THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE GOOSE 



163 



of such men. It is unnecessary, their 

 honors are stamped upon their person. 

 We recognize the H.N.M.'s at a glance, 

 but if Nature stamps her approval on 

 the Boones, Kentons and Darlinkles she 

 is just as emphatic in placing the brand 

 of her disapproval upon men who seek 

 only after second-hand knowledge. If 

 you may know a healthy normal man 

 by his clear, hawk-like eyes you may 

 know a Ph.D., F.R.S. by his weak 

 dull or spectacled eyes. If an abundant 

 head of hair is one of the marks of a 

 healthy normal man, just as truly is a 

 bald pate the mark of a D.D., LL.D. or 

 M.D. Seldom will healthy hair grow 

 upon the bonded warehouses of junk 

 and antique knowledge which our pro- 

 fessors call their heads. If a quick, 

 noiseless step is one of the signs of a 

 healthy normal man, then is the halting, 

 blundering 1 Horace Greeley walk the sign 

 of Nature's disapproval of a life devoted 

 wholly to book lore. If a quick per- 

 ception and wide-awake mind is the 

 stamp of an H. N. M., we all know 

 that absent-mindedness is one of the 

 most constant symptoms of the seeker 

 after borrowed knowledge. 



Big Pete, though illiterate, was not 

 without considerable legendary knowl- 

 edge, and he seemed to know all about 

 the traditions of the wehr-wolf, and to 

 believe in the existence of such crea- 

 tures. His conception of a wehr-wolf 

 (or, as he called it, Weguldiooch Boch- 

 tusum) is identical with that of our 

 superstitious ancestors. He said, "This 

 spirit-wolf is a man who anoints him- 

 self with an ointment made by instinct 

 of the devil, puts on a magic girdle and 

 then assumes the form and nature of a 

 veritable wolf." 



He had no knowledge of any mod- 

 ern examples of this breed of animal, 

 but said that "in the fatherland over 

 the sea, a couple of hundred years ago, 

 many wehr-wolves were caught and 

 killed." It was only little by little that 

 I succeeded in pumping this informa- 

 tion from him ; he appeared to fear that 

 I would ridicule his ideas. One day I 

 asked if the Wild Hunter was not what 



he would call a well j- -wolf, and he an 

 swered : "I reckon if he is he must be 

 a new kind of one, an Americanized 



improvement on the old Dutch 'wcrc- 

 wulf,' too good-hearted to kill women 

 and children, as did old Peter Stump.* 

 Say! Peter wa' a terror, Peter wa' !" 

 exclaimed my informant, warming up 

 to the subject, "but he wa' only a Dutch 

 wolf, after all, and didn't know no bet- 

 ter than to play an unlucky number ; 

 he owned up to killing thirteen chil- 

 dren and the people pulled the old fool 

 to pieces with hot irons ! Reckon if he 

 could play the game agin he wouldn't 

 touch number thirteen with a ten-foot 

 pole." And Big Pete chuckled to him- 

 self for a moment, then gazed at the 

 sky attentively, wet his finger in his 

 mouth and held it aloft to catch the 

 direction of the wind, nodded his head 

 approvingly and remarked, "That's 

 what the crows been talking about." 

 "Why, Pete, did you learn all about 

 wehr-wolves from the crows ?" 



"Waugh ! tarnation cly thee for a 

 jack rabbit," he laughed, "Pat told me 

 about old Peter Stump, but the crows 

 been saying rain fer a day or two; 

 didn't you hear 'em quock like a heron?" 



There were no visible signs of a 

 change in the weather, which had been 

 clear for weeks, and overhead the sky 

 was clear blue, save where a white- 

 winged cloud sailed over the valley, yet 

 when we sat down to supper that eve- 

 ning I could hear the rumbling of dis- 

 tant thunder and see the heads of some 

 dark clouds peering at us over the 

 •mountain tops. 



It rained all that night in a fitful 

 manner and came to a stop about four 

 a. m., the wind went down and the air 

 seemed to have lost its vivacity and 

 life ; it was a dead atmosphere, and 

 we arose from our blankets feeling 

 tired and listless. 



While we were eating our breakfast 

 dark clouds suddenly obscured the 



*Executed in 1589 as a "were wulf." "He 

 dyed with a very great remorse, desiring that his 

 body might not be spared any torment so his soul 

 might be saved." Verstegan, page 187 (1655). 



