THE HERB DOCTOR 53 



" In such a manner did this poor and illiterate peasant 

 moralize on the common occurrences of nature; these glori- 

 ous and invaluable truths did he deduce from vile reptiles, 

 the unheeded insect, the simple herb that lies neglected 

 or is trodden under foot as useless and offensive; and what 

 friend to mankind does not, on contemplating this hoary 

 rustic's story, fondly wish, with its writer, that learning 

 had lent its aid to polish a genius that might have one day 

 surprised the world with the glorious blaze of a Locke or a 

 ]STewton? " 



At the close of an autumn day this beneficent old 

 man came to the Forest Inn to exchange some herbs 

 for things he would need in the approaching cold 

 weather. 



Having met Wilson, and read in him the true charac- 

 ter of a naturalist, he cherished the memory of the poet 

 naturalist in his solitude, and when he heard that another 

 naturalist, a young man by the name of Audubon, was 

 searching the woods from river to river for the same pur- 

 pose that he himself had in going into the woods to live, 

 he hoped he would meet him some day; he thought that 

 they must be kindred souls. 



The meeting, as we well suppose, came on this visit to 

 the inn. While he was having his herbs and barks weighed 

 a vigorous young man came down into the store from the 

 upper rooms. 



" This is Audubon, the naturalist," said Calvert, the 



