_Written After Three Hours' Browsing in a New Britannica Set_
Picture to yourself an early spring afternoon along the banks of the
river Aa, which, rising in the Teutoburger Wald, joins the Werre at
Herford and is navigable as far as St. Omer.
Branching _bryophytu_ spread their flat, dorsi-ventral bodies, closely
applied to the sub-stratum on which they grew, and leafy carophyllaceæ
twined their sepals in prodigal profusion, lending a touch of color to
the scene. It was clear that nature was in preparation for her
estivation.
[Illustration: "Was playing softly to himself on a double curtail or
converted bass-pommer."]
But it was not this which attracted the eye of the young man who,
walking along the phonolithic formation of the river-bank, was playing
softly to himself on a double curtail, or converted bass-pommer, an
octave below the single curtail and therefore identical in pitch and
construction with the early _fagotto_ in C.
His mind was on other things.
He was evidently of Melanochronic extraction, with the pentagonal
facial angle and strong obital ridges, but he combined with this the
fine lines of a full-blooded native of Coll, where, indeed, he was
born, seven miles west of Caliach Point, in Mull, and in full view of
the rugged gneiss.
As he swung along, there throbbed again and again through his brain
the beautiful opening paragraph of Frantisek Palacky's (1798-1876)
"_Zur böhmischen Geschichtschreibung_" (Prague, 1871), written just
after the author had refused a portfolio in the Pillersdorf Cabinet
and had also declined to take part in the preliminary diet at
Kromerice.
"If _he_ could believe such things, why can not I?" murmured the young
man, and crushed a ginkgo beneath his feet. Young men are often so. It
is due to the elaterium of spring.
"By Ereshkigal," he swore softly to himself, "I'll do it."
No sooner had he spoken than he came suddenly out of the tangle of
gymnosperms through whose leaves, needle-like and destitute of
oil-glands as they were, he had been making his way, and emerged to a
full view of the broad sweep of the Lake of Zug, just where the Lorze
enters at its northern extremity and one and a quarter miles east of
where it issues again to pursue its course toward the Reuss. Zug, at
this point, is 1,368 feet above sea-level, and boasted its first
steamer in 1852.
"Well," he sighed, as he gazed upon the broad area of subsidence, "if
I were now an exarch, whose dignity was, at one time, intermediate
between the Patriarchal and the Metropolitan and from whose name has
come that of the politico-religious party, the Exarchists, I should
not be here day-dreaming. I should be far away in Footscray, a city of
Bourke County, Victoria, Australia, pop. (1901) 18,301."
[Illustration: "He came suddenly out of the tangle of gymnosperms."]
And as he said this his eyes filled with tears, and under his skin,
brown as fustic, there spread a faint flush, such as is often formed
by citrocyde, or by pyrochloric acid when acting on uncured leather.
Far down in the valley the natives were celebrating the birthday of
Gambrinus, a mythical Flemish king who is credited with the first
brewing of beer. The sound of their voices set in motion longitudinal
sound waves, and these, traveling through the surrounding medium, met
the surface separating two media and were in part reflected, traveling
back from the surface into the first medium again with the velocity
with which they approached it, as depicted in Fig. 10. This caused the
echo for which the Lake of Zug is justly famous.
The twilight began to deepen and from far above came the twinkling
signals of, first, Böotes, then Coma Berenices, followed, awhile
later, by Ursa Major and her little brother, Ursa Minor.
"The stars are clear to-night," he sighed. "I wonder if they are
visible from the dacite elevation on which SHE lives."
His was an untrained mind. His only school had been the Eleatic
School, the contention of which was that the true explanation of
things lies in the conception of a universal unity of being, or the
All-ness of One.
But he knew what he liked.
In the calm light of the stars he felt as if a uban had been lifted
from his heart, 5 ubans being equal to 1 quat, 6 quats to 1 ammat and
120 ammats to 1 sos.
He was free again.
Turning, he walked swiftly down into the valley, passing returning
peasants with their baa-poots, and soon came in sight of the shining
lamps of the small but carefully built pooroos which lined the road.
[Illustration: "She turned like a frightened aardvark." (Male, greatly
reduced.)]
Reaching the corner he saw the village epi peering over the tree-tops,
and swarms of cicada, with the toothed famoras of their anterior legs
mingling in a sleepy drone, like many cichlids. It was all very
home-like to the wanderer.
Suddenly there appeared on a neighboring eminence a party of guisards,
such as, during the Saturnalia, and from the Nativity till the
Epiphany were accustomed to disport themselves in odd costumes; all
clad in clouting, and evidently returning from taking part in the
celebration.
[Illustration: "Barnaby Bernard Weenix." (1777-1829.)]
As they drew nearer, our hero noticed a young woman in the front rank
who was playing folk-songs on a cromorne with a double-reed
mouth-piece enclosed in an air-reservoir.
In spite of the detritus wrought by the festival, there was something
familiar about the buccinator of her face and her little mannerism of
elevating her second phalanx. It struck him like the flash of a cloud
highly charged by the coalescence of drops of vapor. He approached
her, tenderly, reverently.
[Illustration: "Why not to Wem?" (From a contemporaneous print.)]
"Lange, Anne Françoise Elizabeth," he said, "I know you. You are a
French actress, born in Genoa on the seventeenth of September, 1772,
and you made your first appearance on the stage in _L'Ecossaise_ in
1788. Your talent and your beauty gave you an enormous success in
_Pamela_. It has taken me years to find you, but now we are united at
last."
The girl turned like a frightened aardvark, still holding the
cromorne in her hand. Then she smiled.
"Weenix, Barnaby Bernard (1777-1829)," she said very slowly, "you
started business as a publisher in London about 1797."
They looked at each other for a moment in silence. He was the first to
speak.
"Miss Lange, Anne," he said, "let us go together to Lar--and be happy
there--happy as two ais, or three-toed South American sloths."
She lowered her eyes.
"I will go with you Mr. Weenix-Barney," she said, "to the ends of the
earth. But why to Lar? Why not to Wem?"
"Because," said the young man, "Lar is the capital of Laristan, in 27
degrees, 30 minutes N., 180 miles from Shiraz, and contains an old
bazaar consisting of four arcades each 180 feet long."
Their eyes met, and she placed her hands in his.
And, from the woods, came the mellow whinnying of a herd of vip, the
wool of which is highly valued for weaving.