Читать книгу Woodmyth & Fable - Ernest Thompson Seton - Страница 6

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O, my child; the dragons and monsters are not all gone. There are just as many as ever there were, and they are just as powerful and wicked, only we fight them differently now. We do not send for a good fairy, but for some other kind of dragon.

“Not long ago, and not far away, there was a farming country of great thrift and prosperity, but much handicapped by the smallness of its horses,—the best of these could carry only a small load,—so every one was surprised, and later on delighted, when a philosopher brought them a wonderful monster that was stronger than a thousand horses. This was called a Gulper, and it drew the heaviest loads as though they were nothing. Large numbers were bred, and soon each community had at least one. Before long, however, the new beasts developed an unpleasant nature. Their original meekness began to disappear. They became surly, then dangerous; at last they had to be pampered and pacified on all occasions. They still did a great deal of the heaviest work, but became so tyrannical and outrageous in their demands that each community was reduced to a state of slavery, and its monster terrorized all and owned everything, quickly destroying those who resisted him. There was never a more downtrodden people. Things were as bad as possible, when a naturalist, one day, as he walked in the woods and pondered this terrible condition, said:

“‘In my world every beast has his foe that tames him when he outrages the bounds. If I only could find the Bugaboo of the Gulper!’

“So he sought and sought and sought; then he came to the country whence they had brought the Gulper, and there he found the Gulper’s Bugaboo. It was nothing but an ordinary monoculous Angletail. It was a slim yellow thing with very short legs, one immense red eye at each end of its body, and a long thin tail that grew out of the middle of its back and was carried stiffly raised and pointing behind. The Angletail could go backward or forward equally well, but one could always tell beforehand which way it was going, because the tail would switch over and point backward, and the eye at the end which now became the rear would lose its light and would go sleepy, while the other fairly blazed with fire. The Angletail was much smaller than the Gulper, but its activity was wonderful. The Gulper was swift, but the Angletail could climb hills and dodge in a way that was far beyond the ablest Gulper, and once it got after the monster it never stopped running alongside till it had sucked his life-blood. Not that Gulpers were its only food, but the farmers did all they could to urge on the Angletail, and it was very ready to respond. Finally all a man had to do to tame a rebellious Gulper was to put up his mouth as though about to whistle for the monoculous one, and at once the monster was cowed and glad to make any kind of terms, and they all lived happy ever after.

“You don’t understand? Well, my child, the Gulper is the greedy, grinding railroad company, and its Bugaboo is the trolley-car. Let us hope that there will always be deadly enmity between the monopolous Gulper and the monoculous Angletail.”

Moral: Every bug has its bugaboo.