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Extracts from Adam's Diary · The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain

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Speaker 1: Section thirty one of The Thirty Thousand Dollars Bequest and
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Speaker 1: Other Stories. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Richard Kilmer. The
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Speaker 1: thirty Thousand Dollars Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain.
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Speaker 1: Section thirty one extracts from Adam's diary Monday. This new
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Speaker 1: creature with the long hair is a good deal in
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Speaker 1: the way it is always hanging around and following me about.
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Speaker 1: I don't like this. I am not used to company.
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Speaker 1: I wish it would stay with the other animals. Cloudy today,
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Speaker 1: wind in the east think we shall have rain. We
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Speaker 1: Where did I get that word? The new creature uses
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Speaker 1: it Tuesday, then examine, I mean the great waterfall. It
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Speaker 1: is the finest thing on the estate. I think. The
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Speaker 1: new creature calls it Niagara Falls. Why I am sure,
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Speaker 1: I do not know. Says it looks like Niagara Falls.
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Speaker 1: That is not a reason. It is mere waywardness and imbecility.
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Speaker 1: I get no chance to name anything myself. The new
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Speaker 1: creature names everything that comes along. Before I can get
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Speaker 1: in a protest, and always the same pretext is offered.
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Speaker 1: It looks like the thing. There is a Dodo, for instance,
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Speaker 1: says the moment one looks at it, one sees at
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Speaker 1: a glance that it looks like a Dodo. It will
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Speaker 1: have to keep that name, no doubt. It worries me
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Speaker 1: to fret about it, and it does no good anyway. Dodo,
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Speaker 1: it looks no more like a Dodo than I do.
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Speaker 1: Wednesday built me a shelter against the rain, but could
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Speaker 1: not have it to myself in peace. The new creature
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Speaker 1: intruded when I tried to put it out. It shed
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Speaker 1: water out of the holes it looks with, and wiped
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Speaker 1: it away with the back of its paws, and made
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Speaker 1: a noise such as some of the animals make when
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Speaker 1: they are in distress. I wish it would not talk.
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Speaker 1: It is always talking. That sounds like a cheap fling
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Speaker 1: at the poor creature, a slur. But I do not
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Speaker 1: mean it to be so. I have never heard the
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Speaker 1: human voice before, and any new and strange sound intruding
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Speaker 1: itself here upon the solemn hush of these dreaming solitudes
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Speaker 1: offends my ear and seems a false note. And this
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Speaker 1: new sound is so close to me. It is right
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Speaker 1: at my shoulder, right at my ear, first on one
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Speaker 1: side and then on the other. And I am used
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Speaker 1: only to the sounds that are more or less distant
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Speaker 1: from me. Friday, the naming goes recklessly on in spite
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Speaker 1: of anything I can do. I had a very good
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Speaker 1: name for the estate, and it was musical and pretty
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Speaker 1: Garden of Eden. Privately I continue to call it that,
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Speaker 1: but not any longer. Publicly, the new creature says it
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Speaker 1: is all woods and rocks and scenery, and therefore has
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Speaker 1: no resemblance to a garden. Says it looks like a park,
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Speaker 1: and does not look like anything but a park. Consequently,
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Speaker 1: without consulting me, it has been new named Niagara Falls Park.
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Speaker 1: This is sufficiently high handed, it seems to me. And
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Speaker 1: already there is a sign up keep off the grass.
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Speaker 1: My life is not as happy as it was Saturday.
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Speaker 1: The new creature eats too much fruit. We are going
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Speaker 1: to run short, most likely we again. That is its
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Speaker 1: word mine too now from hearing it so much good
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Speaker 1: deal of fog this morning. I do not go out
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Speaker 1: in the fog myself. This new creature does. It goes
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Speaker 1: out in all weathers and stumps right in with its
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Speaker 1: muddy feet and talks. It used to be so pleasant
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Speaker 1: and quiet here Sunday pulled through. This day is getting
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Speaker 1: to be more and more trying. It was selected and
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Speaker 1: set apart last November as a day of rest. I
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Speaker 1: had already six of them per week before this morning
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Speaker 1: found the new creature trying to clot apples out of
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Speaker 1: that forbidden tree. Monday. The new creature says its name
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Speaker 1: is Eve. That is all right, I have no objections.
