Tarzan of the Apes

as did the little apes of other mothers. It was nearly a year from the time the little fellow ca

nderstand how a child could be so slow and backward in learning to care for itself. Why, it co

n they would have considered its case as absolutely hopeless, for the little apes of their own

and but for the female’s careful watchin

will you have to carry him and protect him. What

e tall grasses, that you may bear other and

lied Kala. “If I must car

Kala, and force her to give up little Tarzan, which was the name the

ith the child; and as this is one of the inalienable rights of the jungle folk, if they be dissatisfied among their ow

ears old he was an excellent climber, and on the ground could do many wonde

strength and size he was deficient; for at ten the great anthropoids were fully grown, some

uch a

after the manner of his giant mother, and as he grew older he spent hour u

e forest top, and grasp with unerring precision, and without appare

descent to the ground, or he could gain the utmost pinnacle of the

man of thirty, and far more agile than the most practiced ath

other life, nor did he know that there existed within the universe aught else

and his fellows. His little body, burned brown by exposure, suddenly caused him feelings of int

ith mud, but this dried and fell off. Besides it felt so uncomfortable

a little lake, and it was here that Tarzan first s

k to drink. As they leaned over, both little faces were mirrored on the placid pool; the fierce

hairless, but to own such a countenance! He wond

teeth! How they looked beside the mighty lips a

e compared it with the beautiful broad nostrils of his companion. Such a generous nose! Why it spr

— a brown spot, a gray circle and then blank whiteness!

ind him as a great body pushed itself stealthily through the jungle; nor did his companion, the ape, hear either, for h

moved a great padded paw forward, noiselessly placing it before she lifted the next. Thus she advanced;

ayfellows — carefully she drew her hind feet well up beneath

ttened to the earth except for the upward bend o

shed — quiet and stra

hough turned to stone, and then,

e cry as she sprang would have seemed a foolish thing, for could she not more surel

f hearing. To them the sudden scraping of one blade of grass across another was as effectual a warni

paralysis of terror for the tiny fraction of an instant which would suffice for h

. The little fellow crouched trembling just an instant, b

ngle had taught him to meet emergencies with self-confidence, and his higher intel

, galvanized the brain and muscles

e lake, behind him certain death; a cruel d

ed it because he connected it with the chill and discomfort of the torrential rai

avoid, and further, had he not seen little Neeta sink beneath its qui

or’s scream had scarce broken the quiet of the jungle, and before the great be

ll he lost no particle of that self-confidence and reso

, he fell into the stroke that a dog uses when swimming, so that within a few seconds his nose was above water

cquirement which had been so suddenly thrust upon

he saw the cruel beast that would have seized him c

vidently expecting him to return to shore,

to his tribe, adding to it the warning which would preven

and presently forty or fifty great apes swung rapidly and

nes of her best beloved, and with her was the mothe

, the lioness had no desire to meet these enraged adults, and with

which the cool waters had imparted to him, filled his little being with grateful surprise, and ever afte

t; for though her people could swim when forced to it, they

s, for it was such affairs which broke the monotony of his daily life —

me fifty miles inland. This they traversed almost continually, occasionally remaining for months in one local

mals of the more dangerous species; though Kerchak often led them on long marc

seldom their bodies, with the great leaves of the elephant’s ear. Two or three might lie cuddled in each other’s arm

d question, and he, too, gave to the great, hairy beast all the affec

true, but she was never cruel to him, and wa

an, and on several occasions had co

r’s sentiments, and whenever he could safely annoy him or make faces at him or hurl insults upon

tted him to invent a thousand diabolical tr

tying long grasses together, and with these he was forever tripp

make sliding nooses; and with these he and the younger apes amused themselves. Wh

panions, retaining the other end in his grasp. By accident the noose fell squar

mediately he attempted to repeat the trick. And thus, by pai

upon the march, night or day, he never knew when that quiet noos

nce, and old Kerchak took notice and wa

rong noose continued to settle about Tub

Tublat’s discomfiture, for Broken Nose was a dis

y thoughts revolved, and back of t

s with his long arm of many gras

stined to mull around in his conscious and subconsci

n later years.<