I wrote to Gran'pa and told him that one of the old men had died, and that the remainder had practically returned to the point whence they had started. I requested him to come home, lest evil befell him out there in the wilds. I drew a picture of Sally—happy and gracious and beautiful again—and of the many comforts and joys of civilization, compared with the hardships and dangers of gorilla hunting in the Dark Continent.
But he refused to be cajoled.
"Not a day older since you left," he wrote, in the same jerky way as he talked. "Not even a minute! . . . What Sally says about faith is perhaps right. I don't know—and I don't care. I'm still youthful, whatever the cause. . . . Caught ten more gorillas up to date; but afraid the old boys here may lose heart and refuse to be grafted if the bad news percolates through to them. I rely on your keeping silent. . . . Don't kill yourself with worry. Your 'old' Gran'pa is still going strong; so you've no need for sleepless nights, laddie! . . . England's too slow for me. The first twelve months there put ten years on my age. Except for the glands I'm positive that another twelve months would have killed me. Can you wonder at my being in no violent hurry to return? . . ." And so on.
That is Gran'pa's point of view—at present.
This is mine. I am young (in the true sense of the word). I can afford to be patient. The dug-out in the garden has been filled in again. Gran'pa's clothes have been carefully brushed and put away—with a good supply of "moth balls."
But his arm-chair is still by the fireside—waiting. He cannot resist its call—and mine—forever. Time is on our side.
Time will win.
THE END
Transcriber's Note: The ellipses in the original text were typeset erratically. The spacing and number of dots in ellipses has been adjusted for stylistic consistency. Numerous obvious punctuation errors have been corrected.
The hyphenation of several words, such as "anti-climax" and "to-day", was inconsistent in the original text. When a hyphen spanned a line break in the original text, the hyphen was retained or deleted based on the predominant usage elsewhere in the text. Otherwise, hyphenation has been left as it was in the original text.
The following typographical errors have also been corrected.
In the section titled WHAT THIS STORY IS ABOUT, "thrilling adventues with the gorillas" was changed to "thrilling adventures with the gorillas".
In Chapter II, "gran'pa's beard and the monkey's tail" was changed to "Gran'pa's beard and the monkey's tail".
In Chapter IV, "which semed to suggest that" was changed to "which seemed to suggest that".
In Chapter VI, "too much from you as it it is" was changed to "too much from you as it is", "there semed to be nothing" was changed to "there seemed to be nothing", and "how carefully and scientifically gran'pa was proceeding" was changed to "how carefully and scientifically Gran'pa was proceeding".
In Chapter VII, "the ir was like wine" was changed to "the ir was like wine", "old men of seventy-or eighty" was changed to "old men of seventy—or eighty", and quotation marks were adjusted around the phrase "?..?..?!"
In Chapter VIII, "whispered gran'pa to me" was changed to "whispered Gran'pa to me".
In Chapter IX, "a monosyllablic ejaculation" was changed to "a monosyllabic ejaculation".
In Chapter XI, "Molly was delirious with exitement" was changed to "Molly was delirious with excitement", and "persuaded the brute to swing the propellor" was changed to "persuaded the brute to swing the propeller".
In Chapter XII, "turned out attention to the 'gas-works'" was changed to "turned our attention to the 'gas-works'", "whimpering and seductives noises" was changed to "whimpering and seductive noises", and "turn a somesault" was changed to "turn a somersault".
In Chapter XIII, "three times in rapid sucession" was changed to "three times in rapid succession".
In Chapter XIV, "a monkey follows on organ grinder" was changed to "a monkey follows an organ grinder", and "the gentle art of lassooing" was changed to "the gentle art of lassoing".
In Chapter XV, "'Thirty thousand!' he exlaimed" was changed to "'Thirty thousand!' he exclaimed", and "we reached Walfish Bay" was changed to "we reached Walfisch Bay".
In Chapter XVI, "noisy behavior of the the individual" was changed to "noisy behavior of the individual", and "dropping the later back in the hat" was changed to "dropping the latter back in the hat".
In Chapter XVII, "what followed that interiew" was changed to "what followed that interview", and "that it why I never married" was changed to "that is why I never married".