +and +explain he was their friend, that it was due to him they lived in +peace. He was glad they were happy. He was glad it was through +him +that, undisturbed, they could live the simple life. + +His fall came through ambition. Herrick himself attributed it to +his too great devotion to nature and nature's children. Jackson, +he +of the frivolous mind, attributed it to the fact that any man is +sure to come to grief who turns from the worship of God's noblest +handiwork, by which Jackson meant woman, to worship chipmunks and +Plymouth Rock hens. One night Jackson lured Herrick into New York +to a dinner and a music hall. He invited also one Kelly, a mutual +friend of a cynical and combative disposition. Jackson liked to +hear him and Herrick abuse each other, and always introduced +subjects he knew would cause each to lose his temper. + +But, on this night, Herrick needed no goading. He was in an +ungrateful mood. Accustomed to food fresh from the soil and the +farmyard, he sneered at hothouse asparagus, hothouse grapes, and +cold-storage quail. At the music hall he was even more difficult. +In front of him sat a stout lady who when she shook with laughter +shed patchouli and a man who smoked American cigarettes. At these +and the steam heat, the nostrils of Herrick, trained to the odor +of +balsam and the smoke of open wood fires, took offense. He refused +to be amused. The monologue artist, in whom Jackson found +delight, +caused Herrick only to groan; the knockabout comedians he hoped +would break their collar-bones; the lady who danced Salome, and +who +fascinated Kelly, Herrick prayed would catch pneumonia and die of +it. And when the drop rose upon the Countess Zichy's bears, his +dissatisfaction reached a climax. + +There were three bears--a large papa bear, a mamma bear, and the +baby bear. On the programme they were described as Bruno, Clara, +and Ikey. They were of a dusty brown, with long, curling noses +tipped with white, and fat, tan-colored bellies. When father +Bruno, +on his hind legs and bare feet, waddled down the stage, he +resembled a Hebrew gentleman in a brown bathing suit who had lost +his waist-line. As he tripped doubtfully forward, with mincing +steps, he continually and mournfully wagged his head. He seemed +to +be saying: "This water is much too cold for me." The mamma bear +was +dressed in a poke bonnet and white apron, and resembled the wolf +who frightened Little Red Riding-Hood, and Ikey, the baby bear, +wore rakishly over one eye the pointed cap of a clown. To those +who +knew their vaudeville, this was indisputable evidence that Ikey +would furnish the comic relief. Nor did Ikey disappoint them. He +was a wayward son. When his parents were laboriously engaged in a +boxing-match, or dancing to the "Merry Widow Waltz," or balancing +on step-ladders, Ikey, on all fours, would scamper to the +foot-lights and, leaning over, make a swift grab at the head of +the +first trombone. And when the Countess Zichy, apprised by the +shouts +of the audience of Ikey's misconduct, waved a toy whip, Ikey +would +gallop back to his pedestal and howl at her. To every one, except +Herrick and the first trombone, this playfulness on the part of +Ikey furnished great delight. + +The performances of the bears ended with Bruno and Clara dancing +heavily to the refrain of the "Merry Widow Waltz," while Ikey +pretended to conduct the music of the orchestra. On the final +call, +Madame Zichy threw to each of the animals a beer bottle filled +with +milk; and the gusto with which the savage-looking beasts uncorked +the bottles and drank from them greatly amused the audience. +Ikey, +standing on his hind legs, his head thrown back, with both paws +clasping the base of the bottle, shoved the neck far down his +throat, and then, hurling it from him, and cocking his clown's +hat +over his eyes, gave a masterful imitation of a very intoxicated +bear. + +"That," exclaimed Herrick hotly, "is a degrading spectacle. It +degrades the bear and degrades me and you." + +"No, it bores me," said Kelly. + +"If you understood nature," retorted Herrick, "and nature's +children, it would infuriate you." + +"I don't go to a music hall to get infuriated," said Kelly. + +"Trained dogs I don't mind," exclaimed Herrick. "Dogs are not +wild +animals. The things they're trained to do are of USE. They can +guard the house, or herd sheep. But a bear is a wild beast. +Always +will be a wild beast. You can't train him to be of use. It's +degrading to make him ride a bicycle. I hate it! If I'd known +there +were to be performing bears to-night, I wouldn't have come!" + +"And if I'd known you were to be here to-night, I wouldn't have +come!" said Kelly. "Where do we go to next?" + +They went next to a restaurant in a