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Speaker 1: Says it is to call it by when I want
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Speaker 1: it to come. I said it was superfluous. Then the
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Speaker 1: word evidently raised me in its respect. And indeed it
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Speaker 1: is a large good word and will bear repetition. It
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Speaker 1: says it is not an it, It is a she.
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Speaker 1: This is probably down, yet it is all one to me.
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Speaker 1: What she is were nothing to me. If she would
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Speaker 1: but go by herself and not talk. Tuesday. She has
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Speaker 1: littered the whole estate with excretable names and offensive signs.
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Speaker 1: This way to the whirlpool, This way to goat Island,
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Speaker 1: cave of the winds, this way, she says. This park
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Speaker 1: would make a tidy summer resort if there were any
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Speaker 1: custom for it. Summer resort another invention of hers, just
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Speaker 1: words without any meaning. What is a summer resort? But
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Speaker 1: it is best not ask her. She has such a
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Speaker 1: rage for explaining. Friday, she has taken to beseeching me
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Speaker 1: to stop going over the falls. What harm does it do? Says?
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Speaker 1: It makes her shudder. I wonder why I have always
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Speaker 1: done it, always like the plunge and coolness. I suppose
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Speaker 1: it was what the fall? We four? They have no
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Speaker 1: other use than I can see. They must have been
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Speaker 1: made for something, she says, they were only made for scenery,
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Speaker 1: like the rhinostros and the mastodon. I went over the
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Speaker 1: falls in a barrel, not satisfactory to her, went over
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Speaker 1: in a tub, still not satisfactory. Swam the whirlpool in
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Speaker 1: the rapids in a fig leaf suit. It got much damaged,
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Speaker 1: hence tedious complaints about my extravagance. I am too much
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Speaker 1: hampered here. What I need is a change of scene. Saturday.
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Speaker 1: I escaped last Tuesday night and traveled two days, and
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Speaker 1: built me another shelter in a secluded place, and obliterated
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Speaker 1: my tracks as well as I could. But she hunted
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Speaker 1: me out by means of a beast, which she has
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Speaker 1: tamed and calls a wolf, and came, making that pitiful
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Speaker 1: noise again and shedding that water out of the places
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Speaker 1: she looks with, I was obliged to return with her,
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Speaker 1: but will presently emigrate again when occasion offers. She engages
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Speaker 1: herself in many foolish things, among others, to study out
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Speaker 1: why the animals called lions and tigers live on grass
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Speaker 1: and flowers, when, as she says, the sort of teeth
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Speaker 1: they wear would indicate that they were intended to eat
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Speaker 1: each other. This is foolish because to do that would
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Speaker 1: be to kill each other, and that would introduce what,
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Speaker 1: as I understand, is called death, and death, as I
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Speaker 1: have been told, has not yet entered the park, which
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Speaker 1: is a pity on some accounts. Sunday pulled through Monday.
