320 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



chasms. When my serious trouble came we had only 

 canoe-riding ahead of us. It is not ideal for a sick man 

 to spend the hottest hours of the day stretched on the 

 boxes in the bottom of a small open dugout, under the 

 well-nigh intolerable heat of the torrid sun of the mid- 

 tropics, varied by blinding, drenching downpours of rain; 

 but I could not be sufficiently grateful for the chance. 

 Kermit and Cherrie took care of me as if they had been 

 trained nurses; and Colonel Rondon and Lyra were no less 

 thoughtful. 



The north was calling strongly to the three men of the 

 north Rocky Dell Farm to Cherrie, Sagamore Hill to me; 

 and to Kermit the call was stronger still. After nightfall 

 we could now see the Dipper well above the horizon up- 

 side down, with the two pointers pointing to a north star 

 below the world's rim; but the Dipper, with all its stars. 

 In our home country spring had now come, the wonderful 

 northern spring of long, glorious days, of brooding twilights, 

 of cool delightful nights. Robin and bluebird, meadow- 

 lark and song-sparrow, were singing in the mornings at 

 home; the maple-buds were red; windflowers and blood- 

 root were blooming while the last patches of snow still 

 lingered; the rapture of the hermit-thrush in Vermont, 

 the serene golden melody of the wood-thrush on Long 

 Island, would be heard before we were there to listen. 

 Each man to his home, and to his true love ! Each was 

 longing for the homely things that were so dear to him, 

 for the home people who were dearer still, and for the one 

 who was dearest of all. 



