Читать книгу Four-Footed Americans and Their Kin - Mabel Osgood Wright - Страница 6

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OME up on the fence too, please, uncle," coaxed Dodo, and Dr. Hunter climbed over the pasture bars, seating himself on the fence in answer to her request to 'stop a bit while she fed the animals.' He motioned to Rap, who was rather tired with his walk, to come beside him, while Nat and Dodo divided the contents of their pockets into little heaps.

"Give the popcorn to Daisy and the horses," said Dodo. "The peanuts are for Corney; we can toss them up, and see him hop and scramble to catch them. It's lots of fun. Sausage can have all the mixed crumbs, 'cause she likes grubby things. Please, Nat, won't you bury your snake, or hang it up, or something? Whichever way I look, it seems to be too near."

"I'll hang it up on the tree, because I'm going to put it in a glass jar to keep. Daddy has gone back to the village to buy me some alcohol to pour on it."

"Ugh! what do you want it for? If I were you, I'd rather have the money the alcohol costs to buy a new butterfly net."

"Uncle Roy says it is as fine a rattlesnake as he ever saw. That is why he bought it off the man from the mountain, who killed it. There aren't any hereabouts now. A good thing, too, because they are biters; but I want it for my collection. I haven't many reptiles, you know; only a garter snake, two lizards, and a frog—whoa! Tom, eat fair; your mouth is twice as big as Comet's."

"How queer Daisy's tongue feels—it tickles my hand," said Dodo. "She licks everything into her mouth, but the horses take food in their lips. Uncle Roy, please come down here and see how queerly Daisy eats, and oh, my! she hasn't any top front teeth, either. Is she very old? Do look; her jaws wiggle as if she was chewing gum!"

"No, little girl; none of the Cow Family have any front upper teeth. A well-behaved cow sticks out her tongue with a sidewise motion to guide the grass into her mouth, while in the Horse Family the habit is to seize it with the lips, and then nip it between the teeth."

"Yes, but, uncle!" cried Nat, jumping hastily over the fence to dodge Corney, who was tired of eating peanuts one by one, and, giving a sudden butt, had seized bag and all; "Uncle Roy, cows are ever so fond of chewing. They eat all the morning, and then they go under the trees and chew, chew, chew, all the afternoon; but horses gobble their food once for all."

"I'm very glad you have noticed this, Nat. The cow is built upon a different plan from the horse. The horse has a complete set of upper and under teeth, and a single stomach—something like our own—to receive the food. The cow has four stomachs. When she eats, the food goes into the first stomach, where it stays a while to grow soft. After Daisy has filled this first stomach, she goes to rest for a while, brings up the softened food into her mouth, and chews it again. This softened food is called the 'cud.'"

"Oh, now I know what Rod meant," cried Dodo, clapping her hands, "when he said the cows were chewing their 'cud.' They were lying under the trees, and didn't seem to have anything near them to eat. I thought cud must be moss or something. Do any other of our animals beside cows have several stomachs and chew cud?"

"Yes, all the animals that belong to the Meat Family: Sheep and Goats, and, among their wild American brothers, the Deer and the very Buffalo that you saw at the show this afternoon."

"Were those strange beasts any relations of our farm animals?" asked the children in one breath.

"Were our farm animals once wild like the Buffaloes, and did they live far out West? Who first caught them and made them tame?" gabbled Dodo, only stopping when her breath failed.

"Our farm animals were never, in the true sense, natives of this country. In the far back days, before the pale-faced voyagers came to these shores, the Red Brothers had no horses to carry them, nor cows to give them milk. They followed the war-path and game-trail on foot, and their clothing and tent homes were made of the skins of the beasts they took with bow, arrow, and spear. Time was when they had not even spears and arrows.

"When the pale-faced settlers came to America they brought the useful animals from their old homes with them: pigs, sheep, horses, goats, cows, dogs, cats, etc.,—so though these have lived here as the people have, long enough to be citizens, they are not native or indigenous Americans any more than we ourselves. That distinction belongs to the Indian, Peccary, Buffalo, Musk Ox, Mountain Goat, Bighorn, Wolf, and Wildcat, who are the wild cousins of House People and their farm fourfoots. The horse alone has no living wild cousin here, though there were horses in America ages ago."

"Then those horses that the Indians rode at the show, who hopped around so, weren't really wild at all," said Nat, with a look of great disappointment. "They seemed really, truly wild, and how the Indians stuck on and dodged and fired their guns!"

