“They have been dying off pretty fast lately,” observedBlane; “the last keeper embezzled money given for their food. The lion (alias cheetah) did not get the lion’s share.”
“Of course you have preserved and stuffed the skins,” quoth Thud.
“Yes, yes; we’ve more stuffed creatures now than live ones, and they give less trouble,” observed Blane. “You see this building to the right? That is our little museum.”
Museum! the word was nectar to Thud. The bright vision rose before him of a day when he should be not only keeper but manager—nay, more, proprietor—of a museum, filled not merely with stuffed monkeys and snakes, but with all the curiosities of the East.
That evening Mr. Blane started for his too long deferred holiday trip, which illness obliged him to prolong from days to weeks.
Thud was at first in his glory, monarch of all he surveyed, “lord of the fowl and the brute.” But troubles will come even to scientific keepers of Zoological Gardens. A theory of Thud’s, that carnivorous beasts may be trained to thrive on boiled grain, when worked out did not prove a success. Thud wondered why animals, even when scientifically treated, would sicken and die. They seemed to do so on purpose to spite him.
The young philosopher felt a great want of companions. The Gardens had few visitors, and those visitors did not appreciate Thucydides Thorn, or thetheories which he was always eager to propound. Thud was almost thrown for society on a one-eyed discharged soldier, who now, as a porter, kept the gate. This man, Colin Champer, was discovered by Thud to be a remarkably shrewd, intelligent man. Champer won this character because he was a good listener; he echoed every wise saying dropped by Thud, having no imagination of his own, and gave implicit credence to whatever his oracle said.
One day, after being for some time buried in thought, Thud raised his head with a kind of scientific inspiration, for a new theory had entered his brain.
“Champer,” said he to the porter, “how was the keeper cured who, as you told me, was bitten here by a snake?”
“He had ammonia rubbed in, and had ammonia mixed with water poured down his throat,” was Champers reply.