190 THE WOODLANDS ORCHIDS 



shipping them he might return. It was a sad disappoint- 

 ment after such reasonable hopes, but things might have 

 been worse. So Ericsson gave orders to pack and start as 

 soon as possible. When all was ready, on the very evening 

 before departure, one of the local assistants brought him a 

 fiower. This time it was right. In three days several 

 thousand plants had been collected, and Ericsson went his 

 way rejoicing. 



No reader, I hope, will fancy that these coincidences are 

 invented. The story would be childish as fiction. It is 

 literal fact, and therefore only is it worth telling. 