"They are wild in the sense that they were born on the open prairie and lived in vast herds, but they are the great-grandchildren of tame horses. In the southwest, as well as in South America, vast herds of these horses, descended from those brought in by the Spanish, roamed at large. From time to time the Indians dashed into the troops and lassoed those that they desired and rode them as we saw the Indians do this afternoon, but they are not true four-footed Americans like that little Chipmunk over there, who is stealing a few peanuts that Corney overlooked, or like the sly, fat Woodchucks that we are trying to trap in the orchard."

"Please, Uncle Roy, can Dodo and I put halters on Tom and Jerry and see if we can ride them round the field without any saddles?" said Nat, looking fearlessly up at the big horses, whose mouths barely touched the top of his head.

"You can try, if you like," laughed the Doctor, "but I'm afraid it will be too hard travelling for Dodo. No, you will risk a bumping? Very well, then, but tell Rod to bring blankets and surcingles."

In a few minutes Rod came, strapped a folded blanket on each horse, and gave Nat Jerry's halter, but insisted upon keeping hold of Tom.

"Now, if I only had something to shoot with, we could play circus. Hoo-oo-ooh!" cried Nat, trying to imitate an Indian cry, at which sound Jerry galloped very quietly down the pasture, switching his tail. But to Nat it seemed as if he was seated on an earthquake, and he clutched Jerry's mane, whereupon the horse gave a little kick of surprise and cantered heavily back to the spring.

"I think T-o-m is falling to pieces," chattered Dodo, as Rod ran him round the pasture. "He—is—so—fat, too, my legs can't bend down;—I—guess I'll stop, please," and Rod swung her down to the wall beside her uncle.

"A circus isn't as easy as it looks," said Nat, wiping his face, and Rap laughed heartily and pounded his crutch on the fence.

"Farm horses are not saddle horses," said Comet to himself.

"I'm all mixed up about animals," said Dodo in a few minutes when she had caught her breath. "Our farm animals aren't real Americans, yet Daisy is a kind of cousin of the wild Buffalo, because she has no upper front teeth and chews a cud. Birds seem so much easier to understand. Birds are animals with a backbone, a beak for a mouth, and two legs. They wear feathers and lay eggs. But these others are different in their mouths and stomachs and feet, and some have horns and some don't. Some have little tails like Corney, and some long hairy tails like the horses, and oh, Uncle Roy, that snake there is all tail!

"Olive says bugs, and beetles, and flies, are animals, too, and beetles are crusty, and caterpillars are squashy, and flies are buzzy, and I'm sure I never can tell who is who. Birds look something alike, even when they are as different as a Hummingbird and a Duck; but I can't understand how all the other animals are related."

"Not so fast, dearie," said the Doctor, laughing at her inquiries until the tears ran down his cheeks. "The differences and the relationships of these animals are no harder to remember than they are among the birds. You know that with them their beaks and feet were arranged to suit their needs. Have you forgotten how we classified the birds, and the little table of the Animal Kingdom that you wrote?"

"Yes," said Nat, hesitating; "that is, I did know, but I've forgotten most of it."

"I remember," said Rap, "that you said classifying was to put the animals together that were the nearest alike, and the two great divisions of the Animal Kingdom were animals without backbones and animals with them."

"Olive says my sponge is an animal," said Dodo, doubtfully. "Surely it can't have any backbone, for if it did it would scratch my face; but then it was full of prickles when it was new, perhaps its backbone was crumpled up!"

"I must try to make this Animal Kingdom and its chief divisions more clear to you," said the Doctor, pausing a minute as he looked across the pasture. "Do you see that great chestnut tree yonder, with the thick trunk and wide-spreading branches?"

"Yes, indeed," said Rap, "and it bears the fattest, sweetest nuts of any tree hereabouts; but it takes a very hard frost to open them."

"I remember how good the nuts used to be, but now I want you all to notice the way in which the tree grows. Above ground there is a thick straight part which is called the trunk; then this soon divides into large branches. A little further up these thick branches separate into smaller branches yet, until they end in little slender twigs.

"The Animal Kingdom is like this tree in the way in which the different members all are developed side by side, interlacing and depending upon each other. It is difficult to tell some of the lowest branches of the animal tree from plants: as none of these animals of the first branches have any backbones, they are called Invertebrates, and their inside parts are held together in a little tube."

"Are birds on one of the high branches?" asked Dodo.

"Yes, one of the very highest, next to the great branch, where man himself sits, surrounded by all his faithful four-footed friends, just as he is when he walks about every day."

"Do House People and fourfoots belong on the same great branch?" said Rap, looking puzzled. "What is it called, please?"

"It is the Mammal branch, the highest of all, and it has so many little branchlets and twigs that it is large enough to be a tree all by itself."

"Exactly how are the other Mammals like us, and what does Mammal mean? Do they all have warm red blood like ours?" asked Dodo, who was celebrated for cutting her fingers.

