"But," cried Cruickshank, "you can not change human nature!"
"Yes, yes, I know," said Gud. "That is why I am doing it. Now bark,"
commanded Gud, addressing the Underdog, whose name was Fidu.
"But," said Fidu, "I do not see any moon to bark at."
"Imagine one, stupid," said Gud.
So Fidu imagined a moon to bark at, and barked at the moon he imagined; and then he and Gud went on their way, leaving a great, red, boiled lobster, wearing a white collar and crawling backward with one claw, along the Impossible Curve.
Chapter X
Now Cruickshank was a loyal worker Who frowned upon the average shirker, And in the place where Cruickshank toiled The wheels of work were shrewdly oiled, And profits had a way of rising Which showed the firm as enterprising.
Through years that numbered thirty-one Cruickshank hated the owner"s son-- "Stool pigeon" was the name the boy Had given him with whoops of joy.
In Cruickshank"s breast ambition burned And so he lived and worked and earned, Robbed Paul and Peter, had no gout And made his family go without.
Sly Cruickshank in his stealthy way Bought shares in the firm for a rainy day, Existing on a miser"s dole For the hour when he would have control, Wander in and announce the doom Of the President"s son in the President"s room....
So Cruickshank labored and did not shirk Though his poor wife died from overwork.
But finally came the day of days....
Sly Cruickshank asked for a lordly raise.
When father and son had answered "No"
Expecting old Cruickshank to go He shrieked the triumph of his soul: "You are both discharged--I"m in control----"
The President looked at the President"s son; And the son looked at his father"s son In a mirror that hung on the wall nearby And carefully straightened his yellow tie.
Old Cruickshank waited ill at ease And felt a trembling in his knees-- The President spoke: "Why, we"ve just mailed The notice that this firm has failed."
Chapter XI
After a long journey Gud came to a place where it looked as if it needed rain. So he sat down upon a cactus and took out his horoscope and consulted the stars. Then he made an elliptical ring around a new moon and hung the moon low in the sky. And Gud took a scarlet runner bean and put it in a pot and lit a fire of cactus thorns and set the pot to boil.
When the thorns began to crackle, an arrogant savor arose from the pot, and the vapors of it filled the sky, and through the vapors the new-made moon shown red as the blood of saints torn by lions because of their faith.
Gud blew his breath on the fire and it waxed hot as anger and the pot boiled over and quenched the fire. Gud reached his hand into the pot and drew out the bean and cut it into three halves. And the left half of the bean he ate, and the right half of the bean he cast into h.e.l.l, but the other half of the bean Gud planted beneath a flat stone that bore the footprint of a hero who had pa.s.sed that way when the stone was but a drifting sand on a lonely sh.o.r.e.
Presently the bean half sprouted, and the sprout split the stone athwart and rent the footprint of the hero. Gud watered the bean with tears, because there was no rain in that place. So the bean grew and on its stem were the leaves of the maiden-hair tree, and the tendrils by which the bean clambered were the tendrils of the snake-feeder vine, and the flowers that sprang from the nodules of the bean stalk were the flowers of the wormwood tree, but they gave forth the odor of liverworts and were of the color of faded hopes or of stale music.
Gud cut marks on the bean pole to observe the rate of growth of the bean vine, and he found that it grew much faster than grief dies but not so fast as jealousy is born.
And when the bean reached the top of the pole and could grow no more, it conceived and bore a fruit that was like a ripe gourd. Four eyes grew in the face of the fruit and a dim light shone out of the eyes. And Gud heard the patter of tiny feet within, and presently the ghosts of three blind mice came out of the four eyes of the fruit, one out of each of the four eyes, for the third one came out twice.
Oh, under the stars are things to see that fold Their shining webs around the hidden sun....
When the flesh is faint and the heart grows limp and old, Surely the work of living is not done.
There was a breathless stillness and the crowd Leaned forward, looking on and barely stirred.
The surgeon, knife in hand, with spotted shroud, Cut close around the heart and said no word.
They saw his patient die, and whispered one Unto another in the clinic there.
But yet the surgeon saw strange actions done That streaked his head with strands of snow-white hair.
From out the dead man"s open chest there crept A s.h.a.ggy spider shining in the light, That shook itself like one who having slept Puts vainly back the shadows of the night.
The surgeon clutched his throat. Within his breast He felt a living thing twist here and there; A thing that stirred from out a deep unrest Like something moving through a drowned man"s hair.
The students only saw his hair turn white....
But he heard tiny pulses throb and beat, He felt slim fingers clawing out of sight And hearkened to the patter of tiny feet.
Then shrieking fell across the clinic floor The students pouring from their seats. Stark dead He must have been for he said nothing more; His fingers twitched and once he moved his head.
They did not see that from his mouth there crept A s.h.a.ggy spider shining in the light, That shook itself like one who having slept Puts vainly back the shadows of the night.
Then sideways moved it, trembling as though cold, Following where the other spider ran....
Oh, hidden away there are things that are strange and old, And weave strange webs in the very breast of man.
Chapter XII
And the ghosts of the three blind mice sang to Gud as if their hearts would break. They sang of brave deeds, for they had been field mice and they had died upon the field of honor.
And when the song was done, Gud wept again; for now he understood why it had never rained in that place.
So he arose and stamped out the smouldering embers of the fire he had builded, and whistled for the Underdog. And when the Underdog came he devoured the ghosts of the three blind mice, the one after the other and the third which came out twice, after the one. Then the Underdog licked his chops and Gud sighed, and together they departed from that place, very sorrowful that they had come.
Chapter XIII
"What are you eating?" asked Fidu, the Underdog, returning from a fruitless chase.
"I am eating leopard"s spots," replied Gud; "will you have some?"
"No thanks," returned Fidu, "for they look to me like apples of Sodom or Dead Sea fruit."
"That is what they are."
"But," retorted Fidu, "you just now said they were leopard"s spots."
"So they were," said Gud, "but I changed them."