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Speaker 1: I believe I see what the week is for. It
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Speaker 1: is to give time to rest up from the weariness
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Speaker 1: of Sunday. It seems a good idea. She has been
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Speaker 1: climbing that tree again. Plotted her out of it, she said,
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Speaker 1: nobody was looking. Seems to consider that a sufficient justification
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Speaker 1: for any dangerous thing. Told her that the word justification
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Speaker 1: moved her admiration and envy too. I thought it is
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Speaker 1: a good word. Tuesday she told me she was made
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Speaker 1: out of a rib taken from my body. This is
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Speaker 1: at least doubtful, if not more than that. I have
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Speaker 1: not missed any rib. She has much trouble about the buzzard,
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Speaker 1: says grass does not agree with it, is afraid she
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Speaker 1: can't raise it. Thinks it was intended to live on
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Speaker 1: decayed flesh. The buzzard must get along the best it
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Speaker 1: can with what is provided. We cannot overturn the whole
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Speaker 1: scheme to accommodate the buzzard. Saturday. She fell in the
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Speaker 1: pond yesterday when she was looking at herself in it,
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Speaker 1: what she is always doing. She nearly strangled and said
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Speaker 1: it was most uncomfortable. This made her sorry for the
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Speaker 1: creatures which live in there, which she calls fish. For
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Speaker 1: she continues to fasten name onto things that don't need
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Speaker 1: them and don't come when they are called by them,
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Speaker 1: which is a matter of no consequence to her. She
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Speaker 1: is such a numbskull anyway. So she got a lot
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Speaker 1: of them out and brought them in last night and
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Speaker 1: put them in my bed to keep warm. But I
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Speaker 1: have noticed them now and then all day, and I
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Speaker 1: don't see that they are any happier there than they
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Speaker 1: were before, only quieter. When night comes, I shall throw
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Speaker 1: them outdoors. I will not sleep with them again, for
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Speaker 1: I find them clammy and unpleasant to lie among. When
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Speaker 1: a person hasn't anything on Sunday pulled through Tuesday, she
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Speaker 1: has taken up with a snake. Now the other animals
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Speaker 1: are glad, for she was always experimenting with them and
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Speaker 1: bothering them. And I am glad because the snake talks,
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Speaker 1: and this enables me to get a rest Friday, she says.
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Speaker 1: The snake advises her to try the fruit of the tree,
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Speaker 1: and says the result will be a great and fine
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Speaker 1: and noble education. I told her there would be another
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Speaker 1: result too, It would introduce death into the world. That
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Speaker 1: was a mistake. It had been better to keep the
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Speaker 1: remark to myself. It only gave her an idea. She
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Speaker 1: could save the sick buzzard and furnish meat to the
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Speaker 1: despondent lions and tigers. I advised her to keep away
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Speaker 1: from the tree. She said she wouldn't. I foresee trouble
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Speaker 1: will emigrate Wednesday. I have had a variegated time. I
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Speaker 1: escaped last night and rode a horse all night as
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Speaker 1: fast as he could go, hoping to get clear of
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Speaker 1: the park and hide in some other country before the
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Speaker 1: trouble should begin. But it was not to be. About
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Speaker 1: an hour after sop As, I was riding through a
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Speaker 1: flowery plain where thousands of animals were grazing, slumbering, or
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Speaker 1: playing with each other according to their wont All of
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Speaker 1: a sudden they broke into a tempest of frightful noises,
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Speaker 1: and in one moment the plain was a frantic commotion,
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Speaker 1: and every beast was destroying its neighbor. I knew what
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Speaker 1: it meant. Eve had eaten that fruit, and death was
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Speaker 1: come into the world. The tigers ate my house, paying
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Speaker 1: no attention when I ordered them to desist, and they
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Speaker 1: would have eaten me if I had stayed, which I didn't,
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Speaker 1: but went away in much haste. I found this place
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Speaker 1: outside the park and was fairly comfortable for a few days.
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Speaker 1: But she has found me, found me out, and has
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Speaker 1: named the place Towandah says it looks like that. In fact,
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Speaker 1: I was not sorry. She came for there are but
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Speaker 1: meager pickings here, and she brought some of those apples.
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Speaker 1: I was obliged to eat them. I was so hungry
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Speaker 1: it was against my principles. But I find that principles
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Speaker 1: have no real force except when one is well fed.
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Speaker 1: She came curtained in boughs and bunches of leaves, and
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Speaker 1: when I asked her what she meant by such nonsense,
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Speaker 1: and snatched them away and threw them down, she tittered
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Speaker 1: and blushed. I had never seen a person titter and
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Speaker 1: blushed before, and to me it seemed unbecoming and idiotic.
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Speaker 1: She said, I would soon know how it was myself.