"They all have warm red blood, but so have birds; there are other differences that you will learn later. The one thing that makes them Mammals is that they suckle their young with milk."

"M—mammals; m—milk," sang Dodo. "Why, that is as easy to remember as 'Billy Button bought a buttered biscuit'! Please tell us the names of some nearby Mammals, Uncle Roy."

"All the farm and house fourfoots are Mammals; also the wild Deer, Wolves, Foxes, Rats, Mice, Squirrels, Moles, Skunks, Weasels, and Woodchucks, beside many others you do not know even by name."

"So all those nuisance animals are Mammals too," said Dodo, meditatively.

"Nuisance animals! Which are those?" asked Rap.

"The naughty, bothersome ones that eat things and bite holes in the house, and dig up the orchard, and smell, oh, so bad! Why, Rap, don't you remember the evening we thought there was a black and white rooster by the orchard wall, and Quick and I tried to catch it, and it turned out to be a Skunk? Then my clothes had to be boiled so hard they were no more use, and Quick tried to get away from himself for almost two weeks."

"Oh, yes, I do. Mammals must have a great many shapes, Doctor," continued Rap, thoughtfully. "How are they made into families?—the same way as birds?"

"In very much the same way. To-night, after supper, I will draw you a picture of a part of this wonderful animal tree, and tell you the names of some of its branches, and perhaps you will remember a few of them. I do not wish to bother you with long words, but there are a few that you must learn.

"The history of this animal tree is the most interesting story in the world, and the Wise Men call it Zoölogy, after two Greek words that mean the 'history of animal life.'"

"Then that is the reason why an out-door menagerie is called a Zo-o-logical Garden," said Nat, stumbling a trifle over the word. "Daddy was reading to mother about such a beautiful garden for wild animals that is going to be made near New York,—the very biggest in the world,—so that every one in America can see how the animals live. Perhaps we can go there some day and see all the Mammals."

"Daisy gives milk, so I am very sure I know one Mammal anyway," said Dodo, who was growing a little tired. "Oh! oh!" she cried, suddenly jumping off the fence. "The sun is going down pop. I never noticed it, and Rod said I might help milk to-night. He's taking the cows in now. Won't you come and see me do it, Uncle Roy?"

"You help milk?" laughed Nat. "Who taught you how?"

"Rod; I've had four lessons, and I can milk almost a quart. Then my hands grow all weak and shaky, and Rod says it's enough for once, both for me and for the cow. Daisy is the only one that will let me."

"Poor, patient Daisy," laughed the Doctor. "To be sure we will come and see this famous milkmaid."

Dodo led the way to the cow barn, where each cow had a clean stall marked with her name. Then she tied a queer sort of apron round her waist, made, like Rod's, out of a meal sack, hunted for a small stool, also like Rod's, and prepared in a very businesslike manner to wash off Daisy's bag with a sponge and some clean water.

"Bravo! Bravo!" cried the Doctor. "My little farmer has already learned that everything about milk, from the animal to the pans, should be very clean."

"Zig-zig-zig-zig," said the milk, spattering on the bottom of the pail. In a few minutes the spattering stopped.

"Now it's beginning to purr like a cat," explained Dodo. "It does that when the milk begins to fill up a little."

Dodo kept bravely at it until her fingers, now red and tired, had coaxed about a quart from Daisy.

"That will go for to-night," she said, "though I'm sure I milked more last time. I'm dreadfully thirsty; suppose we drink this now, Uncle Roy. There's a glass by the well, Nat,"—and the milk rapidly disappeared.

"M—mammals; m—milk," sang Dodo, skipping ahead toward the house, as the short twilight hurried after the sun.

"I wish the days were longer," sighed Rap, turning to go home.

"But evening with a wood fire in the wonder room is lovely," sang Dodo, "and to-night uncle he, will draw a tree,"—she sang; then stopped and laughed at her rhyme.

"Uncle Roy," she whispered, "it's been such a happy day, can we have Rap to help finish off by toasting crackers in the wonder room, and see you draw the animal tree? Yes? I'll give you a bear's hug!"

"I reckon there will be a frost to-night," said Rod, passing on his way to the house with the milk-pail.

"Frost!" shouted Nat, dancing round in glee. "Frost—chestnuts, Rap,—and to-morrow will be Saturday!"

*****

"How do you like this?" said Comet, looking up from his oats over to Tom and Jerry, as the stable door closed with a click. "Box stalls and two bundles of clean straw apiece, and warm bran mash for you beside. Did you ever have anything as nice as this where you were this summer?"

"I think the House People here understand a horse's feelings," answered Jerry, plunging his nose into his supper.