Once upon a time there was a man who sought escape from the prattle of his neighbors and went to live alone in a hut he had found in the forest. At first he was content, but a bitter winter led him to cut down the trees around his hut for firewood. the following summer he wsa hot and uncomfortable because his hut had no shade and he cmomplained bitterly about the harshness of the elements.
He made a little garden and kept some chickens, but rabbits were attracted by the food in the garden and ate much of it. The man went into the forest and trapped a fox, which he tamed and taugh to catch rabbits. But the fox ate up the man's chickens as well. The man shot the fox and cursed the perfidy of the creatures of the wild.
The man always threw his refuse on the floor of his hut and soon it swarmed with vermin. He then built and ingenious system of hooks and pulleys so that everything in the hut could be suspended from the celing. But the strain was too much for the flimsy hut and it soon collapsed. The man grumbled about the inferior construction of the hut and built himself a new one.
One day he boasted to a relative in his old village about the peaceful beauty and plentiful game surrounding his forest home. The relative was impressed and reported back to his neighbors, who began to use the area for picnics and hunting excursions. The man was upset by this and cursed the intrusiveness of mankind. He began posting signs, setting traps, and shooting at those who came near his dwelling. In revenge, groups of boys would come at night from time to time to frightne him and steal things. The man took to sleeping every night in a chair by the window with a loaded shotgin across his knees. One night he turned and shot his foot off. The villagers were chastened and saddened by this misfortune and thereafter stayed away from his part of the forest. The man became lonely and cursed the unfriendlyness and indifference of his former neighbors. And in all this, the man saw no agency except what lay outside himself, for which reason, and because of his ingenuity, the villagers called him American.
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