gayly decorated cellar. Into +this young men like themselves and beautiful ladies were so +anxious +to hurl themselves that to restrain them a rope was swung across +the entrance and page boys stood on guard. When a young man +became +too anxious to spend his money, the page boys pushed in his shirt +front. After they had fought their way to a table, Herrick +ungraciously remarked he would prefer to sup in a subway station. +The people, he pointed out, would be more human, the decorations +were much of the same Turkish-bath school of art, and the air was +no worse. + +"Cheer up, Clarence!" begged Jackson, "you'll soon be dead. +To-morrow you'll be back among your tree-toads and sunsets. And, +let us hope," he sighed, "no one will try to stop you!" + +"What worries me is this," explained Herrick. "I can't help +thinking that, if one night of this artificial life is so hard +upon +me, what must it be to those bears!" + +Kelly exclaimed, with exasperation: "Confound the bears!" he +cried. +"If you must spoil my supper weeping over animals, weep over +cart-horses. They work. Those bears are loafers. They're as well +fed as pet canaries. They're aristocrats." + +"But it's not a free life!" protested Herrick. "It's not the life +they love." + +"It's a darned sight better," declared Kelly, than sleeping in a +damp wood, eating raw blackberries----" + +"The more you say," retorted Herrick, "the more you show you know +nothing whatsoever of nature's children and their habits." + +"And all you know of them," returned Kelly, is that a cat has +nine +lives, and a barking dog won't bite. You're a nature faker." +Herrick refused to be diverted. + +"It hurt me," he said. "They were so big, and good-natured, and +helpless. I'll bet that woman beats them! I kept thinking of them +as they were in the woods, tramping over the clean pine needles, +eating nuts, and--and honey, and----" + +"Buns!" suggested Jackson. + +"I can't forget them," said Herrick. "It's going to haunt me, +to-morrow, when I'm back in the woods; I'll think of those poor +beasts capering in a hot theatre, when they ought to be out in +the +open as God meant they----" + +"Well, then," protested Kelly, "take 'em to the open. And turn +'em +loose! And I hope they bite YOU!" + +At this Herrick frowned so deeply that Kelly feared he had gone +too +far. Inwardly, he reproved himself for not remembering that his +friend lacked a sense of humor. But Herrick undeceived him. + +"You are right!" he exclaimed. "To-morrow I will buy those bears, +take them to the farm, and turn them loose!" + +No objections his friend could offer could divert him from his +purpose. When they urged that to spend so much money in such a +manner was criminally wasteful, he pointed out that he was +sufficiently rich to indulge any extravagant fancy, whether in +polo +ponies or bears; when they warned him that if he did not look out +the bears would catch him alone in the woods, and eat him, he +retorted that the bears were now educated to a different diet; +when +they said he should consider the peace of mind of his neighbors, +he +assured them the fence around his game preserve would restrain an +elephant. + +"Besides," protested Kelly, "what you propose to do is not only +impracticable, but it's cruelty to animals. A domesticated animal +can't return to a state of nature, and live." + +"Can't it?" jeered Herrick. "Did you ever read 'The Call of the +Wild'?" + +"Did you ever read," retorted Kelly, "what happened at the siege +of +Ladysmith when the oats ran low and they drove the artillery +horses +out to grass? They starved, that's all. And if you don't feed +your +bears on milk out of a bottle they'll starve too." + +"That's what will happen," cried Jackson; those bears have +forgotten what a pine forest smells like. Maybe it's a pity, but +it's the fact. I'll bet if you could ask them whether they'd +rather +sleep in a cave on your farm or be headliners in vaudeville, +they'd +tell you they were 'devoted to their art.'" + +"Why!" exclaimed Kelly, "they're so far from nature that if they +didn't have that colored boy to comb and brush them twice a day +they'd be ashamed to look each other in the eyes." + +"And another thing," continued Jackson, "trained animals love to +'show off.' They're children. Those bears ENJOY doing those +tricks. +They ENJOY the applause. They enjoy dancing to the 'Merry Widow +Waltz.' And if you lock them up in your jungle, they'll get so +homesick that they'll give a performance twice a day to the +squirrels and woodpeckers." + +"It's just as hard to unlearn a thing as to learn it," said Kelly +sententiously. "You can't make a man who has learned to wear +shoes +enjoy going around in his bare feet." + +"Rot!" cried Herrick. "Look at me. Didn't