and begins to feel things he cannot define."
Stone sighed. "I've told him, McCobb--all about women. About women as mothers. And I've recounted their sins. Their shortcomings. Their lack of imagination and their superficiality. I've tried to educate him--prejudice him, perhaps--without lying. He understands."
"But will he understand when he begins to hunger--"
"That hunger," Stone said with a quick anger, "is deceitful."
"Deceitful, maybe--but it's strong, Stephen. It's mightily strong. And here it'll be like wanting the moon. Not even the moon--because you can see that."
"Do you resent my plan, McCobb--after all these years?"
"I do not. He's a fine lad. I was thinking only yesterday that I'd like to start him with the higher mathematics: You'll be well along to making a newspaperman of him, with your exercises and your editorial writing and your discussions of news and policy.
But I can make an engineer of him, too, and it'll do him no harm. Jack's taught him to play the banjo--and we might as well combine to make him the cistern of all our knowledge. I'll teach him science."
"You've done very well."
The Scotchman chuckled. "I've done a little. He's learned his botany and his zoology. There isn't a plant on the island he hasn't gathered and we've invented names for the ones we cannot find in the books, as you know. But I made a mistake about not telling him of devilfish--having never seen one in these waters."
"I don't think you should be blamed for that. He should have had the sense to see that it was an unwholesome thing."
McCobb shrugged. "That's a characteristic of him. He has the sense--but his interest is always getting the best of his caution."
Henry came round the house at that moment. He had been spading in the garden.
His young shoulders were bare and his skin was Indian color. His hair had darkened a little and it now hung damply over his brow. He wore trousers of soft-tanned leather and shoes not unlike low riding boots.
He grinned. "I got the new bed spaded. I'll plant it this afternoon."
"Good work. You didn't have to finish it today. It was a two-day job."
"You get full of energy," Henry said to his father. "And then--you want to work."
"Even on your birthday."
"Of course. What's the difference?"
"I was going to give you a recess from your studies this afternoon."
"I'd like that."
"And you can choose what you want to do."
Henry sat down on the step and considered.
"Well-I'll fix that clock right after lunch. I've had it apart for four days now and every time I put it together there's something left over."
He laughed.
McCobb interrupted him. "He won't let me help."
"I'll get it. Then I want to swim. I swam a hundred and six feet under water yesterday. McCobb measured it. After that--let's go for one of those pumas."
That was when Henry was twelve.
At fourteen or fifteen he sailed the big boat alone in the harbor and sometimes even outside the harbor. He went with his father and helped him build three signal fires--
one on each claw of the land that surrounded the bay and one on the top of the mountain.
He read about the use of the lasso, at that time, too, and the idea enthralled him.
He made a lariat and practiced throwing it with such intensity that it wail difficult to make him study for several weeks. He became proficient in the use of his lasso, and startled his father by announcing that some day he was going to find where the big lemurs lived and rope one of them so that he could bring it home alive.
In those years they had one very long and wet rainy season. They opened a good many of the copper drums which Stone had stored in the cellar. Jack caught a fever which kept him in bed delirious for a long time; and once, while Henry was taking care of him, the Negro raved for an hour and more about a girl named Clara.
In those years they moved the garden from the stockade to the broad pampas where the zebus lived in their corral and they worked the
Stone sighed. "I've told him, McCobb--all about women. About women as mothers. And I've recounted their sins. Their shortcomings. Their lack of imagination and their superficiality. I've tried to educate him--prejudice him, perhaps--without lying. He understands."
"But will he understand when he begins to hunger--"
"That hunger," Stone said with a quick anger, "is deceitful."
"Deceitful, maybe--but it's strong, Stephen. It's mightily strong. And here it'll be like wanting the moon. Not even the moon--because you can see that."
"Do you resent my plan, McCobb--after all these years?"
"I do not. He's a fine lad. I was thinking only yesterday that I'd like to start him with the higher mathematics: You'll be well along to making a newspaperman of him, with your exercises and your editorial writing and your discussions of news and policy.
But I can make an engineer of him, too, and it'll do him no harm. Jack's taught him to play the banjo--and we might as well combine to make him the cistern of all our knowledge. I'll teach him science."
"You've done very well."
The Scotchman chuckled. "I've done a little. He's learned his botany and his zoology. There isn't a plant on the island he hasn't gathered and we've invented names for the ones we cannot find in the books, as you know. But I made a mistake about not telling him of devilfish--having never seen one in these waters."
"I don't think you should be blamed for that. He should have had the sense to see that it was an unwholesome thing."
McCobb shrugged. "That's a characteristic of him. He has the sense--but his interest is always getting the best of his caution."
Henry came round the house at that moment. He had been spading in the garden.
His young shoulders were bare and his skin was Indian color. His hair had darkened a little and it now hung damply over his brow. He wore trousers of soft-tanned leather and shoes not unlike low riding boots.
He grinned. "I got the new bed spaded. I'll plant it this afternoon."
"Good work. You didn't have to finish it today. It was a two-day job."
"You get full of energy," Henry said to his father. "And then--you want to work."
"Even on your birthday."
"Of course. What's the difference?"
"I was going to give you a recess from your studies this afternoon."
"I'd like that."
"And you can choose what you want to do."
Henry sat down on the step and considered.
"Well-I'll fix that clock right after lunch. I've had it apart for four days now and every time I put it together there's something left over."
He laughed.
McCobb interrupted him. "He won't let me help."
"I'll get it. Then I want to swim. I swam a hundred and six feet under water yesterday. McCobb measured it. After that--let's go for one of those pumas."
That was when Henry was twelve.
At fourteen or fifteen he sailed the big boat alone in the harbor and sometimes even outside the harbor. He went with his father and helped him build three signal fires--
one on each claw of the land that surrounded the bay and one on the top of the mountain.
He read about the use of the lasso, at that time, too, and the idea enthralled him.
He made a lariat and practiced throwing it with such intensity that it wail difficult to make him study for several weeks. He became proficient in the use of his lasso, and startled his father by announcing that some day he was going to find where the big lemurs lived and rope one of them so that he could bring it home alive.
In those years they had one very long and wet rainy season. They opened a good many of the copper drums which Stone had stored in the cellar. Jack caught a fever which kept him in bed delirious for a long time; and once, while Henry was taking care of him, the Negro raved for an hour and more about a girl named Clara.
In those years they moved the garden from the stockade to the broad pampas where the zebus lived in their corral and they worked the
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