A BUTTERFLY REVERIE 177 



mentally. But whatever his feelings towards his sodden 

 mate lying there with watery blood oozing from wounds on 

 his head, exhibiting the marks of the necessarily rough- 

 and-ready means that had been taken for his rescue, they 

 had to be suppressed. Wet, dizzy, and sadly battered, with 

 little more apparent reason for the possession of the breath 

 of life than his companion, he set sail, slipped the anchor, 

 and steered for the nearest port. Some distance on the 

 way, to use " Yorky's " own and sufficient words — " The 

 dead man came to life!" Both had to submit to the 

 restraint of hospital treatment for many weeks ere physical 

 repairs were complete. 



How is it that a one-armed man, slight in physique, 

 whose brains have been addled by blows with billets of 

 firewood, whose side is raw and bleeding, and who has a 

 broken rib hampering his movements, is able to achieve 

 feats that would be surprising if performed by a whole and 

 stalwart individual ? " Yorky '' has always been a wonder, 

 and his life a series of adventures and arduous tasks, which 

 seem to prove that the loss of a limb has been compensated for 

 by hardihood and resourcefulness worth a great deal more. 



A Butterfly Reverie 



" And laugh 

 At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues 

 Talk of Court news." 



There were but three men and a dog in the boat, but 

 the boat was overburdened. Not that the dog was big, or 

 the men either. It was all on account of the day. 



It was a day in which you wanted the whole realm of 

 Nature for yourself — so full of sunshine and flitting butter- 

 flies was it — so beaming with the advent of summer, and 

 her fervent greetings, so wondrously calm and clear. You 

 felt selfish at the pleasure of it all. It filled you well-nigh 

 to surfeit, yet you would have more of it. It was too 

 delicious to squander upon others, yet how could one mind 

 comprehend the grandeur of it all ? 



M 



