Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman (ebook and pdf reader TXT) đ
- Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
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They heard our whirring screw. They ran out of the housesâ âthey gathered in from the fields, swift-running light figures, crowds of them. We stared and stared until it was almost too late to catch the levers, sweep off and rise again; and then we held our peace for a long run upward.
âGosh!â said Terry, after a while.
âOnly women thereâ âand children,â Jeff urged excitedly.
âBut they lookâ âwhy, this is a civilized country!â I protested. âThere must be men.â
âOf course there are men,â said Terry. âCome on, letâs find âem.â
He refused to listen to Jeffâs suggestion that we examine the country further before we risked leaving our machine.
âThereâs a fine landing place right there where we came over,â he insisted, and it was an excellent oneâ âa wide, flat-topped rock, overlooking the lake, and quite out of sight from the interior.
âThey wonât find this in a hurry,â he asserted, as we scrambled with the utmost difficulty down to safer footing. âCome on, boysâ âthere were some good lookers in that bunch.â
Of course it was unwise of us.
It was quite easy to see afterward that our best plan was to have studied the country more fully before we left our swooping airship and trusted ourselves to mere foot service. But we were three young men. We had been talking about this country for over a year, hardly believing that there was such a place, and nowâ âwe were in it.
It looked safe and civilized enough, and among those upturned, crowding faces, though some were terrified enough, there was great beautyâ âon that we all agreed.
âCome on!â cried Terry, pushing forward. âOh, come on! Here goes for Herland!â
II Rash AdvancesNot more than ten or fifteen miles we judged it from our landing rock to that last village. For all our eagerness we thought it wise to keep to the woods and go carefully.
Even Terryâs ardor was held in check by his firm conviction that there were men to be met, and we saw to it that each of us had a good stock of cartridges.
âThey may be scarce, and they may be hidden away somewhereâ âsome kind of a matriarchate, as Jeff tells us; for that matter, they may live up in the mountains yonder and keep the women in this part of the countryâ âsort of a national harem! But there are men somewhereâ âdidnât you see the babies?â
We had all seen babies, children big and little, everywhere that we had come near enough to distinguish the people. And though by dress we could not be sure of all the grown persons, still there had not been one man that we were certain of.
âI always liked that Arab saying, âFirst tie your camel and then trust in the Lord,âââ Jeff murmured; so we all had our weapons in hand, and stole cautiously through the forest. Terry studied it as we progressed.
âTalk of civilization,â he cried softly in restrained enthusiasm. âI never saw a forest so petted, even in Germany. Look, thereâs not a dead boughâ âthe vines are trainedâ âactually! And see hereââ âhe stopped and looked about him, calling Jeffâs attention to the kinds of trees.
They left me for a landmark and made a limited excursion on either side.
âFood-bearing, practically all of them,â they announced returning. âThe rest, splendid hardwood. Call this a forest? Itâs a truck farm!â
âGood thing to have a botanist on hand,â I agreed. âSure there are no medicinal ones? Or any for pure ornament?â
As a matter of fact they were quite right. These towering trees were under as careful cultivation as so many cabbages. In other conditions we should have found those woods full of fair foresters and fruit gatherers; but an airship is a conspicuous object, and by no means quietâ âand women are cautious.
All we found moving in those woods, as we started through them, were birds, some gorgeous, some musical, all so tame that it seemed almost to contradict our theory of cultivationâ âat least until we came upon occasional little glades, where carved stone seats and tables stood in the shade beside clear fountains, with shallow bird baths always added.
âThey donât kill birds, and apparently they do kill cats,â Terry declared. âMust be men here. Hark!â
We had heard something: something not in the least like a birdsong, and very much like a suppressed whisper of laughterâ âa little happy sound, instantly smothered. We stood like so many pointers, and then used our glasses, swiftly, carefully.
âIt couldnât have been far off,â said Terry excitedly. âHow about this big tree?â
There was a very large and beautiful tree in the glade we had just entered, with thick wide-spreading branches that sloped out in lapping fans like a beech or pine. It was trimmed underneath some twenty feet up, and stood there like a huge umbrella, with circling seats beneath.
âLook,â he pursued. âThere are short stumps of branches left to climb on. Thereâs someone up that tree, I believe.â
We stole near, cautiously.
âLook out for a poisoned arrow in your eye,â I suggested, but Terry pressed forward, sprang up on the seat-back, and grasped the trunk. âIn my heart, more likely,â he answered. âGee! Look, boys!â
We rushed close in and looked up. There among the boughs overhead was somethingâ âmore than one somethingâ âthat clung motionless, close to the great trunk at first, and then, as one and all we started up the tree, separated into three swift-moving figures and fled upward. As we climbed we could catch glimpses of them scattering above us. By the time we had reached about as far as three men together dared push, they had left the main trunk and moved outward, each one balanced on a long branch that dipped and swayed beneath the weight.
We paused uncertain. If we pursued further, the boughs would break under the double burden. We might shake them off, perhaps, but none of us was so inclined. In the soft dappled light of these high regions, breathless with our rapid climb,
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