CHAPTER VI 



OUR RIVALS 



WE do not like to acknowledge the fact 

 that we are not quite masters of the 

 world, but the fact is we have a hard time 

 to confirm our lordship. As far back as time goes 

 and we have any record of it there has been a battle 

 on the globe between the vegetable and the animal 

 kingdoms. At one time the world was astoundingly 

 overrun with huge plants. Vines of enormous size 

 clambered their hundreds of feet over trees that stood 

 three hundred feet high. Then again there was the 

 Saurian age, when animals crushed the vegetable life 

 under enormous feet and pulled the limbs from lofty 

 trees. 



Things tamed down a good deal on both sides 

 before man put in his appearance. With us came 

 in three or four families of plants, the cereal family, 

 the solanum family, the rosaceae family, and the 

 palm family, and at the same time three or four 

 families of animals, including the reindeer, the dog, 

 the horse, and the cow. 



It needs no argument of mine to show that we 

 should have had a hard time on this globe without 

 these friendly neighbors. By their aid we have our 



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