Ill 
IN A SILENT WOOD 
37 
as he went jauntily on ; a bright green lizard basked 
in the sunshine, and through the moist warm air was 
diffused an indefinable scent of sweetness that you 
never seemed wholly to catch. A branch of pale 
mauve flowers with long white stamens hung almost 
into the water, and above them in the long-bladed 
grass countless webs, so daintily spun that it seemed 
sacrilege to break one silken thread, glistened in the 
sunlight. The harsh sound of a bell brought me back 
to earth again. 
Mrs. A. and I pulled a short distance up the river, 
and landing, made our way through a thick wood of 
native banana palms to the shade of a weeping fig- 
tree. Here we drowsed until the sun went down and 
it was cool enough to walk out into the more open 
country ; we startled a bird, like a plover, off her nest, 
and with a plaintive cry she ran from right to left, 
then with a sweep upwards went out of sight, still utter- 
ing her cries in the distance. Not even the sound 
of an axe was to be heard, although this ruthless 
weapon is always at work on new-formed sugar planta- 
tions. Before we went home again, Mother Earth was 
beginning to fold her night wings round her — a bat 
flew out from the gray shadows of the trees, and a cool, 
sweet air brushed our faces as we rowed down the 
river against it. It was sultry enough inside with the 
lighted lamps, and we sat in our lounge chairs until 
well into the morning. 
For two or three days I was very lazy over my 
work, and felt almost too listless to do anything. 
There was no use fighting any longer against it ; it 
was another attack of fever, and I had to give in — this 
is the penalty one has to pay for living on these 
beautiful tropical rivers, especially while the forests are 
being cleared. 
