|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 66
Oh, I have heard about their growing there, and staining the rivers
brown, and making them good medicine to drink: but I never thought there
were any in Europe.
There are only one or two, and how they got there is a marvel indeed. But
now--If there was not dry land between Africa and South America, how did
the cats get into America? For they cannot swim.
Cats? People might have brought them over.
Jaguars and Pumas, which you read of in Captain Mayne Reid's books, are
cats, and so are the Ocelots or tiger cats.
Oh, I saw them at the Zoological Gardens.
But no one would bring them over, I should think, except to put them in
the Zoo.
Not unless they were very foolish.
And much stronger and cleverer than the savages of South America. No,
those jaguars and pumus have been in America for ages: and there are
those who will tell you--and I think they have some reason on their
side--that the jaguar, with his round patches of spots, was once very
much the same as the African and Indian leopard, who can climb trees
well. So when he got into the tropic forests of America, he took to the
trees, and lived among the branches, feeding on sloths and monkeys, and
never coming to the ground for weeks, till he grew fatter and stronger
and far more terrible than his forefathers. And they will tell you, too,
that the puma was, perhaps--I only say perhaps--something like the lion,
who (you know) has no spots. But when he got into the forests, he found
very little food under the trees, only a very few deer; and so he was
starved, and dwindled down to the poor little sheep-stealing rogue he is
now, of whom nobody is afraid.
Oh, yes! I remember now A. said he and his men killed six in one day.
But do you think it is all true about the pumas and jaguars?
My child, I don't say that it is true: but only that it is likely to be
true. In science we must be cautious and modest, and ready to alter our
minds whenever we learn fresh facts; only keeping sure of one thing, that
the truth, when we find it out, will be far more wonderful than any
notions of ours. See! As we have been talking we have got nearly home:
and luncheon must be ready.
* * * * *
Why are you opening your eyes at me like the dog when he wants to go out
walking?
Because I want to go out. But I don't want to go out walking. I want to
go in the yacht.
In the yacht? It does not belong to me.
Oh, that is only fun. I know everybody is going out in it to see such a
beautiful island full of ferns, and have a picnic on the rocks; and I
know you are going.
Then you know more than I do myself.
But I heard them say you were going.
Then they know more than I do myself.
But would you not like to go?
I might like to go very much indeed; but as I have been knocked about at
sea a good deal, and perhaps more than I intend to be again, it is no
novelty to me, and there might be other things which I liked still
better: for instance, spending the afternoon with you.
Then am I not to go?
I think not. Don't pull such a long face: but be a man, and make up your
mind to it, as the geese do to going barefoot.
But why may I not go?
Because I am not Madam How, but your Daddy.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|