Stories of the first American animals

Dedication

To the Memory of My Father Augustine G. Langford

Contents

PAGE

Ideal section of the Earth’s surface showing hozv in the past three million years or more, during the Age of Mammals, the rocks have accumulated

to a thickness of over four miles.

II

Jock found walking a difficult matter because of the banana within him, which was rapidly asserting itself. He had about made up his mind to retrace Iris steps when he heard a second dis¬ tant cr3" like the first one. As he looked over the watery expanse he caught sight of an object floating upon the surface of the lagoon. It was far away, and a mere speck, hut Jock knew it to be an animal of some sort. It moved; in fact, everything inside and out of him seemed to be moving just then. However, his discomfort had not yet become acute enough to dull his interest in the distant, floating object. There was a huge boulder lying upon the beach. It would make a fine lookout, so Jock went to it and began climbing up. This latter was a difficult process. There were all sorts of bumps and things to cling to, but as soon as he touched them they began wiggling in all directions. This move¬ ment of the surface was soon communicated to the mass until the whole boulder was rocking and tossing like a ship in a stormy sea. By the time our hero arrived at the top he was too dizzy to stand. Cold perspiration oozed from his every pore. “Oh, I am so sick,” he groaned dismally. “I wish I hadn’t climbed up here. I want to get down.”

At this the wiggling stopped instantly. Jock saw one end of the mass beneath him turn partly around. An eye gazed in his direction. A frog-mouth gaped beneath the eye. Jock gasped and held his breath. The boulder was a huge animal, at whose head he now gazed as he stood upon its back.

“I see you, little rascal,” bellowed the creature in a deep voice. “You want to get down? Good; I wish you would.”

Jock thought he surely must be dreaming, although he was feeling too sick just then to care much about anything. He started over the paved back, slipped on one of the knobs and dug liis nails in the crevices to keep from falling. The creature began wiggling again like one possessed.

“The bumps! Keep on the bumps,” it squealed. “You tickle me so when you touch the creases.”

Jock tried his hardest to be agreeable, but he was too dizzy to steer a straight course, and his feet simply refused to stay on the slippery knobs. A renewed volley of wiggles sent him tumbling to the ground. This seeming disaster proved his salvation, for it made him disgorge the banana—a sure cure for biliousness. The world stopped spinning around and Jock felt able to examine his new acquaintance—a most genial creature, judging by his ac¬ tions. He was squirming and giggling just as anyone would do when tickled under the ribs. “Oh, my back! My sides!” he squealed.

“Are you a Dinosaur?” Jock inquired. “Never in my life have I seen an animal as large as you.”

“No?” the creature appeared greatly surprised. “I thought myself quite small; probably because I do not get enough to eat. Y r ou are very little. You must be starved.” He looked at Jock as though he really felt sorry for him.

“Whew!” our hero screwed up his face. “I hope I may never see food again. But you—are you a Dinosaur?”

“Certainly. Everybody knows me, Ankylus the Armored Dinosaur, always ready for fun and frolic, be it eating or sleeping.”

“Are you the Dinosaur King?” Jock asked eagerly. He thought himself nearing his goal at last.

“King? No, indeed,” was the answer. “Nobody with claws and teeth like mine could be the king. It is my duty to amuse him.”

“Amuse him? How?”

“When he is cross,” Ankylus chuckled. “You know, he is always cross. He jumps on me and tries to bite his way through

"I SEE YOU, LITTLE RASCAL,” BELLOWED THE CREATURE

IN A DEEP VOICE the plate on my back. Perhaps this does not amuse him exactly, but it keeps him busy and interested. I will show you how my part is done.”

Plis fat sides shook good-naturedly as he said this. He squatted close to the ground, drawing in his head and legs like a turtle. In this attitude he was about as accessible as a walnut. The mailed coat shielded his back, while the ground prevented any attack on his unarmored parts beneath.

“Clever, indeed,” remarked our hero. “But if I were the Dinosaur King I would roll you over and eat you out of your shell.”

