I have said that I was scarce beyond thirty years of age. Even so, I

found myself already old; and like any true philosopher, I resolved to

make myself young. As hitherto I had had no boyhood, I determined to

achieve a boyhood for myself. Studying myself, I discovered that I had

rarely smiled; so I resolved to find somewhat to make me smile. The

great realm of knowledge, widest and sweetest of all empires for a

man, lay before me alluringly when I entered upon my business career;

and so interested was I in my business and my books that only by

chance had I met the woman who drove me out of both. A boy I had never

been; nay, nor even a youth. I had always been old. True, like others

of my station, I had owned my auto cars, my matched teams--owned them

now, indeed--but I had never owned a dog. So, when I came hither with

ample leisure, perhaps my chief ambition was a deliberate purpose to

encompass my deferred boyhood. Thus I had built this house of logs

which now--with a surprised and gratifying throb of my heart I learned

it--appealed to the souls of real boys. It was the castle where I

dreamed; and now it was the palace of their dreams also. I felt, at

least, that I had succeeded. My heart throbbed in a new way, very

foolish, yet for some reason suddenly enjoyable.

My house was all of logs and had no decorations of paint or tapestry

within. Its only arras was of the skins of wild beasts--of the African

lion and leopard, the zebra, many antelopes. The walls were hung with

mounted heads--those of the moose, the elk, the bighorn, most of the

main trophies of my own land and to these, through my foreign hunting,

I had added heads of all the great trophies of Africa and Asia as

well. A splendid pair of elephant tusks stood in a corner. A fine head

of the sheep of Tibet, ovus poli--and I prize none of my trophies

more, unless it be the fine robe of the Chinese mountain tiger--looked

full front at us from above the fireplace. My rod racks, and those

which supported my guns and rifles, were here and there about the

room. The whole gave a jaunty atmosphere to my home. I had gone

soberly about the business of sport; and in these days, that can be

practised most successfully by a man with much leisure and unstinted

means.

My books lay about everywhere, also, books which perhaps would not

have appealed to all. My copies of the Vedas, many works on the

Buddhist faith, and translations from Confucius, lay side by side

with that Bible which we Christians have almost forgot. Here, too,

stood my desk with its cases of preserved mosquitoes--for this year I

was studying mosquitoes as an amusement. I had collected all the

mosquito literature of the world, and my books, in French, German and

English, lay near my great microscope. I had passed many happy hours

here in the oblivion of mental concentration, always a delight with

me, now grown almost a necessity if I were to escape the worst of all

habits, that of introspection and self-pity.




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