CHAPTER XIII. 



A LINGERING GOOD-BY. 



" And these things finish." 



Shakespeare. 



IT is time to close. And yet there are many 

 things not set down in black and white. Peo- 

 ple might learn much beside this brook. One 

 marvels that they do not come here to study. 

 But I reflect on Peter the Great and am com- 

 forted. People are not far different from those 

 of his times. Poor Peter ! After establishing at 

 great expense that large museum of Natural His- 

 tory at St. Petersburg, he was driven to offering 

 to his beloved subjects a glass of brandy apiece 

 as an attraction that would draw them to look 

 at the wonders of creation in his museum. No 

 wonder this open-air museum of to-day does not 

 draw people. Nature offers no stimulant here, 

 save the golden one of sunshine, tonic enough for 

 those who count their descent from Father Adam. 



But stay. If one is thirsty, one might take a 

 dock-leaf. Does not the fine name of the dock, 

 Rumex, come from an old Latin word meaning 

 " to suck," since the Romans when thirsty were 

 given to sucking dock-leaves ? Can you imagine 

 great CaBsar with a dock-leaf in his mouth ? 



