TURTLE EGGS FOR AGASSIZ 39 



morning, Sundays and rainy days alike. June 1st 

 was a perfect morning, but every turtle slid out 

 upon her log, as if egg-laying might be a matter 

 strictly of next year. 



" I began to grow uneasy, not impatient yet, 

 for a naturalist learns his lesson of patience early, 

 and for all his years ; but I began to fear lest, by 

 some subtle sense, my presence might some- 

 how be known to the creatures ; that they might 

 have gone to some other place to lay, while I was 

 away at the schoolroom. 



" I watched on to the end of the first week, on 

 to the end of the second week in June, seeing the 

 mists rise and vanish every morning, and along 

 with them vanish, more and more, the poetry of 

 my early morning vigil. Poetry and rheumatism 

 cannot long dwell together in the same clump of 

 cedars, and I had begun to feel the rheumatism. 

 A month of morning mists wrapping me around 

 had at last soaked through to my bones. But 

 Agassiz was waiting, and the world was waiting, 

 for those turtle eggs ; and I would wait. It was all 

 I could do, for there is no use bringing a china 

 nest-egg to a turtle ; she is not open to any such 

 delicate suggestion. 