Ankylus turned sickly green. His fat sides trembled. “Ugh! What’s that? Eat me out of my shell? If you value my friend¬ ship, make no mention of such a thing to anyone. I would be ruined if our King had it suggested to him. A terrible idea! I feel faint; I must have nourishment.”

The monster, after much effort, raised his belly several inches from the ground and dragged himself down to a clump of plants growing near the water’s edge. The food question made him forget his fears entirely. Having a head no bigger than his foot and not enough room in it for two ideas at once, he proceeded to gorge himself. While so doing he forgot all about the Dinosaur King, Jock and everybody else.

“Big eater that,” the little Mammal remarked as he watched the huge reptile gulping down bales of green stuff unchewed. “No wonder he is so big and clumsy. Ah, me; what a life!”

He was sitting there wondering if all dinosaurs were so stupid and ungainly as this one, when suddenly he caught sight of some¬ thing coming through the water farther down the shore.

“Another one!” Jock remembered the speck he had first seen far out in the lagoon. He had forgotten all about it in his meeting with the Armored Dinosaur. Perhaps the newcomer was the Ruler of the World. He would go and see, so away he scam¬ pered and waited on the beach in front of the floating object as it swam toward him.

The object in question turned out to be a gigantic duck-like head, and there was much more in the water beneath it. Suddenly it arose from the shallows and a huge body appeared, floundering and splashing among the lily-pads and other plants growing near the water’s edge. The duck-head towered five yards high as the monster emerged upon dry ground at last and sat down upon the beach, using his gigantic hind limbs and long, heavy tail as a three-legged stool. His front limbs were ridiculously small com¬ pared with the hind ones. Although a water reptile, his toes and fingers were tipped with blunt hoofs instead of claws. The huge creature was in the act of scratching the back of his head with one hand when he caught sight of the tiny Mammal sitting far be¬ neath him.

“Who—what are you?” he asked in surprise.

“I am a stranger here,” Jock shouted at the top of his lungs so that his voice might reach the other’s ears, wherever they might be. “I have come to see the Dinosaur King who rules the world. Are you he?”

“No,” replied the monster emphatically. “I am a Dinosaur, but not the king. They call me the Duck Bill. And so you are to meet our King. How distressing! However, that is your af¬ fair—not mine.”

“Why? Do you know him?”

“Too well for my own comfort,” hissed the Duck Bill. “He would eat me, hoofs, hide and all if I gave him the chance.”

“What! eat a big thing like you?” Jock exclaimed. “He must he very large and fierce.”

“He certainly is,” the monster declared. He glanced about him in a nervous manner as he said this. His bald pate glistened in the sunlight. It looked more like a green squash than a head. No ears were visible—mere holes where ears ought to have been.

“How odd,” thought Jock. “None of these animals seem to have ears. I wonder what they hear with.”

“I would suggest that you use caution in your dealings with our King,” the Duck Bill now said. “I feel an interest in you because you do not seem disposed to harm me.”

“Harm you?” Jock wondered if he could have heard aright. The very idea of his harming such a giant seemed inexpressibly funny. “No, I would not hurt you for anything,” he chuckled.

The Duck-billed Dinosaur appeared greatly relieved. “I am so glad to hear you say that,” he said gratefully. “Our King feels differently about such matters. He is a flesh-eater and—if you will pardon my frankness—he would eat you without a mo¬ ment’s hesitation. I disapprove strongly of the way he selects his food. I am a vegetable-eater, and would not treat you as he would. I never eat bugs.”

“I am not a bug,” cried our hero, flaring up.

“I meant a caterpillar,” corrected the Duck Bill, much em¬ barrassed.

“Nor a caterpillar, either,” shouted Jock in a great rage.

“No?” The monster appeared genuinely astonished. “How odd; you must be something. Nobody can be nothing. You are all covered with fuzz; so is a caterpillar. My skin is smooth and scaly; therefore, I am not a caterpillar. Are you a plant?” This query was delivered in a trembling voice. The Duck Bill’s fore¬ head wrinkled with anxiety.

