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Page 60
Now, imagine me waking in the morning just as the dawn tinted the rosy
east, refreshed with sweet slumbers and rejoicing to behold the light,
rocking myself gently in my pretty hammock, and hailing the uprising
sun with a merry song,--and would you not suppose there was one happy
man in this great world?
While the day was yet young I would take a bath in the clear, soft
water of a little stream near by. Then, when all was sparkling and
bright in my humble house, I would partake with keen appetite of the
precious fruits of my unlimited and self-producing garden.
In the neighboring streams were many kinds of fishes, some of which I
knew to be very good eating, and I could have caught and eaten as many
birds as I wished; but the fruits and nuts were so plentiful, and of so
many different sorts, that I cared for, and, indeed, needed, no other
kind of food.
Thus, several months passed away, and I was not weary of this paradise.
There was enough to occupy my mind in the examination of the structure
and mode of growth of a vast number of species of plants. Their
flowering, their fruitage, and their decay offered a boundless field
for thought, and kept up a never-flagging interest.
For the first four months the sun traced his course through the heavens
to the north of me; I knew, therefore, that I was almost immediately
under the equator. For several days at the end of the four months, the
sun rose directly in the east, passing through the sky in a line
dividing it almost exactly into halves north and south. After that, for
six months, I had the great luminary to the south of me.
In all this time there was but little change in the weather. A short
period without rain was the exception. Otherwise, the mornings and
evenings were invariably clear, with a refreshing rain of about two
hours' duration in the middle of the day. In the afternoon the sun was,
of course, away from my cavern, shining upon the opposite side of the
mountain of solid rock, which rendered my abode delightfully cool in
the greatest heat of the day. Toward the end of the short dry period,
magnificent thunder-showers passed over my domain. Nothing could be
more glorious than these electrical displays of an equatorial sky, as I
sat snug and safe within the rocky shelter. The heaviest shower could
not wet me, the water without ran with a swift descent, from the cave,
and over the precipice into the lake below. It was not likely that the
lightning would take the trouble to creep in under the rock and there
find me out. And as for the thunder, I was not in the least afraid of
it, but gloried in its loud peals and distant reverberations among the
encompassing mountains.
It was during the violence of one of these tempests that a parrot flew
into my comfortable quarters.
"Hallo! my fine fellow!" said I. "Where do you come from, and what do
you want here?"
It flew about the room looking for a place to perch, trying to find a
footing against the wall, slipping down, and flying up again.
I left it free to find its own roosting-place, or fly out of the
cavern, as it liked. I had seen a few parrots of the same kind, outside
in my garden, had heard them chattering and shrieking amidst the
foliage, and had always been very much amused with their odd ways, and
pleased with the brilliance and the glitter of their splendid plumage.
But I never tried or cared to capture the gorgeous, noisy birds, or any
other of the creatures that were always to be seen around me. Indeed,
from the very first, the living things in this lovely valley appeared
to be uncommonly tame; and in time no bird or other animal showed the
least fear on my approach, regarding me no more than any other creature
that never did them harm. Of course, this came of my never molesting
them. But I never thought of getting on familiar terms with any of
them, although scarcely a day passed that some of these animals did not
come and eat of the fruit by the side of that which I was plucking. I
never laid hands on them, but always let them go about their own
business. They soon became accustomed to my umbrella even, for I early
made one of these necessities of a torrid climate; and although at
first when I had occasion to walk in the sun my appearance shaded by
the portable roof caused unusual chattering and commotion, I speedily
took on a familiar look to them. In the same way I became an object of
curiosity when I plucked a leaf and made of it a cup to drink from. But
at length all signs of strangeness vanished, and there even came to be
a kind of friendship between us.
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