208 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



canary, dog, mouse, etc. ; but the serpent is not of 

 them ; on the contrary, the not too numerous facts 

 we possess which relate to the comparative longevity 

 of animals give support to the universal belief that 

 the reptilians — tortoise, lizard, and serpent — are 

 extremely long-lived. 



Now this fact — namely, that science and 

 popular belief are at one in the matter — might very 

 well have suggested to the author a more suitable 

 ending to the story of Elsie than the one he made 

 choice of. I will even be so venturesome as to say 

 what that ending should be. Let us imagine the 

 girl capable of love, even of " a dull ache of passion," 

 doomed by the serpent-nature in her, which was 

 physical if anything, to a prolonged existence, 

 serpent-like in its changes, waxing and waning, 

 imperceptibly becoming dim as with age in the 

 wintry season, only to recover the old brilliant 

 beauty and receive an access of strength in each 

 recurring spring. Let us imagine that the fame of 

 one so strange in life and history and of so excellent 

 an appearance was bruited far and wide, that many 

 a man who sought her village merely to gratify an 

 idle curiosity loved and remained to woo, but 

 feared at the last and left her with a wound in his 

 heart. Finally, let us imagine that as her relatives 

 and friends, and all who had known her intimately, 

 stricken with years and worn with grief, faded one 

 by one into the tomb, she grew more lonely and 

 apart from her fellow-creatures, less human in her 

 life and pursuits ; joy and sorrow and all human 



