Tristis

By Frank W. Griffiths

Tristis is a fascinating story about a bird, a goldfinch with a brilliant humanlike mind who observes human activities and tries to emulate them, including building a house that burns down when he tries to cook in it. He also debates with a blue bird who tries to slow him down. The story suggests that the bird took the many photos and told the author the story of the book.

In reality, the very unique photos the book contains were taken by the author, my father, in the 1930s using a blind and 46 black-and-white camera and wild birds he was able to partially tame enough to picture them in humanlike activities.

Tristis ultimately fails in his efforts to live like a human, and the story ends with his realization that only by being himself could he find happinessa moral that all of us can appreciate.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543454048

Frank W. Griffiths

My father, Frank W. Griffiths was a school teacher and an intense ornithologist most of his life. He could identify virtually all the birds in the Eastern United States, not only by seeing them up close but by their song or even their flight pattern high in the sky. He was an avid photographer both with still cameras and later with a 16 mm Bell and Howell Cine Kodak Special movie camera. Even before I was born in 1936 he would routinely set up blinds so that he could take wonderful photos of wild birds in flight or in their nests feeding their young. He was also an English major and enjoyed writing stories - particularly stories with morals to them. In the early nineteen thirties while he lived on the south side of Syracuse, NY he combined his photographic and writing skills to create Tristis. During his lifetime, the story never got beyond a hand typed note book with many hand written corrections. But, the notebook did contain many wonderful, black and white original prints of wild birds he partially tamed to sit in one position long enough to catch images of birds with human like personalities - and most particularly a goldfinch that tried to live like a human, but finally learned that only by being what you are may be the best in life. The original script was typed into computer format by my daughter, and I carefully scanned the images and inserted them into the copy to create a book that can be enjoyed by all - and just may convey a message of how to live ones life. The color cover photo of a Goldfinch couple was copied from a framed color print from dads collection and is of Tristiss father and mother looking over the eggs before Tristis with his special personality was hatched. Original family publication ~ 2006. Clark Griffiths, Composer and editor, Long time Lebanon, NH resident. Dartmouth College Class of 57 Retired Director of Engineering Timken Aerospace in Lebanon, NH

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Copyright © 2017 by Clark A. Griffiths.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017914906

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5434-5402-4

      Softcover      978-1-5434-5403-1

      eBook         978-1-5434-5404-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 10/24/2017

Xlibris

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Contents

Preface

Tristis Lays The Foundation

The First Story

The Second Story

Here Begins The Third Story

We Commence The Fourth Story

Start The Fifth Story Here

Here Is The Sixth Story

This Is The Seventh Story

The Roof

Travels Of Tristis

Preface

My father, Frank W. Griffiths was a school teacher and an intense ornithologist most of his life. He could identify virtually all the birds in the Eastern United States, not only by seeing them up close but by their song or even their flight pattern high in the sky. He was an avid photographer both with still cameras and later with a 16 mm Bell and Howell Cine Kodak Special movie camera. Even before I was born in 1936 he would routinely set up blinds so that he could take wonderful photos of wild birds in flight or in their nests feeding their young.

He was also an English major and enjoyed writing stories - particularly stories with morals to them. In the early nineteen thirties while he lived on the south side of Syracuse, NY he combined his photographic and writing skills to create the book Tristis. During his lifetime, the story never got beyond a hand typed note book with many hand-written corrections. However, the notebook did contain many wonderful, black and white original photos of wild birds he partially tamed to sit in one position long enough to catch images of birds with human like personalities - and most particularly a goldfinch that tried to live like a human, but finally learned that only by being what you are may be the best in life.

The original script was typed into computer format by my daughter Lisa who also drew the map on the last page. I carefully scanned the images and inserted them into the copy to create a book that can be enjoyed by all - and just may convey a message of how to live one’s life.

The color cover photo was copied from a framed color print from dad’s collection and is of Tristis’s father and mother looking over the eggs before Tristis with his special personality was hatched

Clark Griffiths, Composer and Editor

Long time Lebanon, NH resident.

Dartmouth College Class of 57

Tristis Lays The Foundation

A LITTLE OLD MAN WITH a long beard was to blame for everything…

Many years ago, I am told, he was walking through a broad field quite crowded with the flowers of early summer. It was a beautiful clear day. Everything in the world seemed to be thankful for the warm sunlight, except the old man himself. It was a little too warm for him, and besides he was tired. When he came to a little hawthorn tree in the middle of the field he sat down to rest under its shade. Soon he was blinking his eyes to keep himself awake.

Suddenly from above his head he heard some strange cries. They sounded very sad and mournful. Looking up he saw that the cries were coming from two birds in the hawthorn tree. One bird was the color of a lemon except for his wings, his tail and a spot on the top of his head. These were black. The other bird, who seemed to be his mate, was brownish all over. Both were perched near a nest that looked as though it were made of fine grass and bits of bark.

"I’ve looked through a lot of books, said the old man to himself, but I never saw one of those birds before, I think I should give it a name."

Now had he been an ordinary man, I suppose he would have called them something easy to remember, like Black Capped Yellow Bird. Since he was such an unusual man, he wanted to give them a fancy name. Something very hard to say and hard to understand and hard to say would be just the thing. He decided to put together some Greek and Latin words which no one used. He would make a very long name for a very short bird.

"As-trag-a-lin-us would be good thought he. That means an unknown small bird. But that is not really long enough for such an important new