The animal story book
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THE
ANIMAL STORY BOOK
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ANDROCLES IN THE ARENA
THE
Animal Story Book
EDITED BY
ANDEEW LANG
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY H. J. FORD
NEW YORK LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
LONDON AND BOMBAY
1904
Copyright, 1896,
By Longmans, Green, & Co.
All rights reserved.
First Edition, September, 1896.
Reprinted, November, 1896, July, 1899, June, 1904.
University Press:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.
To
MASTER FREDERICK LONGMAN
This year our Book for Christmas varies, Deals not with History nor Fairies (I can’t help thinking, children, you Prefer a look which is not true). We leave these intellectual feasts, To talk of Fishes, Birds, and Beasts. These — though his aim is hardly steady — These are, I think, a theme for Freddy! Trout, though he is not up to fly, He soon will catch — as well as If So, Freddy, take this artless rhyme, And be a Sportsman in your time!
PREFACE
Children who have read our Fairy Books may have noticed that there are not so very many fairies in the stories after all. The most common characters are birds, beasts, and fishes, who talk and act like Christians. The reason of this is that the first people who told the stories were not very clever, or, if they were clever, they had never been taught to read and write, or to distinguish between Vegetable, Animal, and Mineral. They took it that all things were ‘much of a muchness:’ they were not proud, and held that beast and bird could talk like themselves, only, of course, in a different language.
After offering, then, so many Fairy Books (though the stories are not all told yet), we now present you (in return for a coin or two) with a book about the friends of children and of fairies—the beasts. The stories are all true, more or less, but it is possible that Monsieur Dumas and Monsieur Théophile Gautier rather improved upon their tales. I own that I have my doubts about the bears and serpents in the tales by the Baron Wogan. This gentleman’s ancestors were famous Irish people. One of them held Cromwell’s soldiers back when they were pursuing Charles II. after Worcester fight. He also led a troop of horse from Dover to the Highlands, where he died of a wound, after fighting for the King. The next Wogan was a friend of Pope and Swift; he escaped from prison after Preston fight, in 1715, and, later, rescued Prince Charlie’s mother from confinement in Austria, and took her to marry King James. He next became Governor of Don Quixote’s province, La Mancha, in Spain, and was still alive and merry in 1752. Baron Wogan, descended from these heroes, saw no longer any king to fight for, so he went to America and fought bears. No doubt he was as brave as his ancestors, but whether all his stories of serpents are absolutely correct I am not so certain. People have also been heard to express doubts about Mr. Waterton and the Cayman. The terrible tale of Mr. Gully and his deeds of war I know to be accurate, and the story of Oscar, the sentimental tyke, is believed in firmly by the lady who wrote it. As for the stories about Greek and Roman beasts, Pliny, who tells them, is a most respectable author. On the whole, then, this is more or less of a true story-book.
There ought to be a moral; if so, it probably is that we should be kind to all sorts of animals, and, above all, knock trout on the head when they are caught, and don’t let the poor things jump about till they die. A chapter of a very learned sort was written about the cleverness of beasts, proving that there must have been great inventive geniuses among beasts long ago, and that now they have rather got into a habit (which I think a very good one) of being content with the discoveries of their ancestors. This led naturally to some observations on Instinct and Reason; but there may be children who are glad that there was no room for this chapter.
The longer stories from Monsieur Dumas were translated from the French by Miss Cheape.
‘A Rat Tale’ is by Miss Evelyn Grieve, who knew the rats.
‘Mr. Gully’ is by Miss Elspeth Campbell, to whom Mr. Gully belonged.
‘The Dog of Montargis,’ ‘More Faithful than Favoured,’ and ‘Androcles’ are by Miss Eleanor Sellar.
Snakes, Bears, Ants, Wolves, Monkeys, and some Lions are by Miss Lang.
‘Two Highland Dogs’ is by Miss Goodrich Freer.
‘Fido’ and ‘Oscar’ and ‘Patch’ are by Miss A. M. Alleyne.
‘Djijam’ is by his master.
‘The Starling of Segringen’ and ‘Grateful Dogs’ are by Mr. Bartells.
‘Tom the Bear,’ ‘The Frog,’ ‘Jacko the Monkey’ and ‘Gazelle’ are from Dumas by Miss Blackley.