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Speaker 1: This was correct. Hungry as I was, I laid down
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Speaker 1: the apple, half eaten, certainly the best one I ever saw,
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Speaker 1: considering the lateness of the season, and arrayed myself in
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Speaker 1: the discarded boughs and branches, and then spoke to her
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Speaker 1: with some severity, and ordered her to go and get
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Speaker 1: some more and not make a spectacle of herself. She
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Speaker 1: did it, and after this we crept down to where
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Speaker 1: the wild beast battle had been and collected some skins,
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Speaker 1: and I made her patch together a couple of suits
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Speaker 1: proper for public occasions. They are uncomfortable, it is true,
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Speaker 1: but stylish, and that is the main point about clothes.
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Speaker 1: I find. She is a good deal of a companion.
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Speaker 1: I see, I should be lonesome and depressed without her,
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Speaker 1: now that I have lost my property. Another thing, she says,
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Speaker 1: it is ordered that we work for our living hereafter
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Speaker 1: she will be useful, I will superintend. Ten days later,
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Speaker 1: she accuses me of being the cause of our disaster.
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Speaker 1: She says, with apparent sincerity and truth, that the serpent
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Speaker 1: assured her that the forbidden fruit was not apples, it
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Speaker 1: was chestnuts. I said, I was innocent, then, for I
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Speaker 1: had not eaten any chestnuts. She said, the serpent informed
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Speaker 1: her that chestnut was a figurative term, meaning an aged
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Speaker 1: and moldy joke. I turned pale at that, for I
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Speaker 1: have made many jokes to pass the weary time, and
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Speaker 1: some of them could have been of that sort, though
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Speaker 1: I had honestly supposed that they were new when I
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Speaker 1: made them. She asked me if I had made one
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Speaker 1: just at the time of the catastrophe. I was obliged
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Speaker 1: to admit that I had made one to myself, though
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Speaker 1: not out loud. It was this. I was thinking about
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Speaker 1: the falls, and I said to myself, how wonderful it
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Speaker 1: is to see that vast body of water tumble down
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Speaker 1: there then in an instant, a bright thought flashed into
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Speaker 1: my head, and I let it fly, saying it would
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Speaker 1: be a deal more wonderful to see it tumble up there.
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Speaker 1: And I was just about to kill myself with laughing
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Speaker 1: at it, when all nature broke loose in war and death,
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Speaker 1: and I had the flea from my life there, She said,
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Speaker 1: with triumph, that is just it. The serpent mentioned that
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Speaker 1: very jest and called it the first chestnut, and said
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Speaker 1: it was coeval with the creation alas I am indeed
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Speaker 1: to blame, would that I were not witty, Oh, that
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Speaker 1: I had never had that radiant thought. Next year we
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Speaker 1: have named it Caine. She caught it while I was
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Speaker 1: up country trapping on the north shore of the Erie.
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Speaker 1: Caught it in the timber a couple of miles from
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Speaker 1: our dugout, or it might have been four. She isn't
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Speaker 1: certain which. It resembles us in some ways, and may
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Speaker 1: be a relation. That is what she thinks, But this
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Speaker 1: is an error in my judgment. The difference in size
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Speaker 1: warrants the conclusion that it is a different and a
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Speaker 1: new kind of animal, a fish perhaps, Though when I
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Speaker 1: put it in the water to sea, it sank, and
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Speaker 1: she plunged in and snatched it out before there was
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Speaker 1: an opportunity for the experiment to determine the matter. I
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Speaker 1: still think it is a fish, but she is indifferent
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Speaker 1: about what it is and will not let me have
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Speaker 1: it to try. I do not understand this. The coming
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Speaker 1: of the creature seems to have changed her whole nature
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Speaker 1: and made her unreasonable about experiments. She thinks more of
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Speaker 1: it than she does of any of the other animals,
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Speaker 1: but is not able to explain why her mind is disordered.
