The Nature Faker by Richard Harding Davis
page 10 of 21 (47%)
page 10 of 21 (47%)
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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." |
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