A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



their work utterly regardless of the audience. 

 That s what I admire about them. Your eyes are 

 better than mine what do you make that thing 

 to be that is sticking up over in that field ? &quot; 



&quot; I should say it was an old hayrick or sheep- 

 fold.&quot; 



&quot;Then we are saved,&quot; said the Doctor, &quot;if it 

 is thatched. Forward.&quot; 



He caught me by the arm as we trudged up a 

 sloping field, the fine rain driving in our faces, 

 and the night coming on sheeted and drizzly. 

 There was a nasty wind that blew stertorously 

 among the wet trees, and as we approached the 

 old shed, it lifted and banged some loose portion 

 of the structure with a snappish clatter. I felt 

 that the season had put on its shroud and was 

 wailing hideously. I thought of a cosey corner 

 in my restaurant, where there was apt to be at this 

 hour a pleasant odour of cut roses and black coffee, 

 and a lively gathering of gourmands, with jaded 

 appetites for a late dinner. I found myself once 

 or twice turning round, rather mechanically, to 

 call a cab, and then the wind slapped me in the 

 face. And all the time the perennial and inex 

 tinguishable Doctor sustained a really superior 

 complacency of indifference to anything but his 

 own authoritative babble. &quot; If a man can learn 

 to laugh with vital defiance at these beneficent 



O 



ordinances of the atmosphere,&quot; he said, &quot;he will 

 in time arrive at the supreme stoicism that can 

 take Death by the hand and call him a jolly good 

 fellow.&quot; 



194 



