44 THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



and dizzy; but there, there in the sand, were the 

 eggs ! and Agassiz ! and the great book ! And I 

 cleared the fence, and the forty miles that lay be- 

 tween me and Cambridge, at a single jump. He 

 should have them, trains or no. Those eggs should 

 go to Agassiz by seven o'clock, if I had to gallop 

 every mile of the way. Forty miles ! Any horse 

 could cover it in three hours, if he had to; and 

 upsetting the astonished turtle, I scooped out her 

 round white eggs. 



" On a bed of sand in the bottom of the pail I 

 laid them, with what care my trembling fingers 

 allowed; filled in between them with more sand; 

 so with another layer to the rim ; and covering 

 all smoothly with more sand, I ran back for my 

 horse. 



" That horse knew, as well as I, that the turtles 

 had laid, and that he was to get those eggs to 

 Agassiz. He turned out of that field into the road 

 on two wheels, a thing he had not done for twenty 

 years, doubling me up before the dashboard, the 

 pail of eggs miraculously lodged between my 

 knees. 



" I let him out. If only he could keep this 

 pace all the way to Cambridge ! or even halfway 



