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Shangri-LA, issue 4, January-February 1948
Page 3
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"You dan't teach an old dog new tricks!" They shouted. "We will not submit!" They cried. "We shall not teach!" But They taught him; he made Them. He wasn't Their inferior nor was he Their superior. He barked only "Ep", and wrote his lessons with his pencil held in his tail, and passed and passed and passed. First student, first celebrity, how They howled over him all over the world as he passed and passed and graduated. They took a million pictures and shook his paw. They patted him on the head. "You're a good dog - brilliant. You like a good tree, and you like a good bitch, but you're housebroken and have a degree - you're great, Ep." Ep said nothing, wrote no word of his plan, and, after graduation, had dog biscuits in the White House with the President of the United States. And held his breath...suffered hell that They'd find him out and that he'd be destroyed before his life's work was done. His great heart beat painfully within him when he feared that They'd find him out. Minute is to minute is to hour, and hour is to day. Professor Hoge knew that dogs didn't like to carry books in their teeth nor to be laughed at as a joke. He knew that there were other forms of life on earth and that these forms once ruled the world as his did now, and he didn't laugh at Ep. But at first he didn't see, such was his preoccupation and delight at watching the students react to a dog in their midst, learning and passing. But Standish.....Sometimes he would stare at Ep, and his black eyes would glitter. "You're a devil," he'd say, and, when he was drunk, he would kick Ep and curse him. Once he choked Ep with his hands, his breath stinking on the great one's face. "What villainy are you up to, you hound of darkness?" he screamed. "What madness?" How Ep trembled for fear, trembled for fear that he'd have to tear the throat out of Standish, because he lived for the plan, and it was early to die, too early. How piteously did nis hoble heart waste its numbered beats in quicktime! He knew that he would be killed if he killed one of Them. "Save me!" he cried to the Inscrutable. "Save my honor so I may live and we--" Thus he cried, and would have killed, but Standish became ill from his alcohol. Professor Hoge knew the secret and said it with laughs and feeble jests. "The world is going to the dogs, eh, Ep?" he said. "You want to be ready for it." He knew! Ep stared into the merry eyes, felt giddy, but his limbs didn't tremble. If he must kill ---But the Professor who'd taught him, who knew in his mind all time and the torrents of life, its tremendous breadth, only smiled. He knew that Ep was a mutation of a dog, not a true dog at all. - 3 -
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"You dan't teach an old dog new tricks!" They shouted. "We will not submit!" They cried. "We shall not teach!" But They taught him; he made Them. He wasn't Their inferior nor was he Their superior. He barked only "Ep", and wrote his lessons with his pencil held in his tail, and passed and passed and passed. First student, first celebrity, how They howled over him all over the world as he passed and passed and graduated. They took a million pictures and shook his paw. They patted him on the head. "You're a good dog - brilliant. You like a good tree, and you like a good bitch, but you're housebroken and have a degree - you're great, Ep." Ep said nothing, wrote no word of his plan, and, after graduation, had dog biscuits in the White House with the President of the United States. And held his breath...suffered hell that They'd find him out and that he'd be destroyed before his life's work was done. His great heart beat painfully within him when he feared that They'd find him out. Minute is to minute is to hour, and hour is to day. Professor Hoge knew that dogs didn't like to carry books in their teeth nor to be laughed at as a joke. He knew that there were other forms of life on earth and that these forms once ruled the world as his did now, and he didn't laugh at Ep. But at first he didn't see, such was his preoccupation and delight at watching the students react to a dog in their midst, learning and passing. But Standish.....Sometimes he would stare at Ep, and his black eyes would glitter. "You're a devil," he'd say, and, when he was drunk, he would kick Ep and curse him. Once he choked Ep with his hands, his breath stinking on the great one's face. "What villainy are you up to, you hound of darkness?" he screamed. "What madness?" How Ep trembled for fear, trembled for fear that he'd have to tear the throat out of Standish, because he lived for the plan, and it was early to die, too early. How piteously did nis hoble heart waste its numbered beats in quicktime! He knew that he would be killed if he killed one of Them. "Save me!" he cried to the Inscrutable. "Save my honor so I may live and we--" Thus he cried, and would have killed, but Standish became ill from his alcohol. Professor Hoge knew the secret and said it with laughs and feeble jests. "The world is going to the dogs, eh, Ep?" he said. "You want to be ready for it." He knew! Ep stared into the merry eyes, felt giddy, but his limbs didn't tremble. If he must kill ---But the Professor who'd taught him, who knew in his mind all time and the torrents of life, its tremendous breadth, only smiled. He knew that Ep was a mutation of a dog, not a true dog at all. - 3 -
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