Bible. Genesis -- History of Biblical events -- Fiction; Diary fiction; Eve (Biblical figure) -- Fiction; Humorous stories
Still, her heart was set upon having that monster, and she couldn't give
it up. She thought we could start a dairy with it, and wanted me to
help milk it; but I wouldn't; it was too risky. The sex wasn't right,
and we hadn't any ladder anyway. Then she wanted to ride it, and look
at the scenery. Thirty or forty feet of its tail was lying on the
ground, like a fallen tree, and she thought she could climb it, but she
was mistaken; when she got to the steep place it was too slick and down
she came, and would have hurt herself but for me.
Was she satisfied now? No. Nothing ever satisfies her but
demonstration; untested theories are not in her line, and she won't have
them. It is the right spirit, I concede it; it attracts me; I feel the
influence of it; if I were with her more I think I should take it up
myself. Well, she had one theory remaining about this colossus: she
thought that if we could tame it and make him friendly we could stand in
the river and use him for a bridge. It turned out that he was already
plenty tame enough--at least as far as she was concerned--so she tried
her theory, but it failed: every time she got him properly placed in
the river and went ashore to cross over him, he came out and followed
her around like a pet mountain. Like the other animals. They all do
that.
Tuesday--Wednesday--Thursday--and today: all without seeing him. It is
a long time to be alone; still, it is better to be alone than unwelcome.
FRIDAY--I HAD to have company--I was made for it, I think--so I made
friends with the animals. They are just charming, and they have the
kindest disposition and the politest ways; they never look sour, they
never let you feel that you are intruding, they smile at you and wag
their tail, if they've got one, and they are always ready for a romp or
an excursion or anything you want to propose. I think they are perfect
gentlemen. All these days we have had such good times, and it hasn't
been lonesome for me, ever.
Lonesome! No, I should say not. Why, there's always a swarm of them
around--sometimes as much as four or five acres--you can't count them;
and when you stand on a rock in the midst and look out over the furry
expanse it is so mottled and splashed and gay with color and frisking
sheen and sun-flash, and so rippled with stripes, that you might think
it was a lake, only you know it isn't; and there's storms of sociable
birds, and hurricanes of whirring wings; and when the sun strikes all
that feathery commotion, you have a blazing up of all the colors you can
think of, enough to put your eyes out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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