“No, I am not a plant,” snapped our hero. The giant hissed a great sigh of relief. “Good!” he exclaimed. “I fairly dote on

JOCK AND THE DUCK-BILLED DINOSAUR plants—nice green ones; but it would break my heart if I were compelled to eat you.” He glanced at the water behind him. “Lily stems! Um-yum! I will gather a few now if you do not mind. I have had not a bite to eat since I first met you. Keep right on talking. I can hear every Word you say.” With that he waded into the shallows and began shoveling about in the mud with his spade-like bill.

Jock watched this latter process with much interest. “What do you do besides eat?” he inquired.

“Sleep,” answered the Duck Bill with his mouth full. “I do that until it is time to wake up and eat some more.”

“And having eaten-”

“I go to sleep again,” replied the monster. “It keeps me busy doing all these things, but I see no help for it.”

“No, I cannot see just where you have any fun,” Jock re¬ marked after a moment’s thought. “Seems to me you would get more out of life if you did not eat and sleep so much.”

“Im-practical,” declared the Duck Bill in his most positive manner. “Eat when the weather is warm; sleep when it is cool. Everybody does that way.”

“What if the weather stays cool?”

“Stay asleep,” replied the monster, well pleased with himself at having so ready an answer. Jock was silent for a few mo¬ ments. Why argue with this big good-natured beast? He be¬ thought himself of what he had come for and changed the sub¬ ject. “Where will I find the Dinosaur King?” he asked.

“Well, if you insist upon meeting him, keep right on,” was the answer. “When you hear an awful noise and see the most terrible tiling you ever saw in all your life, you will have met him. I would take you to him, but I prefer eating to being eaten.”

“May you stuff yourself and sleep until your dying day,” said Jock, waving a paw in farewell.

The Duck Bill paused long enough in his feeding to bestow upon our hero a look of unutterable gratitude, then he turned again to the plants, and that was the last Jock saw of the Duck¬ billed Dinosaur.

As our hero went his way along the shore of the lagoon he heard no awful noises and saw nothing so terrible that it could be mistaken for a dinosaur king, although he soon encountered an animal, the most remarkable creature he had ever beheld.

Standing among the tall rushes which grew thickly near the water’s edge was a huge monster over six yards long. Its body was a wobbly globe supported by four pillar limbs. A ponderous alligator tail trailed along behind it. The most remarkable part of the creature was its head, which was more than half as long as its body. This head spread out behind like a frilled cape, cover¬ ing the neck and shoulders. Two horns, each a yard long, pro¬ jected directly over the eyes. A third and shorter one sprouted from between the nostrils like the horn of a rhinoceros. The front of the mouth terminated in a parrot-like beak. The monster was astonishing rather than terrible to look upon; furthermore, it made no fearful noise. It was making some sounds—a subdued lamentation. As Jock came closer, to his amazement, he saw that the creature was weeping—actually crying as though its heart would break. Real tears poured down its face and formed a pud¬ dle on the ground beneath.

J ock mounted a cobblestone where he could sit out of the wet and look on. “What are such creatures made for?” he wondered. “Even a dinosaur must be good for something; and yet I cannot see- Hi-ho!” he suddenly cried out in alarm as the unknowm lurched in his direction. “Be careful there. Look where you are going.”

The Fat Party stopped moving and gazed languidly about him. Finally he caught sight of Jock, whereat his vast body trembled like a bowl of wine jelly. His weeping became so vio¬ lent that it seemed as though the whole mass of flesh would shake itself to pieces.

“Have no fear,” Jock shouted to reassure him. “I will not hurt you. Now be a good dinosaur and stop crying. What is the trouble?”

Vainly the poor creature strove to check his sobs and tears. “Lost,” he wailed dismally. “Oh, dear! poor little me. Never will it return to me again.”

Jock glanced all around him but saw nothing that might be considered as a dinosaur’s particular property. When he looked again at the unfortunate, he was much pleased, for the latter had ceased weeping and was fast recovering his control.

“I do believe it is coming back again,” he said hopefully. “I am sure it is coming back. I feel it.”

“What did you lose?” asked Jock.

“My appetite. I was eating and suddenly, for some unknown reason, I stopped. It was terrible.”

