Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (18 page)

"Fruit,
by
the
bye,
was
all
their
diet.
These
people
of
the
remote future
were
strict
vegetarians,
and
while
I
was
with
them,
in
spite
of some
camal
cravings,
I
had
to
be
frugivorous
also.
Indeed,
I
found afterwards
that
horses,
cattle,
sheep,
dogs,
had
followed
the
Ichthyosaurus
into
extinction.
But
the
fruits
were
very
delightful;
one,
in particular,
that
seemed
to
be
in
season
all
the
time
I
was
there—a lloury
thing
in
a
three-sided
husk—was
especially
good,
and
I
made
it
my
staple.
At
first
I
was
puzzled
by
all
these
strange
fruits,
and
by I he
strange
flowers
I
saw,
but
later
I
began
to
perceive
their
import.

"However,
I
am
telling
you
of
my
fruit
dinner
in
the
distant
future now.
So
soon
as
my
appetite
was
a
little
checked,
I
determined
to make
a
resolute
attempt
to
leam
the
speech
of
these
new
men
of mine.
Clearly
that
was
the
next
thing
to
do.
The
fruits
seemed
a convenient
thing
to
begin
upon,
and
holding
one
of
these
up
I
began a
series
of
interrogative
sounds
and
gestures.
I
had
some
considerable difficulty
in
conveying
my
meaning.
At
first
my
efforts
met
with
a stare
of
surprise
or
inextinguishable
laughter,
but
presently
a
fairhaired
little
creature
seemed
to
grasp
my
intention
and
repeated
a name.
They
had
to
chatter
and
explain
the
business
at
great
length to
each
other,
and
my
first
attempts
to
make
the
exquisite
little sounds
of
their
language
caused
an
immense
amount
of
amusement. However,
I
felt
like
a
schoolmaster
amidst
children,
and
persisted, and
presently
I
had
a
score
of
noun
substantives
at
least
at
my
command;
and
then
I
got
to
demonstrative
pronouns,
and
even
the
verb 'to
eat.'
But
it
was
slow
work,
and
the
little
people
soon
tired
and wanted
to
get
away
from
my
interrogations,
so
I
determined,
rather of
necessity,
to
let
them
give
their
lessons
in
little
doses
when
they felt
inclined.
And
very
little
doses
I
found
they
were
before
long,
for I
never
met
people
more
indolent
or
more
easily
fatigued.

"A
queer
thing
I
soon
discovered
about
my
little
hosts,
and
that was
their
lack
of
interest.
They
would
come
to
me
with
eager
cries
of astonishment,
like
children,
but
like
children
they
would
soon
stop examining
me
and
wander
away
after
some
other
toy.
The
dinner
and my
conversational
beginnings
ended,
I
noted
for
the
first
time
that almost
all
those
who
had
surrounded
me
at
first
were
gone.
It
is
odd, too,
how
speedily
I
came
to
disregard
these
little
people.
I
went
out through
the
portal
into
the
sunlit
world
again
so
soon
as
my
hunger was
satisfied.
I
was
continually
meeting
more
of
these
men
of
the future,
who
would
follow
me
a
little
distance,
chatter
and
laugh
about me,
and,
having
smiled
and
gesticulated
in
a
friendly
way,
leave
me again
to
my
own
devices.