BIRD PARADISE 107 



these creatures, but when I put him uuder my 

 glass he passed to a beauty of person everyway 

 attractive. Curious how the work of the Divine 

 artist becomes more and more beautiful the 

 closer we come to the secrets of its being. Each 

 new revelation entrances the beholder and also 

 gives sign of larger mysteries lying farther on. 

 I love the realm of mystery, not that the realm 

 of knowledge is without its satisfaction but the 

 condition "seen and unseen" is the very order 

 of being. In it my joy of living gets all its own 

 — in short, lives, dies, lives again. The crea- 

 tures that journey with me, how little I know of 

 what they hold as their own. But much, or 

 little, it is mine in being theirs and theirs in be- 

 ing mine. 



I do not recall a season when the fireflies have 

 been so plentiful as they have been during the 

 past week. Usually they appear for a short 

 time in low, wet places in comparatively small 

 numbers. This year they are to be seen in every 

 direction, making some of the evenings quite 

 brilliant. What a curious furnishing it is. In 

 a certain direction it aids the insect, but at the 

 same time reveals him to his enemies. How fuU 

 life is of these contradictions, and how true the 



