Even Kala, my mother, could never plan ahead.
She simply ate what she needed when she needed it, and if the
supply was very scarce, even though she found plenty for
several meals, she would never gather any ahead.
"I remember that she used to think it very silly of me to
burden myself with extra food upon the march, though she
was quite glad to eat it with me, if the way chanced to be
barren of sustenance."
"Then you knew your mother, Tarzan?" asked D'Arnot, in surprise.
"Yes. She was a great, fine ape, larger than I, and weighing
twice as much."
"And your father?" asked D'Arnot.
"I did not know him. Kala told me he was a white ape,
and hairless like myself. I know now that he must have
been a white man."
D'Arnot looked long and earnestly at his companion.
"Tarzan," he said at length, "it is impossible that the ape,
Kala, was your mother. If such a thing can be, which I
doubt, you would have inherited some of the characteristics
of the ape, but you have not--you are pure man, and, I
should say, the offspring of highly bred and intelligent
parents. Have you not the slightest clue to your past?"
"Not the slightest," replied Tarzan.
"No writings in the cabin that might have told something
of the lives of its original inmates?"
"I have read everything that was in the cabin with the
exception of one book which I know now to be written in a
language other than English.
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