All the rest are by Mrs. Lang.
CONTENTS
More Faithful than Favoured 310
Dolphins, Turtles, and Cod 316
More about Elephants . . 321
Bungey 329
Lions and their Ways . . 333
The History of Jacko I. . 338
Signora and Lori . . . 348
Of the Linnet, Popinjay, or Parrot, and other Birds that can Speak . . . . 351
Patch and the Chickens . . 354
The Fierce Falcon . . . . 356
Mr. Bolt, the Scotch Terrier . 360
A Raven’s Funeral .... 364
A Strange Tiger .... 368
Halcyons and their Biographers 373
The Story of a Frog . . . 375
The Woodpecker Tapping on the Hollow Oak Tree . . 384
Dogs Over the Water . . . 387
The Capocier and his Mate . 394
Owls and Marmots .... 396
Eagles’ Nests 399
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Tom is invited to the Ball 3
‘The Minuet was Tom’s greatest Triumph’ 9
Tom discovered in the Box 12
‘They at last all took hold of his Tail’ 16
Terror of the Orang-outang at Saï 17
Saï has to take a Pill 21
The Cats no match for the Buzzard 27
The Buzzard carries off Hat and Wig 28
‘Seeing such a number of Rats, he left his Horses and ran for his Life’ 37
The Rats in the Larder 41
The Baron kills the Snake 44
The Baron slays the Horned Snake 46
How the Indians make the Horned Snake disgorge his Dinner . . 48
The Elephant helps the Gardener 53
De Narsac recognises his Friend’s Dog 57
The Dog flies at Macaire in the presence of the King 61
The Baron kills the Bear 75
The Grizzly 79
Androcles in the Lion’s Cave 93
Androcles in the Arena 97
‘Monsieur Dumas, may I accommodate you with my Monkey and my Parrot?’ 107
The Auvergnat and his Monkey Ill
The Last of the Laidmanoirs and Mademoiselle Desgarcins . . 120
Dumas arrives at Stora with his Vulture 127
‘It’s a regular Kennel’ 131
Jugurtha becomes Diogenes ... 135
Pritchard and the Hens 142
‘Pritchard reappeared next moment with a Hare in his Mouth’ . 145
Cartouche outwits Pyramus 156
Mademoiselle de Laistre and her Weasel 161
‘When Day broke’ 166
The Death of the Famous Wolf of Gévaudan 171
‘The Long Vigil’ 187
The Capture of the Cayman 197
The Wounding of Fido 201
The Dream of the Hungry Lion 207
Cagnotte comes out of his Skin 217
‘And what do you Think she Saw’ 221
Blanche telling Ghost Stories to Jane in the Stable 227
How the Dolphins helped the Fishermen to catch the Mullets . . 234
Two Oran Otans 238
The Baboons who stole the Poor Man’s Dinner 241
Birds’ Nests for Dinner 258
‘In the full enjoyment of a large lighted Log on the Dining-room Carpet’ 261
‘Oscar would charge and rout them 265
‘Oscar felt rather Frightened’ 269
‘Oh, Oscar, Oscar, lad what have you Done?’ 271
The Boy goes to School on the Dolphin’s back 275
Dumas finds Joseph standing on Gazelle’s back 284
Dumas brings Gazelle to No. 109 Faubourg St.-Denis 288
The Lion caught in the Pit 297
The Ambush 300
‘All Three stopped to gaze at the Man who dared to put himself in their Path’ 303
‘And pinned Him to the Ground’ 314
‘Long, Long Ago.’ The Elephant dreams of his Old Com- panions 323
The Elephant falls on his knees before the little Scotch Terrier . . 327
Bungey at the Spanish Ambassador’s House 331
The Hottentot noticed a huge Lion lying in the Water 335
Annoyance of the Captain on finding his Flask of Rum upset . . 339
Lori refuses to Share with the Signora 349
A Raven’s Funeral 365
The Tiger and his Friend . . . ., 369
Love’s disgraceful Behaviour out Shooting 377
The Sole Result of his Day’s Sport 380
Mademoiselle Camargo becomes a Barometer 381
The Faithful Spaniel 389
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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