ISLANDS 35 



or even of the individuality of each, which is 

 very real and very distinct. Some day this 

 will be done, and the telling will be very won- 

 derful, and will use up most of the superlatives 

 in our language. For my part I may only 

 search my memory for some little unimportant 

 scene .which lives again when the name of the 

 island is spoken and string these at random 

 on pages, like the chains of little scarlet and 

 black sea-beans which glisten in the fingers of 

 the negresses, held up in hope of sale from 

 their leaky boats, rocking on the liquid emerald 

 around the steamer. 



ST. THOMAS, OR How I WAS TAUGHT TO 

 CATCH LIZARDS BY A DANISH FLAPPER. 

 Nearly a week had passed since we began to 

 exchange a sleety winter for the velvety tropics, 

 to traverse the latitude spectrum of ocean from 

 drab-gray to living turquoise. As on every trip, 

 it was early morning when the long undulating 

 profile of St. Thomas reared itself lazily from 

 the sea, and almost at once, flocks of great- 

 winged booby-gannets began to wheel and veer 

 around the ship, banking in a way to make an 

 aviator's blood leap. 



From a dusky monochrome the land resolved 



