Extracts From Adam's Diary
MONDAY.--This new creature with the long hair is a good deal in the way. It is always
hanging around and following me about. I don't like this; I am not used to company. I
wish it would stay with the other animals. . . . Cloudy today, wind in the east; think we
shall have rain. . . . WE? Where did I get that word-- the new creature uses it.
TUESDAY.--Been examining the great waterfall. It is the finest thing on the estate, I
think. The new creature calls it Niagara Falls-- why, I am sure I do not know. Says it
LOOKS like Niagara Falls. That is not a reason, it is mere waywardness and imbecility. I
get no chance to name anything myself. The new creature names everything that comes
along, before I can get in a protest. And always that same pretext is offered--it LOOKS
like the thing. There is a dodo, for instance. Says the moment one looks at it one sees at a
glance that it "looks like a dodo." It will have to keep that name, no doubt. It wearies me
to fret about it, and it does no good, anyway. Dodo! It looks no more like a dodo than I
do.
WEDNESDAY.--Built me a shelter against the rain, but could not have it to myself in
peace. The new creature intruded. When I tried to put it out it shed water out of the holes
it looks with, and wiped it away with the back of its paws, and made a noise such as some
of the other animals make when they are in distress. I wish it would not talk; it is always
talking. That sounds like a cheap fling at the poor creature, a slur; but I do not mean it so.
I have never heard the human voice before, and any new and strange sound intruding
itself here upon the solemn hush of these dreaming solitudes offends my ear and seems a
false note. And this new sound is so close to me; it is right at my shoulder, right at my
ear, first on one side and then on the other, and I am used only to sounds that are more or
less distant from me.
FRIDAY. The naming goes recklessly on, in spite of anything I can do. I had a very good
name for the estate, and it was musical and pretty-- GARDEN OF EDEN. Privately, I
continue to call it that, but not any longer publicly. The new creature says it is all woods
and rocks and scenery, and therefore has no resemblance to a garden. Says it LOOKS like
a park, and does not look like anything BUT a park. Consequently, without consulting
me, it has been new-named NIAGARA FALLS PARK. This is sufficiently high-handed,
it seems to me. And already there is a sign up:
My life is not as happy as it was.
SATURDAY.--The new creature eats too much fruit. We are going to run short, most
likely. "We" again--that is ITS word; mine, too, now, from hearing it so much. Good deal
of fog this morning. I do not go out in the fog myself. This new creature does. It goes out