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Speaker 1: Everything shows it. Sometimes she carries the fish in her
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Speaker 1: arms half the night when it complains and wants to
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Speaker 1: get to the water. At such times, the water comes
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Speaker 1: out of the places in her face that she looks
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Speaker 1: out of, and she pats the fish on the back
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Speaker 1: and makes soft sounds with her mouth to soothe it,
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Speaker 1: and betrays sorrow and solicitude in a hundred ways. I
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Speaker 1: have never seen her do like this with any other fish,
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Speaker 1: and it troubles me greatly. She used to carry the
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Speaker 1: young tigers around so and play with them before we
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Speaker 1: lost our property, but it was only play. She never
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Speaker 1: took on about them like this when their dinner disagreed
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Speaker 1: with them Sunday. She doesn't work Sundays, but lies around
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Speaker 1: all tired out and likes to have the fish wallow
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Speaker 1: over her. And she makes full noises to amuse it,
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Speaker 1: and pretends to chew its paws, and that makes it laugh.
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Speaker 1: I have not seen a fish before that could laugh.
16:59
Speaker 1: This makes me doubt. I have come to like Sunday myself.
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Speaker 1: Superintending all week tires a body, so there ought to
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Speaker 1: be more Sundays. In the old days they were tough,
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Speaker 1: but now they come handy Wednesday. It isn't a fish.
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Speaker 1: I cannot quite make out what it is. It makes curious,
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Speaker 1: devilish noises when not satisfied, and says google when it is.
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Speaker 1: It is not one of us, for it doesn't walk.
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Speaker 1: It is not a bird, for it doesn't fly. It
17:31
Speaker 1: is not a frog, for it doesn't hop. It is
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Speaker 1: not a snake, for it doesn't crawl. I feel sure
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Speaker 1: it is not a fish, though I cannot get a
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Speaker 1: chance to find out whether it can swim or not.
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Speaker 1: It merely lies around and mostly on its back, with
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Speaker 1: its feet up. I have not seen any other animal
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Speaker 1: do that before. I said I believed it was an enigma,
17:55
Speaker 1: but she only admired the word without understanding it. In
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Speaker 1: my judgment it is it's either an enigma or some
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Speaker 1: kind of bug. If it dies, I will take it
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Speaker 1: apart and see what its arrangements are. I never had
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Speaker 1: a thing perplex me, so three months later the perplexity
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Speaker 1: augments instead of diminishing. I sleep but little. It has
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Speaker 1: ceased from lying around and goes about on its four
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Speaker 1: legs now. Yet it differs from the other four legged
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Speaker 1: animals in that its front legs are unusually short. Consequently,
18:30
Speaker 1: this causes the main part of its person to stick
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Speaker 1: up uncomfortably high in the air, and that is not attractive.
18:38
Speaker 1: It is built much as we are, but its method
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Speaker 1: of traveling shows that it is not of our breed.
18:44
Speaker 1: The short front legs and long hind ones indicate that
18:48
Speaker 1: it is of the kangaroo family, but it is a
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Speaker 1: marked variation of that species, since the true kangaroo hops,
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Speaker 1: whereas this one never does. Still, it is a curious
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Speaker 1: and interesting variety and has not been cataloged before. As
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Speaker 1: I discovered it, I have felt justified in securing the
19:08
Speaker 1: credit of the discovery by attaching my name to it,
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Speaker 1: and hence half called it kangaroom adonemus. It must have
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Speaker 1: been a young one when it came, for it has
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Speaker 1: grown exceedingly, since it must be five times as big
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Speaker 1: now as it was then, and when discontented, it is
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Speaker 1: able to make from twenty two to thirty eight times
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Speaker 1: the noise it made at first. Coercion does not modify this,
19:35
Speaker 1: but has the contrary effect. For this reason I discontinued
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Speaker 1: the system. She reconciles it by persuasion and by giving
19:44
Speaker 1: it things which she has previously told me she wouldn't
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Speaker 1: give it. As already observed, I was not at home
19:50
Speaker 1: when it first came, and she told me she found
19:53
Speaker 1: it in the woods. It seems odd that it should
19:56
Speaker 1: be the only one. Yet it must be so, for
20:00
Speaker 1: I have warned myself out these many weeks, trying to
20:02
Speaker 1: find another one to add to my collection and for
20:05
Speaker 1: this to play with, for surely then it would be
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Speaker 1: quieter and we could tame it more easily. But I
20:12
Speaker 1: find none, nor any vestige of any and strangest of all,
20:16
Speaker 1: no tracks. It has to live on the ground. It
20:20
Speaker 1: cannot help itself. Therefore, how does it get about without
20:24
Speaker 1: leaving a track? I have set a dozen traps, but
20:27
Speaker 1: they do no good. I catch all small animals except
20:31
Speaker 1: that one. Animals that merely go into the trap out
20:34
Speaker 1: of curiosity, I think to see what the milk is there,
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Speaker 1: for they never drink it. Three months later, the kangaroo
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Speaker 1: still continues to grow, which is very strange and perplexing.