I love New York? I +loved +it so I never went to bed for fear I'd miss something. But when I +went 'Back to the Land,' did it take me long to fall in love with +the forests and the green fields? It took me a week. I go to bed +now the same day I get up, and I've passed on my high hat and +frock +coat to a scarecrow. And I'll bet you when those bears once scent +the wild woods they'll stampede for them like Croker going to a +third alarm." + +"And I repeat," cried Kelly, "you are a nature faker. And I'll +leave it to the bears to prove it." + +"We have done our best," sighed Jackson. "We have tried to save +him +money and trouble. And now all he can do for us in return is to +give us seats for the opening performance." + +What the bears cost Herrick he never told. But it was a very +large +sum. As the Countess Zichy pointed out, bears as bears, in a +state +of nature, are cheap. If it were just a bear he wanted, he +himself +could go to Pike County, Pennsylvania, and trap one. What he was +paying for, she explained, was the time she had spent in +educating +the Bruno family, and added to that the time during which she +must +now remain idle while she educated another family. + +Herrick knew for what he was paying. It was the pleasure of +rescuing unwilling slaves from bondage. As to their expensive +education, if they returned to a state of ignorance as rapidly as +did most college graduates he knew, he would be satisfied. Two +days +later, when her engagement at the music hall closed, Madame Zichy +reluctantly turned over her pets to their new manager. With Ikey +she was especially loath to part. + +"I'll never get one like him," she walled Ikey is the funniest +four-legged clown in America. He's a natural-born comedian. Folks +think I learn him those tricks, but it's all his own stuff. Only +last week we was playing Paoli's in Bridgeport, and when I was +putting Bruno through the hoops, Ikey runs to the stage-box and +grabs a pound of caramels out of a girl's lap-and swallows the +box. +And in St. Paul, if the trombone hadn't worn a wig, Ikey would +have +scalped him. Say, it was a scream! When the audience see the +trombone snatched bald-headed, and him trying to get back his +wig, +and Ikey chewing it, they went crazy. You can't learn a bear +tricks +like that. It's just genius. Some folks think I taught him to act +like he was intoxicated, but he picked that up, too, all by +himself, through watching my husband. And Ikey's very fond of +beer +on his own account. If I don't stop them, the stage hands would +be +always slipping him drinks. I hope you won't give him none." + +"I will not!" said Herrick. + +The bears, Ikey in one cage and Bruno and Clara in another, +travelled by express to the station nearest the Herrick estate. +There they were transferred to a farm wagon, and grumbling and +growling, and with Ikey howling like an unspanked child, they +were +conveyed to the game preserve. At the only gate that entered it, +Kelly and Jackson and a specially invited house party of youths +and +maidens were gathered to receive them. At a greater distance +stood +all of the servants and farm hands, and as the wagon backed +against +the gate, with the door of Ikey's cage opening against it, the +entire audience, with one accord, moved solidly to the rear. +Herrick, with a pleased but somewhat nervous smile, mounted the +wagon. But before he could unlock the cage Kelly demanded to be +heard. He insisted that, following the custom of all great +artists, +the bears should give a farewell performance." + +He begged that Bruno and Clara might be permitted to dance +together. He pointed out that this would be the last time they +could listen to the strains of the "Merry Widow Waltz." He called +upon everybody present to whistle it. + +The suggestion of an open-air performance was received coldly. At +the moment no one seemed able to pucker his lips into a whistle, +and some even explained that with that famous waltz they were +unfamiliar. + +One girl attained an instant popularity by pointing out that the +bears could waltz just as well on one side of the fence as the +other. Kelly, cheated of his free performance, then begged that +before Herrick condemned the bears to starve on acorns, he should +give them a farewell drink, and Herrick, who was slightly +rattled, +replied excitedly that he had not ransomed the animals only to +degrade them. The argument was interrupted by the French chef +falling out of a tree. He had climbed it, he explained, in order +to +obtain a better view. + +When, in turn, it was explained to him that a bear also could +climb +a tree, he remembered he had left his oven door open. His +departure +reminded other servants of duties they had neglected, and one of +the