“Appetite?” our hero nearly tumbled off his perch, he was so surprised.

“Perhaps I was unduly nervous,” the monster explained. “And yet it is so hard to get along these days. Food is not as plentiful as it was, and then the nights are so cold. It makes me ill to think about it. Do I look thin and haggard?”

“Not thin, exactly,” Jock chuckled. “In fact, you appear to me quite hale and hearty. I was just wondering what all your

- —

THE FAT PARTY STOPPED MOVING AND GAZED LANGUIDLY

ABOUT HIM horns are for, and that thing on the back of your head—what do you do with it?”

“Nothing, absolutely nothing,” was the answer. “I wear those things because I have to. Now if you will excuse me, I must eat and take my nap so as to be perfectly fresh and rested for the next meal.”

“You are a Dinosaur of course,” said the little Mammal. “I suppose, too, that you do nothing but eat and sleep.”

“Ah, but you are wrong,” replied the other sadly. “I am the Three-horned Dinosaur, but I have much more to do than is good for me. I walk and I swim. These require tremendous effort; but how can they be avoided? Food cannot come to me, so I must go to it. Would that I could lie down and have somebody feed me the rest of my life; then I never need move.”

“That would give you plenty of time to think,” Jock re¬ marked thoughtfully, “and probably if you got to thinking you would see the need of stirring about and taking more exercise.”

“Think, think?” the monster repeated dully. “What is there to think about?”

“Particularly when you have nothing to think with,” Jock added in a v tone of biting sarcasm. “Probably if you stopped eating long enough to think a moment you would starve to death.”

“Without question,” the Dinosaur agreed. “If anything in¬ terfered with my eating and sleeping I would perish.”

“And it is fools such as this that drive my people into the Jungle, away from the land of joy and plenty,” thought our hero. “What would this clumsy beast do if he were forced into a corner and had to fight?”

Sis! boom! agh! A terrible commotion ensued at that moment among the forest trees; screams, hisses, bellows and the crashing of branches. Pandemonium had broken loose. The Three¬ horned Dinosaur turned in a panic and waddled into the lagoon as fast as his unwieldy body would permit. “The King!” he shrieked. “The Tyrant Reptile King!” Away he floundered and splashed until the water covered all but his eyes, nose and projecting horns. Then he stopped and remained motionless.

The tumult in the forest grew rapidly louder and nearer. Suddenly a thunderous voice bellowed: “Where is he? I smell flesh, and I will have it.”

Jock glanced at that part of the Three-horned Dinosaur which remained above water. The fugitive had heard the re¬ marks and considered them too personal to suit him, for he had a sudden fit of shivers, judging by the ripples and eddies about him.

The cries and disturbance in the woods had by this time in¬ creased tenfold. Suddenly there arose a perfect bedlam of screams and bellows and a gigantic monster burst into the open, uttering terrible noises and snapping its great jaws. To Jock, who had come to consider all Dinosaurs as huge, helpless creatures, here was a sight fearful to behold.

The colossal reptile head towered far above the trees. The jaws bristled with gleaming sabre teeth. The gnarled hide hung over the vast body in folds and creases. The long, heavily mus¬ cled legs contrasted strangely with the feeble arms. Each clawed —not hoofed—foot covered a square yard. The rear of the body tapered off in a long, thick tail, which thrashed about like a flail, felling small trees and mowing down the underbrush. The blood¬ shot eyes, "widely gaping jaws and murderous teeth could have found no equal for hate and fury.

Jock s^w. and cowered in mortal fear. No need to ask. Here was the one he sought. The Ruler of the World stood before

STORIES of the FIRST AMERICAN ANIMAES him. “Woe is me,” he groaned. “I have found him at last. Woe, woe!”

He looked wildly about him for a hole or some place to hide, but saw none. The Dinosaur King stood between him and the friendly trees; behind, spread the lagoon. The giant reptile bent low to sniff the ground. Jock could almost feel his hot breath. He crawled away along the beach, stomach to the ground, doing his best to escape unobserved. Vain hope. The monster saw him. Our hero hid his head in his paws and shut his eyes, think¬ ing that all would be over with him in a moment.