20:45
Speaker 1: I never knew one to be so long getting its growth.
20:49
Speaker 1: It is fur on its head now, not like kangaroo fur,
20:53
Speaker 1: but exactly like our hair, except that it is much
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Speaker 1: finer and softer, and instead of being black, is red.
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Speaker 1: I am like to lose my mind over the caprecious
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Speaker 1: and harassing developments of this unclassified zoological freak if I
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Speaker 1: could catch another one, but that is hopeless. It is
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Speaker 1: a new variety and the only sample this is plain.
21:15
Speaker 1: But I caught a true kangaroo and brought it in,
21:18
Speaker 1: thinking that this one, being lonesome, would rather have that
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Speaker 1: for company than have no kin at all, or any
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Speaker 1: animal it could feel a nearness to, or to get
21:27
Speaker 1: sympathy from, in its forelong condition here among strangers who
21:32
Speaker 1: do not know its ways or habits, or what to
21:35
Speaker 1: do to make it feel that it is among friends.
21:38
Speaker 1: But it was a mistake. It went into such fits
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Speaker 1: at the sight of the kangaroo that I was convinced
21:43
Speaker 1: it had never seen one before. I pity the poor,
21:47
Speaker 1: noisy little animal, but there is nothing I can do
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Speaker 1: to make it happy. If I could tame it, but
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Speaker 1: that is out of the question. The more I try,
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Speaker 1: the worse I seem to make it. It grieves me
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Speaker 1: to the heart to see it in its little storms
22:01
Speaker 1: of sorrow and passion. I wanted to let it go,
22:04
Speaker 1: but she wouldn't hear of it. That seemed cruel and
22:07
Speaker 1: not like her. And yet she may be right. It
22:10
Speaker 1: may be lonelier than ever, for since I cannot find
22:14
Speaker 1: another one, how could it? Five months later? It is
22:18
Speaker 1: not a kangaroo, no, for it supports itself by holding
22:22
Speaker 1: to her fingers, and thus goes a few steps on
22:25
Speaker 1: its hind legs, and then falls down. It is probably
22:29
Speaker 1: some kind of bear, And yet it has no tail
22:32
Speaker 1: as yet, and no fur except upon its head. It
22:36
Speaker 1: still keeps on growing. That is a curious circumstance, for
22:40
Speaker 1: bears get their growth earlier than this. Bears are dangerous
22:44
Speaker 1: since our catastrophe, and I shall not be satisfied to
22:47
Speaker 1: have this one prowling about the place much longer without
22:50
Speaker 1: a musle on. I have offered to get her a
22:53
Speaker 1: kangaroo if she would let this one go, but it
22:56
Speaker 1: did no good. She is determined to run us into
22:59
Speaker 1: all sorts of foolish risks. She was not like this
23:03
Speaker 1: before she lost her mind. The fortnight later, I examined
23:08
Speaker 1: its mouth. There is no danger yet. It has only
23:11
Speaker 1: one tooth. It has no tail. Yet. It makes more
23:15
Speaker 1: noise now than it ever did before, and mainly at night.
23:19
Speaker 1: I have moved out, but I shall go over mornings
23:21
Speaker 1: to breakfast and see if it has more teeth. If
23:25
Speaker 1: it gets a mouthful of teeth, it will be time
23:27
Speaker 1: for it to go tail or no tail, for a
23:30
Speaker 1: bear does not need a tail in order to be dangerous.