guests, also, on remembering he had put in a long-distance +call, hastened to the house. Jackson suggested that perhaps they +had better all return with him, as the presence of so many people +might frighten the bears. At the moment he spoke, Ikey emitted a +hideous howl, whether of joy or rage no one knew, and few +remained +to find out. It was not until Herrick had investigated and +reported +that Ikey was still behind the bars that the house party +cautiously +returned. The house party then filed a vigorous protest. Its +members, with Jackson as spokesman, complained that Herrick was +relying entirely too much on his supposition that the bears would +be anxious to enter the forest. Jackson pointed out that, should +they not care to do so, there was nothing to prevent them from +doubling back under the wagon; in which case the house party and +all of the United States lay before them. It was not until a +lawn-tennis net and much chicken wire was stretched in intricate +thicknesses across the lower half of the gate that Herrick was +allowed to proceed. Unassisted, he slid back the cage door, and +without a moment's hesitation Ikey leaped from the wagon through +the gate and into the preserve. For an instant, dazed by the +sudden +sunlight, he remained motionless, and then, after sniffing +delightedly at the air, stuck his nose deep into the autumn +leaves. +Turning on his back, he luxuriously and joyfully kicked his legs, +and rolled from side to side. + +Herrick gave a shout of joy and triumph. "What did I tell you!" +he +called. "See how he loves it! See how happy he is." + +"Not at all," protested Kelly. "He thought you gave him the sign +to +'roll over.' Tell him to 'play dead,' and he'll do that." " Tell +ALL the bears to 'play dead,'" begged Jackson, "until I'm back in +the billiard-room." + +Flushed with happiness, Herrick tossed Ikey's cage out of the +wagon, and opened the door of the one that held Bruno and Clara. +On +their part, there was a moment of doubt. As though suspecting a +trap, they moved to the edge of the cage, and gazed critically at +the screen of trees and tangled vines that rose before them. + +"They think it's a new backdrop," explained Kelly. + +But the delight with which Ikey was enjoying his bath in the +autumn +leaves was not lost upon his parents. Slowly and clumsily they +dropped to the ground. As though they expected to be recalled, +each +turned to look at the group of people who had now run to peer +through the wire meshes of the fence. But, as no one spoke and no +one signalled, the three bears, in single file, started toward +the +edge of the forest. They had of cleared space to cover only a +little distance, and at each step, as though fearful they would +be +stopped and punished, one or the other turned his head. But no +one +halted them. With quickening footsteps the bears, now almost at a +gallop, plunged forward. The next instant they were lost to +sight, +and only the crackling of the underbrush told that they had come +into their own. + +Herrick dropped to the ground and locked himself inside the +preserve. + +"I'm going after them," he called, "to see what they'll do." + +There was a frantic chorus of entreaties. + +"Don't be an ass!" begged Jackson. "They'll eat you." Herrick +waved +his hand reassuringly. + +"They won't even see me," he explained. "I can find my way about +this place better than they can. And I'll keep to windward of +them, +and watch them. Go to the house," he commanded. "I'll be with you +in an hour, and report." + +It was with real relief that, on assembling for dinner, the house +party found Herrick, in high spirits, with the usual number of +limbs, and awaiting them. The experiment had proved a great +success. He told how, unheeded by the bears, he had, without +difficulty, followed in their tracks. For an hour he had watched +them. No happy school-children, let loose at recess, could have +embraced their freedom with more obvious delight. They drank from +the running streams, for honey they explored the hollow +tree-trunks, they sharpened their claws on moss-grown rocks, and +among the fallen oak leaves scratched violently for acorns. So +satisfied was Herrick with what he had seen, with the success of +his experiment, and so genuine and unselfish was he in the +thought +of the happiness he had brought to the beasts of the forests, +that +for him no dinner ever passed more pleasantly. Miss Waring, who +sat +next to her host, thought she had seldom met a man with so kind +and +simple a nature. She rather resented the fact, and she was +inwardly +indignant that so much right feeling and affection could be +wasted +on farmyard fowls, and four-footed animals. She felt sure that +some +nice girl, seated at the other end of the