The Scarlet Plague | Page 7

young man when the Plague came--twenty-seven years old;
and I lived on the other side of San Francisco Bay, in Berkeley. You
remember those great stone houses, Edwin, when we came down the

hills from Contra Costa? That was where I lived, in those stone houses.
I was a professor of English literature."
[Illustration: I was a professor of English literature 054]
Much of this was over the heads of the boys, but they strove to
comprehend dimly this tale of the past.
"What was them stone houses for?" Hare-Lip queried.
"You remember when your dad taught you to swim?" The boy nodded.
"Well, in the University of California--that is the name we had for the
houses--we taught young men and women how to think, just as I have
taught you now, by sand and pebbles and shells, to know how many
people lived in those days. There was very much to teach. The young
men and women we taught were called students. We had large rooms in
which we taught. I talked to them, forty or fifty at a time, just as I am
talking to you now. I told them about the books other men had written
before their time, and even, sometimes, in their time--"
"Was that all you did?--just talk, talk, talk?" Hoo-Hoo demanded.
"Who hunted your meat for you? and milked the goats? and caught the
fish?"
"A sensible question, Hoo-Hoo, a sensible question. As I have told you,
in those days food-getting was easy. We were very wise. A few men
got the food for many men. The other men did other things. As you say,
I talked. I talked all the time, and for this food was given me--much
food, fine food, beautiful food, food that I have not tasted in sixty years
and shall never taste again. I sometimes think the most wonderful
achievement of our tremendous civilization was food--its inconceivable
abundance, its infinite variety, its marvellous delicacy. O my grandsons,
life was life in those days, when we had such wonderful things to eat."
This was beyond the boys, and they let it slip by, words and thoughts,
as a mere senile wandering in the narrative.
"Our food-getters were called freemen. This was a joke. We of the

ruling classes owned all the land, all the machines, everything. These
food-getters were our slaves. We took almost all the food they got, and
left them a little so that they might eat, and work, and get us more
food--"
"I'd have gone into the forest and got food for myself," Hare-Lip
announced; "and if any man tried to take it away from me, I'd have
killed him."
The old man laughed.
"Did I not tell you that we of the ruling class owned all the land, all the
forest, everything? Any food-getter who would not get food for us, him
we punished or compelled to starve to death. And very few did that.
They preferred to get food for us, and make clothes for us, and prepare
and administer to us a thousand--a mussel-shell, Hoo-Hoo--a thousand
satisfactions and delights. And I was Professor Smith in those
days--Professor James Howard Smith. And my lecture courses were
very popular--that is, very many of the young men and women liked to
hear me talk about the books other men had written.
"And I was very happy, and I had beautiful things to eat. And my hands
were soft, because I did no work with them, and my body was clean all
over and dressed in the softest garments--
"He surveyed his mangy goat-skin with disgust.
"We did not wear such things in those days. Even the slaves had better
garments. And we were most clean. We washed our faces and hands
often every day. You boys never wash unless you fall into the water or
go swimming."
"Neither do you Granzer," Hoo-Hoo retorted.
"I know, I know, I am a filthy old man, but times have changed.
Nobody washes these days, there are no conveniences. It is sixty years
since I have seen a piece of soap.

[Illustration: Sixty years since I have seen a piece of soap. 059]
"You do not know what soap is, and I shall not tell you, for I am telling
the story of the Scarlet Death. You know what sickness is. We called it
a disease. Very many of the diseases came from what we called germs.
Remember that word--germs. A germ is a very small thing. It is like a
woodtick, such as you find on the dogs in the spring of the year when
they run in the forest. Only the germ is very small. It is so small that
you cannot see it--"
Hoo-Hoo began to laugh.
"You're a queer un, Granser, talking about things you can't see. If