Two Little Savages | Page 2

He had never taken an interest in his son's wildwood
pursuits; and when he got the idea that they might interfere with the
boy's education, he forbade them altogether.
There was certainly no reason to accuse Yan of neglecting school. He
was the head boy of his class, although there were many in it older than
himself. He was fond of books in general, but those that dealt with
Natural Science and Indian craft were very close to his heart. Not that
he had many--there were very few in those days, and the Public Library
had but a poor representation of these. "Lloyd's Scandinavian Sports,"

"Gray's Botany" and one or two Fenimore Cooper novels, these were
all, and Yan was devoted to them. He was a timid, obedient boy in
most things, but the unwise command to give up what was his nature
merely made him a disobedient boy--turned a good boy into a bad one.
He was too much in terror of his father to disobey openly, but he used
to sneak away at all opportunities to the fields and woods, and at each
new bird or plant he found he had an exquisite thrill of mingled
pleasure and pain--the pain because he had no name for it or means of
learning its nature.
The intense interest in animals was his master passion, and thanks to
this, his course to and from school was a very crooked one, involving
many crossings of the street, because thereby he could pass first a
saloon in whose window was a champagne advertising chromo that
portrayed two Terriers chasing a Rat; next, directly opposite this, was a
tobacconist's, in the window of which was a beautiful effigy of an
Elephant, laden with tobacco. By going a little farther out of his way,
there was a game store where he might see some Ducks, and was sure,
at least, of a stuffed Deer's head; and beyond that was a furrier shop,
with an astonishing stuffed Bear. At another point he could see a livery
stable Dog that was said to have killed a Coon, and at yet another place
on Jervie Street was a cottage with a high veranda, under which, he was
told, a chained Bear had once been kept. He never saw the Bear. It had
been gone for years, but he found pleasure in passing the place. At the
corner of Pemberton and Grand streets, according to a schoolboy
tradition, a Skunk had been killed years ago and could still be smelled
on damp nights. He always stopped, if passing near on a wet night, and
sniffed and enjoyed that Skunk smell. The fact that it ultimately turned
out to be a leakage of sewer gas could never rob him of the pleasure he
originally found in it.
[Illustration: "Gazing spellbound in that window"]
Yan had no good excuse for these weaknesses, and he blushed for
shame when his elder brother talked "common sense" to him about his
follies. He only knew that such things fascinated him.
But the crowning glory was a taxidermist's shop kept on Main Street by

a man named Sander. Yan spent, all told, many weeks gazing
spellbound, with his nose flat white against that window. It contained
some Fox and Cat heads grinning ferociously, and about fifty birds
beautifully displayed. Nature might have got some valuable hints in
that window on showing plumage to the very best advantage. Each bird
seemed more wonderful than the last.
There were perhaps fifty of them on view, and of these, twelve had
labels, as they had formed part of an exhibit at the Annual County Fair.
These labels were precious truths to him, and the birds:
Osprey Partridge or Ruffed Grouse Kingfisher Bittern Bluejay
Highholder Rosebreasted Grosbeak Sawwhet Owl Woodthrush Oriole
Scarlet Tanager * * * * * * *
were, with their names, deeply impressed on his memory and added to
his woodlore, though not altogether without a mixture of error. For the
alleged Woodthrush was not a Woodthrush at all, but turned out to be a
Hermit Thrush. The last bird of the list was a long-tailed, brownish bird
with white breast. The label was placed so that Yan could not read it
from outside, and one of his daily occupations was to see if the label
had been turned so that he could read it. But it never was, so he never
learned the bird's name.
After passing this for a year or more, he formed a desperate plan. It was
nothing less than to go inside. It took him some months to screw up
courage, for he was shy and timid, but oh! he was so hungry for it.
Most likely if he had gone in openly and asked leave, he would have
been allowed to see