IN DAYS OF POVERTY 85 



as lie appeared before the Academy. His breast shone with 

 gold and gems. 



" The description fires me. I want to go to London 

 with father, and help him to let the scientific nobility see 

 what the value of his work is. It would make me happy 

 to see him wearing a star on his breast, or possess a gold 

 snuff-box from the Czar." 



" A snuff-box is no fitting reward of worth," said his 

 mother. 



" Not if he were a snuff -taker; but as a gift from an 

 emperor, as a sign of social equality, it is." 



" Well, the Czar may have a snuff-box in store for your 

 father — who knows? The Bourbons may have a star for 

 him." 



" He would never win the gold box or the star himself. 

 He is too modest. I wish to go to Europe with him, and I 

 will work as hard for him in the court circles of scientists 

 as I have done in the forest. I can canvass for his 

 books, and I can look the pride I feel in such a father as 

 he. Think of all that we have been to each other! How 

 we have watched the ospreys feeding their nests! How 

 we have heard the night birds pass, and talked of the notes 

 of the insect gatherers that we could not see! How we 

 loved nature's children together, and have talked, lying 

 in a cave, of how all life had one source — God! How 

 we have studied the animals whose antlers broke down the 

 forests, the insects in armor, and have waited for hours to 



