A HEATHER EPISODE. 



moved it just then for a sovereign. One 

 wee brown lizard, gazing cautiously around, 

 crept over it with sly care, and, finding it all 

 right, walked up my sleeve as far as the 

 elbow. I checked my heart and watched 

 him. Never in my life before had such a 

 thing happened to me but I did not say so 

 to the sceptical Editor ; on the contrary, I 

 looked as totally unconcerned as if I had 

 been accustomed to lizards taking tours on 

 me daily from my childhood upward, "Are 

 you convinced ? " I asked, with a bland 

 smile of triumph. Even the Editor ad- 

 mitted, with a grudging sniff, that seeing is 

 believing. 



And, indeed, there are dozens of lizards to 

 the square yard in England, though I never 

 before knew one of them to assail me of its 

 own accord. I have caught them a hundred 

 times by force or fraud among the heaths 

 and sand-pits. The commonest sort here- 

 abouts is the dingy brown viviparous lizard, 

 which lays no eggs, but brings forth its 

 119 