All was over and quickly, but not exactly as Jock expected. At sight of the tiny Mammal, the eyes of the Dinosaur King nearly started from his head. His vast body shivered until the ground vibrated as from an earthquake. His tierce looks changed to abject terror. Here was an unknown creature whose like he had never seen—a diminutive being, and yet different from all other living things. The discovery threw him into a panic. With a blood-curdling screech he jumped back and bounded away at express-train speed. Not for an instant did he consider the man¬ ner of his going—anything to escape from the tiny creature he could not understand. His ponderous tail got mixed up with his legs somehow and sent him sprawling to the earth. Head over heels he rolled, tearing great gashes in the ground with his clawed feet. In an instant he was up and on his way again, more fright¬ ened than ever. His flight led him to the woods, and he tore through them, bellowing like a thousand mad bulls, knocking down trees and everything else that stood in his way. In less time than it takes to tell it, he had disappeared in the forest, leav¬ ing a broad lane of torn and twisted vegetation to mark his cy¬ clonic course. The cries and crashing gradually subsided and finally no sounds could be heard except the ripple of water upon

AT THE SIGHT OF THE TINY MAMMAL THE EYES OF THE DINOSAUR KING NEARLY STARTED OUT OF HIS HEAD the beach. Jock sat alone, watching open-mouthed, and listen¬ ing, until convinced that there was no more to see or hear. He felt himself all over to make sure he was alive.

“It is too strange to believe,” he said in an awed voice. “The Dinosaur King, Ruler of the World, has fled from me. What poor things he and his creatures really are. They are huge and terrible to look at, but they have absolutely no sense at all. Ruler of the World; bah! I could do better than the Dinosaur King myself. My j)eople will soon learn of what they are missing. And now back to the Jungle, so that all may know of the good tilings awaiting them in the country of the Dinosaurs.”

III

The sun had set and twilight was fast changing to night when Jock finally completed his return journey across the Jungle roof and descended to his old home. His companions and neighbors were scattered about, and not jnuch in evidence, so he mounted a fallen tree and chattered his piercing call, which soon attracted the attention of all the Forest Dwellers.

From every hole, brush-pile and hollow stump, they came trooping around him. His absence had been the cause of much speculation, and all were curious to hear what he had to say. The first arrivals were Mammals of his own kind, always looking for and welcoming any excitement; then the Burrowers, forever timid about venturing too far from their holes; and last of all, the Pouched Animals. These latter were a glum lot, and by nature averse to new ideas of any kind. They trailed behind the rest, grumbling and shaking their heads like old grand-daddies. The women-folk wore apron skin-pouches in most of which reposed sleepy infants, who squeaked and made a great fuss about being awakened so soon after beginning their night’s rest. When all the Jungle Dwellers were settled down around the fallen tree and the youngsters quieted, Jock began the recital of his day’s expe¬ riences.

The Pouched Animals grunted their disapproval from the very first. To run away from home was unpardonable. They gazed at each other solemnly and shook their heads. Such folly could lead to no end but a bad one. The small Mammals took an en¬ tirely different view of the matter. As far as they were con¬ cerned, Jock had his audience with him. They edged up to him as close as possible, ears erect so as not to miss a single word. They were mightily interested. The Burrowers as usual were neither this nor that. They took the middle ground, neither objecting nor approving for fear of being drawn into an argu¬ ment with one or other of the opposing factions. They were like straws, ready to bend whichever way the wind blew.

“It was a long, long journey across the jungle,” said Jock; “but I would have done it before and many times had I ever sus¬ pected what was at the other end of it. The trees finally became so few and far apart that I descended to the ground. I was look¬ ing and smelling at everything when suddenly an animal swooped down upon me from above.”

“A Dinosaur!” moaned Old Grump, whereat all the Burrowers and Pouched Animals shivered and held their breaths.

“Well, it looked more like a big bird to me,” said Jock. “I tumbled into a hole, and the creature did not know how to get me out, so it went away and bothered me no more.”

“Didn’t it hide and wait until you came out?” one of the small Mammals inquired.

