He led the way, going out into the hall and at the further end of it pa.s.sing into a verandah which there too extended along the back of the house. The house on this side had a long offset, or wing, running back at right angles with the main building. The verandah also made an angle and followed the side of this wing, which on the ground floor contained the kitchen and offices. Half way of its length a stairway ran up, on the outside, to a door nearer the end of the building. Up this stair young Dallas went, and introduced Esther to a large room, which seemed to her presently the oddest and also the most interesting that she had ever in her life seen. Its owner had got together, apparently, the old bits of furniture that his mother did not want any longer; there was an old table, devoid of all varnish, in the floor, covered, however, with a nice green cloth; two or three chairs were the table"s contemporaries, to judge by their style, and nothing harder or less accommodating to the love of ease ever entered surely a cabinetmaker"s brain. The wood of which they were made had, however, come to be of a soft brown colour, through the influence of time, and the form was not inelegant. The floor was bare and painted, and upon it lay here an old rug and there a great thick bearskin; and on the walls there were several heads of animals, which seemed to Esther very remarkable and extremely ornamental. One beautiful deer"s head, with elegant horns; and one elk head, the horns of which in their sweep and extent were simply enormous; then there were one or two fox heads, and a racc.o.o.n; and besides all these, the room was adorned with two or three birds, very well mounted. The birds, as the animals, were unknown to Esther, and fascinated her greatly. Books were in this room too, though not in large numbers; a flower press was in one place, a microscope on the table, a kind of _etagere_ was loaded with papers; and there were boxes, and gla.s.ses, and cases; and a general air of a place where a good deal of business was done, and where a variety of tastes found at least attempted gratification. It was a pleasant room, though the description may not sound like it; the heterogeneous articles were in nice order; plenty of light blazed in at the windows, and the bearskin on the floor looked eminently comfortable. If that were luxurious, it was the only bit of luxury in the room.
"Where will you sit?" asked its owner, looking round. "There isn"t anything nice enough for you. I must look up a special chair for you to occupy when you come here. How do you like my room?"
"I like it--very much," said Esther slowly, turning her eyes from one strange object to another.
"n.o.body comes here but me, so we shall have no interruption to fear.
When you come to see me, Queen Esther, you will just go straight through the house, out on the piazza, and up these stairs, with out asking anybody; and then you will turn the handle of the door and come in, without knocking. If I am here, well and good; if I am not here, wait for me. You like my deer"s horns? I got them up in Canada, where I have been on hunting expeditions with my father."
"Did _you_ kill them?"
"Some of them. But that great elk head I bought."
"What big bird is that?"
"That? That is the white-headed eagle--the American eagle."
"Did that come from Canada too?"
"No; I shot him not far from here, one day, by great luck."
"Are they difficult to shoot?"
"Rather. I sat half a day in a booth made with branches, to get the chance. There were several of them about that day, so I lay in wait.
They are not very plenty just about here. That other fellow is the great European lammergeyer."
Esther had placed herself on one of the hard wooden chairs, but now she rose and went nearer the birds, standing before them in great admiration. Slowly then she went from one thing in the room to another, pausing to contemplate each. A beautiful white owl, very large and admirably mounted, held her eyes for some time.
"That is the Great Northern Owl," observed her companion. "They are found far up in the regions around the North Pole, and only now and then come so far south as this."
"What claws!" said Esther.
"Talons. Yes, they would carry off a rabbit very easily."
"Do they!" cried Esther, horrified.
"I don"t doubt that fellow has carried off many a one, as well as hosts of smaller fry--squirrels, mice, and birds."
"He looks cruel," observed Esther, with an abhorrent motion of her shoulders.
"He does, rather. But he is no more cruel than all the rest."
"The rest of what?" said Esther, turning towards him.
"The rest of creation--all the carnivorous portion of it, I mean."
"Are they all like that? they don"t look so. The eyes of pigeons, for instance, are quite different."
"Pigeons are not flesh-eaters."
"Oh!" said Esther wonderingly. "No, I know; they eat bread and grain; and canary birds eat seeds. Are there _many_ birds that live on flesh?"
"A great many, Queen Esther. All creation, nearly, preys on some other part of creation--except that respectable number that are granivorous, and herbivorous, and graminivorous."
Esther stood before the owl, musing; and Dallas, who was studying the child now, watched her.
"But what I want to know, is," began Esther, as if she were carrying on an argument, "_why_ those that eat flesh look so much more wicked than the others that eat other things?"
"Do they?" said Dallas. "That is the first question."
"Why, yes," said Esther, "they do, Pitt. If you will think. There are sheep and cows and rabbits, and doves and chickens"--
"Halt there!" cried Dallas. "Chickens are as good flesh-eaters as anybody, and as cruel about it, too. See two chickens pulling at the two ends of one earthworm."
"Oh, don"t!" said Esther. "I remember they do; and they haven"t nice eyes either, Pitt. But little turkeys have."
Dallas burst out laughing.
"Well, just think," Esther persisted. "Think of horses" beautiful eyes; and then think of a tiger."
"Or a cat," said Dallas.
"But why is it, Pitt?"
"Queen Esther, my knowledge, such as it is, is all at your majesty"s service; but the information required lies not therein."
"Well, isn"t it true, what I said?"
"I am inclined to think, and will frankly admit, that there is something in it."
"Then don"t you think there must be a _real_ difference, to make them look so different? and that I wasn"t wrong when I called the owl cruel!"
"The study of animal psychology, so far as I know, has never been carried into a system. Meanwhile, suppose we come from what I cannot teach, to what I can? Here"s a Latin grammar for you."
Esther came to his side immediately, and listened with grave attention to his explanations and directions.
"And you want me to learn these declensions?"
"It is a necessary preliminary to learning Latin."
Esther took the book with a very awakened and contented face; then put a sudden irrelevant question. "Pitt, why didn"t you tell Mrs. Dallas what you were going to teach me?"
The young man looked at her, somewhat amused, but not immediately ready with an answer.
"Wouldn"t she like you to give me lessons?"
"I never asked her," he answered gravely.
Esther looked at him, inquiring and uncertain.