20 



Gogga Brown 



of his loathsome pets. He surely cannot have 

 expected the ordinary reader to share his queer 

 repulsive taste so suddenly. 



Had he been a Botanist, he could have proceeded 

 at once to enlarge upon the beauty and perfection 

 of any new flora he might have discovered, and 

 every Tom, Dick and Harry would have followed 

 him sipping nectar from flower to flower. Had 

 he been a lover of birds and butterflies, he would 

 have been sure to have a number of good com- 

 panions, chasing about with him or listening to 

 the warblers. Had he stooped to study ants and 

 bees he would still have earned the generous 

 toleration of the multitude. He might even have 

 found a select circle of readers sufficiently 

 interested in his researches to peruse them, 

 including probably a poet to point that moral to 

 the sluggard, which is usually drawn from these 

 industrious creatures. But to dote on reptiles, 

 that is another matter, that is quite beyond the 

 human pale. Verily he must have been a gogga ! 



Yet the real truth is that this low Order of the 

 Animal Kingdom has a strange fascination for a 

 rare intellect here and there. Moreover, it is 

 usually to an exalted type of mind that these 

 despised creatures make their appeal, for it is 

 only a character combining nobility and humility 

 of soul that is prepared to understand and to 