“No; it did not have sense enough to do that.”

The small Mammals tittered, but none of the others saw any fun in it. They took it as very serious business.

“I crawled out of the hole again,” Jock resumed. “I thought I was getting near the end of the world, for there ahead of me was the sky upside down. I kept on to where the land ended and tried to peek over the edge. It was not sky, but water. I never saw so much of it in one place. Most of the Dinosaur country is water, which is not surprising, now that I think of it. Some of them live there.”

“And the Dinosaurs; tell us about them,” begged one of the small Mammals.

“I am coming to them,” Jock replied. “I smelled something so nice, I felt hungry all over, but I smelled something else, too, that I did not like so much.”

“What was that?” peeped one of the Pouched Animals.

“A strange creature without legs, and wearing a big stone on his back. He attempted to bite me, but I kept out of his way, and he did not even try to catch me. Soon I smelled another.”

“Dinosaur?” Old Grump inquired in an awed voice.

“No; another slow-footed creature. He tried to hit me with his tail but I jumped out of the way. The thing knew it could never catch me, nor did it try. Seeing nothing to fear from him, I hunted around to see what made the nice smell.”

The Burrowers and Pouched Animals began to pluck up courage. Nothing very terrible had happened as yet. “What was it?” Old Grump ventured to inquire.

“A tree bearing a cluster of luscious food. A single fruit stuffed me to bursting. There were as many in the cluster as there are of you.”

Old Grump’s mouth began to water. He licked his chops greedily. “And this tree bearing fruit; is there more than one?” he inquired.

“Aye—a whole forest of the best and choicest foods, all going to waste. Nobody wants them; nobody eats them.”

“How r about the dinosaurs?” grunted one of the Pouched Animals.

Old Grump doubled up and relapsed into his former gloom. “Yes, how about them?” he repeated. “There may be some good in the Dinosaur country but probably bad too, and more of it.”

Jock winked at the small Mammals, then addressed himself to the Pouched Animals in a heart-to-heart manner. Even Old Grump experienced a thrill of pleasure at being thus taken into the speaker’s confidence.

“Aye—the Dinosaurs. Now listen carefully for I have much to say about them.” Every pair of eyes and ears were now centered upon Jock. Every breath was stilled. Only the rus¬ tling of breeze-blown leaves and the subdued murmurs of fast¬ beating hearts broke the stillness of the Jungle.

“The fruit I ate made me sick,” Jock confessed, much to the amusement of his small Mammal friends. “I was preparing to lie down somewhere when I heard a noise out in the water. There was a huge rock near by and I climbed up on that so as to see better. You will be surprised to learn that the rock was a huge Dinosaur.’ ’

The Pouched Animals nearly jumped out of their skins. Old Grump could scarcely believe his ears. “Most surprising! Ree-markable!” he gasped. “Did the monster roar terribly and gnash his teeth?”

“No, he made no sound. However, he wiggled around so that it was all I could do to stay on top of him. His back was covered with many knobbed plates. You would think that he could feel nothing through them; but my claws tickled him in the creases where the plates joined together and he could not bear it. He begged me to get down.”

“And what did you do?” giggled one of the small Mammals.

“Do?” Jock replied. “I was so sick and the creature jumped around so that I got down faster than I wanted to. He shook me off. However, he shook the banana out of me, too, and I felt well again. He was a very harmless Dinosaur. I tried to learn something about him but he was hungry and had no time for me. He began gulping down all sorts of plants growing near the water. Another Dinosaur appeared just then. He swam ashore from far out somewhere. He was quite different from the first one although big and silly too. He thought I was a bug, then a caterpillar and finally a plant. I talked with him a few moments but he became so hungry listening that he,too,began gobbling up all the waterplants within his reach. It was this one who told me that the Dinosaurs did nothing else but eat and sleep.”

Jock paused to rest his voice. The small Mammals began giggling and chatting among themselves. One of them squeaked “Eat and sleep” and this became a catchword to amuse the rest of them. “Is that all?” inquired one. “I like to hear you tell of these Dinosaurs. I never imagined that they were so silly.”