table, smiling through +the light of the wax candles upon Herrick, would soon make him +forget his love of "Nature and Nature's children." She even saw +herself there, and this may have made her exhibit more interest +in +Herrick's experiment than she really felt. In any event, Herrick +found her most sympathetic' and when dinner was over carried her +off to a corner of the terrace. It was a warm night in early +October, and the great woods of the game preserve that stretched +below them were lit with a full moon. + +On his way to the lake for a moonlight row with one of the house +party who belonged to that sex that does not row, but looks well +in +the moon-light, Kelly halted, and jeered mockingly. + +"How can you sit there," he demanded, "while those poor beasts +are +freezing in a cave, with not even a silk coverlet or a +pillow-sham. +You and your valet ought to be down there now carrying them +pajamas." + +"Kelly," declared Herrick, unruffled in his moment of triumph, "I +hate to say, 'I told you so,' but you force me. Go away," he +commanded. "You have neither imagination nor soul." + +"And that's true," he assured Miss Waring, as Kelly and his +companion left them. "Now, I see nothing in what I accomplished +that is ridiculous. Had you watched those bears as I did, you +would +have felt that sympathy that exists between all who love the +out-of-door life. A dog loves to see his master pick up his stick +and his hat to take him for a walk, and the man enjoys seeing the +dog leaping and quartering the fields before him. They are both +the +happier. At least I am happier to-night, knowing those bears are +at +peace and at home, than I would be if I thought of them being +whipped through their tricks in a dirty theatre." Herrick pointed +to the great forest trees of the preserve, their tops showing +dimly +in the mist of moonlight. "Somewhere, down in that valley, he +murmured, "are three happy animals. They are no longer slaves and +puppets--they are their own masters. For the rest of their lives +they can sleep on pine needles and dine on nuts and honey. No one +shall molest them, no one shall force them through degrading +tricks. Hereafter they can choose their life, and their own home +among the rocks, and the ----" Herrick's words were frozen on his +tongue. From the other end of the terrace came a scream so +fierce, +so long, so full of human suffering, that at the sound the blood +of +all that heard it turned to water. It was so appalling that for +an +instant no one moved, and then from every part of the house, +along +the garden walks, from the servants' quarters, came the sound of +pounding feet. Herrick, with Miss Waring clutching at his sleeve, +raced toward the other end of the terrace. They had not far to +go. +Directly in front of them they saw what had dragged from the very +soul of the woman the scream of terror. + +The drawing-room opened upon the terrace, and, seated at the +piano, +Jackson had been playing for those in the room to dance. The +windows to the terrace were open. The terrace itself was flooded +with moonlight. Seeking the fresh air, one of the dancers stepped +from the drawing-room to the flags outside. She had then raised +the +cry of terror and fallen in a faint. What she had seen, Herrick a +moment later also saw. On the terrace in the moon-light, Bruno +and +Clara, on their hind legs, were solemnly waltzing. Neither the +scream nor the cessation of the music disturbed them. +Contentedly, +proudly, they continued to revolve in hops and leaps. From their +happy expression, it was evident they not only were enjoying +themselves, but that they felt they were greatly affording +immeasurable delight to others. Sick at heart, furious, bitterly +hurt, with roars of mocking laughter in his ears, Herrick ran +toward the stables for help. At the farther end of the terrace +the +butler had placed a tray of liqueurs, whiskeys, and soda bottles. +His back had been turned for only a few moments, but the time had +sufficed. + +Lolling with his legs out, stretched in a wicker chair, Herrick +beheld the form of Ikey. Between his uplifted paws he held aloof +the base of a decanter; between his teeth, and well jammed down +his +throat, was the long neck of the bottle. From it issued the sound +of gentle gurgling. Herrick seized the decanter and hurled it +crashing upon the terrace. With difficulty Ikey rose. Swaying and +shaking his head reproachfully, he gave Herrick a perfectly +accurate imitation of an intoxicated bear. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Nature Faker, by R. H. Davis + diff --git a/old/ntrfk10.zip b/old/ntrfk10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee908d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ntrfk10.zip |