23:33
Speaker 1: Four months later, I have been off hunting and fishing
23:37
Speaker 1: a month up in the region that she calls buffalo.
23:40
Speaker 1: I don't know why, unless it is because there are
23:43
Speaker 1: not any buffaloes there. Meantime, the bear has learned the
23:47
Speaker 1: paddle around all by itself on its hind legs, and
23:50
Speaker 1: says Papa and Mamma. It is certainly a new species.
23:56
Speaker 1: This resemblance to words may be purely accidental, of course,
24:00
Speaker 1: and may have no purpose or meaning. But even in
24:02
Speaker 1: that case, it is still extraordinary and as a thing
24:06
Speaker 1: which no other bear can do. This imitation of speech,
24:10
Speaker 1: taken together with general absence of fur and entire absence
24:14
Speaker 1: of taale, sufficiently indicates that this is a new kind
24:18
Speaker 1: of bear. The further study of it will be exceedingly interesting. Meantime,
24:24
Speaker 1: I will go off on a far expedition among the
24:26
Speaker 1: forests of the north and make an exhaustive search. There
24:30
Speaker 1: must certainly be another one somewhere, and this one will
24:33
Speaker 1: be less dangerous when it has company of its own species.
24:37
Speaker 1: I will go straight away, but I will muzzle this
24:40
Speaker 1: one first. Three months later, it has been a weary,
24:44
Speaker 1: weary hunt, yet I have had no success. In the meantime,
24:50
Speaker 1: without stirring from the home estate, she has caught another one.
24:54
Speaker 1: I never saw such luck. I might have hunted these
24:57
Speaker 1: woods a hundred years, I never would have run a
25:00
Speaker 1: crossed the thing. Next day, I have been comparing the
25:04
Speaker 1: new one with the old one, and it is perfectly
25:07
Speaker 1: plain that they are of the same breed. I was
25:10
Speaker 1: going to stuff one of them for my collection, but
25:13
Speaker 1: she is prejudiced against it for some reason or other,
25:16
Speaker 1: so I have relinquished the idea, though I think it
25:20
Speaker 1: is a mistake. It would be an irreparable loss to
25:23
Speaker 1: science if they should get away. The old one is
25:27
Speaker 1: tamer than it was, and can laugh and talk like
25:29
Speaker 1: a parrot, having learned this, no doubt, from being with
25:33
Speaker 1: the parrot so much, and having the imitative faculty in
25:37
Speaker 1: a high developed degree. I shall be astonished if it
25:40
Speaker 1: turns out to be a new kind of parrot. And
25:43
Speaker 1: yet I ought not to be astonished, for it has
25:46
Speaker 1: already been everything else it could think of, since those
25:49
Speaker 1: first days when it was a fish. The new one
25:53
Speaker 1: is as ugly as the old one was at first,
25:55
Speaker 1: and has the same sulfur and raw meat complexion, and
25:59
Speaker 1: the same singular her head without any fur on it.
26:02
Speaker 1: She calls it Abel. Ten years later, they are boys.
26:07
Speaker 1: We found it out long ago. It was their coming
26:10
Speaker 1: in the small, immature shape that puzzled us. We were
26:14
Speaker 1: not used to it. There are some girls now. Abel
26:17
Speaker 1: is a good boy. But if Kine had stayed a bear,
26:20
Speaker 1: it would have improved him. After all these years, I
26:24
Speaker 1: see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning.
26:27
Speaker 1: It is better to live outside the garden with her
26:29
Speaker 1: than inside it without her. At first I thought she
26:33
Speaker 1: talked too much, But now I should be sorry to
26:36
Speaker 1: have that voice fall silent and pass out of my life.
26:39
Speaker 1: Blessed be the chestnut that brought us near together and
26:42
Speaker 1: taught me to know the goodness of her heart and
26:44
Speaker 1: the sweetness of her spirit and of Extracts from Adam's diary,
26:51
Speaker 1: recording by Richard Kilmer, Real, Medina, Texas,