THE BIRDS OF THE OUTER FARNES 131 



only one who made a really good stand-up fight, and 

 at one time seemed to be fairly beating him, He was 

 Antaeus, the son of the Earth. 



Every time that he fell and touched his mother we 

 should say, 'ran down to the country' he came up 

 again with fighting-powers renewed. It was not till 

 Hercules found out his secret and held him up, never 

 letting him fall we should say, ' stopped his Saturdays 

 till Mondays out of town,' that he quite broke him 

 down. It is a myth in which the wisdom of the 

 ancients has written for our admonition, on whom 

 the ends of the world have come, the lesson that the 

 best cure for a tired head and irritable nerves is the 

 touch of Mother Nature to escape from the rattle 

 of cabs and omnibuses, and the everlasting cry of 

 'extra specials,' and lose oneself, if only for a day, 

 among the wild creation. 



Nowhere in the languid days of early summer 

 the breeding season of the sea-birdscan the tonic 

 be drunk in a pleasanter or more invigorating draught, 

 than on the rocks and islands of the Outer Fames. 



