Of course there was some
excuse in the fact that in those days New York and Paris were not
brilliantly attractive cities. If there is any one thing outside a
church row, that tickles the devil into a frenzy of laughter it is
when a young married couple go home to live with the family. There is
about as much real life joy and harmony in it as there would be in a
jungle picnic of monkeys and parrots. There is just one place where
large families can dwell together peaceably--the grave-yard. It
is contrary to natural law that families of grown ups, should live
together. When a cub bear is old enough, big enough to hunt for food,
and comes back after he once goes out, his mother gives him a mauling
that makes him feel he would rather starve than come back again. Does
she love him? Of course she loves him to the limit of her instinct,
loves him to the point of pride that she wants him to be a brave,
daring, self-reliant master of the forest. When the whelps of a lion
get to be more than playful kittens, the mother leads them into the
jungle, slips away, leaving them to hunt. The young lions may return
to the old home, but their father and mother have moved away to a
distant den. To evolve their natures, to become supreme denizens of
the forest they must rely upon their own prowess.
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