OLD FAITHFUL 127 



ancient ears, I confess it. I am a troglodyte. 

 They belong to the age of aviators and wireless 

 telegraphy. Just what our beloved tongue will 

 be when they get through with it, I shudder to 

 think. Already I find myself in a foreign land, 

 and my mother tongue has been married so many 

 times she has forgotten her first husband. 



Old Faithful has its complement of bears. 

 Just a little way back of it you may see, at sunset, 

 black and brown and grizzly he and she bears, 

 cubs, and two-year-olds (I think we counted 

 twenty-four that night); and, after the great 

 search light was turned on, we went to the roof 

 with the glass and watched the light flash upon 

 them. Some of them paid no attention to it; 

 just went on feeding. Some of the newcomers 

 took fright and climbed trees. But most of them 

 looked at it unconcernedly, faced it with their 

 beady eyes glistening against its refulgence, 

 dared it to come on, and resumed their eating. 



They know, the older ones, that nothing can 

 hurt them there so long as they behave. 



Old Faithful is, of course, the most famous of 



