A STORY OF CATTLEYA MOSSIAE 49 



thousand arrived in good health. This quest completed in 

 shorter time than had been allowed, he looked for another 

 'job,' One is only embarrassed by the choice in that 

 region. Upon the whole it seemed most judicious to collect 

 Cattleya Mossiae. And Arnold set off for the hunting- 

 grounds. 



On this journey he saw the monster I have described. 

 It grew beside the dwelling of an Indian — not properly 

 to be termed a ' hut,' nor a ' house.' The man was a 

 coffee-planter in a very small way. Nothing that Arnold 

 could offer tempted him in the least. His grandfather 

 ' planted ' the Cattleya, and from that day it had been a 

 privilege of the family to decorate one portion of the 

 neighbouring church with its flowers when a certain great 

 feast came round. Arnold tried to interest the daughter — 

 a very pretty girl : the Indian type there is distinctly hand- 

 some. Then he tried her lover, who seemed willing to exert 

 his influence for the consideration of a real English gun. 

 Arnold could not spare his own ; he had no other, and the 

 young Indian would not accept promises. So the matter fell 

 through. 



Three years afterwards Arnold was commissioned to seek 

 Cattleya Mossiae again. Not forgetting the giant, he thought 

 it worth while to take a ' real English gun ' with him, though 

 doubtless the maiden was a wife long since, and her husband 

 might ask for a more useful present. In due course he 

 reached the spot — a small Indian village in the mountains, 

 some fifteen miles from Caracas. The Cattleya was still 

 there, perched aloft, as big as a hogshead. Arnold's first 

 glance was given to it ; then he looked at the owner's 

 hospitable dwelling. It also was still there, but changed. 

 Tidy it had never been, but now it was ruinous. None of 

 the village huts could be seen, standing as they did each in 

 its ' compound ' — a bower of pahii and plantains, fruit- 



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