A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



flower before with such a feminine grace. I am 

 glad that it attracted you, and that you captured 

 it. You are only human, like myself.&quot; 



&quot;Perhaps I m inhuman,&quot; he replied. &quot;Doctors 

 are apt to have that reputation, for the flower has 

 resented my impertinence. That is a fact to which 

 I wanted to call your attention. This beautiful 

 and almost human wild flower is placed wholly 

 beyond the desires or the plans of man. It hides 

 away from him. It will not grow in his garden. 

 A thousand attempts have been made to domes 

 ticate it, in vain. It disdains the parterre, and 

 refuses to bloom in the hothouse. It is the true 

 child of Nature, and if you pluck it as I have 

 done, it draws itself together, hides its virgin 

 beauty like a true vestal, and dies draped.&quot; 



Then the Doctor, who, when he fires his gun, 

 always wants to get out of range, added : &quot; Well, 

 let s be going. We don t want to sit here all day, 

 do we ? &quot; 



It must have been two weeks later. We had 

 returned from our tramp, and after a great deal 

 of skirmishing, I succeeded in getting Griselle to 

 let me drive her over and show her that scene. 

 She took a heavy wrap, for the wind was sharp. 

 It was the first time that I had dared to make a 

 companion of her, and as I had taken good care 

 to leave Charlie behind, we were seated side by 

 side for a couple of hours. Some kind of unrea 

 sonable desire to have the reality on that very 

 spot where so much ideality had been wasted 

 possessed me. There was no accounting for these 



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