Evening star., 1924-08-04

quite as a matter of course, as
| though in his life he had already
made a thousand toilets. he proceeded
to lick away the dry clay that soiled
| him.
After that he sat up and gazed
about him, as might the first man of
, the earth who landed upon Mars.
| The cub had broken through the
| wall of the world, the unknown had
| let go it's hold of him, and here he
was without hurt. But the first man
on Mars would have experienced less
unfamiliarity than did he. Without
any antecedent knowledge, without
any warning whatever that such ex-
listed, he found himself an explorer
in a totally new world.
Now that the terrible unknown
had let go of him, he forgot that the
unknown had any terrors. He was
things about him. He inspected the
grass beneath him. the mossberry
plant just beyond. and the dead trunk
of the blasted pine that stood on
the edge of an open space among the
trees. A squirrel. running around
the base of the trunk. came full upon
him, and gave him great fright.
| He covered down and Snarled. But
the squirrel was as badly scared. 1t
ran up the tree, and from point
of safety chartered back savagely.
This helped the cubs courage, and
| though the woodpecker he next en-
countered gave him a start, he pro-
| ceeded confidently on his way Such
| was his confidence, that when
moose bird impudently hoped up to
playful paw. The result was a sharp
peck on the end of his nose that
made him cover down and ki-yi. The
noise he made was too much for the
moose bird, who sought safety in
flight.
But the cub was learning His
misty little mind had already made
an unconscious classification. There
were live things and things not alive
Also, he must watch out for the live
| things. The things not alive re-
manned always in one place; but the
live things moved about, and there
| was no telling what they might do.
The thing to expect of them was the
| unexpected, and for this he must be
| prepared.
He travelled very clumsly He ran
into sticks and things. A tWlg that
he thought a long way off, would the
next instant hit him on the nose or
| rake along his ribs. There were in
| equalitieS of surface. Sometimes he
overstepped and stubbed his nose.
| stubbed his feet. Then there were
| the pebbles and stones that turned
| under him when he trod upon them;
! and from them he came to know that
| the things not alive were not all In
| the same state of stable equilibrium
as was his cave; also, that small
| things not alive were more liable
than large things to fall down or turn
| over. But with every miShap he was
| better he walked. He was adjusting
himself. He was learning to calculate
| his own muscular movements, to know
| learning. The longer he walked, the
| his physical limitations, to measure
| distances between objects and be
| tween objects and himself.
! His was the luck of the beginner
| Born to be a hunter of meat (thougf
he did not know iD, he blundered
| upon meat just outside his own cave
door on his first foray into the world
| 1t was by sheer blundering that ht
| chanced upon the shrewdly hiddeT
| ptarmigan nest. He fell into it. He
| had essayed to walk along the trunk
of a fallen pine. The rotten bark
| gave way under his feet, and with /;
despairing yelp he pitched down tn,
| rounded descent, smashed through
| the LEAKAGE and stalks of a small
| bush and in the heart of the bush, OF
the ground, fetched up amongst sever
| ptarmigan chicks.
They made noises, and at first HI
was frightened at them. Then III
perceived that they were very little
and he became bolder They moved
He placed his paw on one, and it
| movements were accelerated This
| was a source of enjoyment to him
| He smelled it. He picked it up in his
mouth. 1t struggled and tickled hi
| tongue. At the same time he wa
| made aware of a sensation of hunger
| His jaws closed together. There was