American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
The whole life treatment had been wrong because of its mechanical
nature. He had found himself without the strength to manipulate the
machine, and had consequently resorted to hand massage. When tired he
would sit for hours, concentrating his mind upon the desire that the
freak would awaken--would see, hear, taste, smell, or feel. Then he
would resume the massage.
It worked. The creature opened its eyes one day about a week back
and moved its limbs. With the wakening of the motor nerves came a
correlative wakening of the sensory and optic nerves. He could see and
feel.
But the sensations were too much for him and, like a new-born infant,
he set up the loud, discordant wailing I had heard. A little further
treatment brought to life the sense of hearing, and after a few simple
experiments it was proved that he could taste and smell.
I went up and inspected the baby. He lay on his cot, dressed in
dungaree jumper and overalls, twiddling his toes and fingers, and
sticking out his tongue at the ceiling; but at the sight of me he set
up a roar that drove us out into the open. He could certainly "take
notice."
"His lungs are all right," I said. "He'll make a good bo'sun's mate
when he grows up. Think he'll start growing now?"
"Oh, no," said Dartmoor seriously. "He's got his growth. But we are
teaching him to walk, and we must teach him to talk. His intelligence
and memory will come with the accumulation of perceptions."
"He will talk soon," said the old missionary hopefully. "He is very
imitative. This morning he repeated 'Now I lay,' but could go no
farther. His first speech must be prayer, to give thanks for his rescue
from darkness."
"He'll learn to swear," I said unsympathetically, "if I catch him
around my pearls. Think he'll be an idiot, Dartmoor? Has he a soul
after all these years of unconsciousness?"
"He has always possessed a subconscious mind," said Dartmoor
didactically, "and now has the beginning of consciousness. But if he
has a soul, depend upon it, it is my soul. I brought him to life, and
he will feel what I feel and do what I do to the extent of his power.
"Why, that is proved now. I can quiet him by a word, or even a fixed
thought of disapproval. He smiles or laughs when I do. I was frightened
by a shark yesterday--just a momentary shock--but his wailings were
pitiable. Yet he was out of sight of me."
"Well, all this is beyond me," I said. "But now that you've got him
alive what will you do with him? Take him back to the coast and exhibit
him? He'd make a fine dime-museum star."
"Nothing so cheap. I do not care to take him back until I have fully
demonstrated my theory. But, in his development he will need more than
my care and Mr. Pfeffer's. He needs the tender ministrations of a
mother. A woman's instinct alone can tell when to punish and when to
reward.
"I want you to go back home, captain, and bring Ella to me, with her
mother. Mr. Pfeffer can marry us, and then you can take the mother
back."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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