the Lord Himself. He walked in Paradise among the trees of
the garden, Amyas; and so will we, and be content with what
He sends. Why should we long for the next world, before we
are fit even for this one?"

"And in the meanwhile," said Amyas, "this earth's quite
good enough, at least here in Barbados."

"Do you believe," asked Frank, trying to turn his own
thoughts, "in those tales of the Spaniards, that the Sirens and
Tritons are heard singing in these seas?"

"I can't tell. There's more fish in the water than ever
came out of it, and more wonders in the world, I'll warrant,
than we ever dreamt of; but I was never in these parts before;
and in the South Sea, I must say, I never came across any,
though Yeo says he has heard fair music at night up in the
Gulf, far away from land."

"The Spaniards report that at certain seasons choirs of
these nymphs assemble in the sea, and with ravishing music
sing their watery loves. It may be so. For Nature, which
has peopled the land with rational souls, may not have left the
sea altogether barren of them; above all, when we remember
that the ocean is as it were the very fount of all fertility, and
its slime (as the most learned hold with Thales of Miletus)
that prima materia out of which all things were one by one
concocted. Therefore, the ancients feigned wisely that Venus,
the mother of all living things, whereby they designed the
plastic force of nature, was born of the sea-foam, and rising
from the deep, floated ashore upon the isles of Greece".

"I don't know what plastic force is; but I wish I had had
the luck to be by when the pretty popper came up: however,
the nearest thing I ever saw to that was maidens swimming
alongside of us when we were in the South Seas, and would have
come aboard, too; but Drake sent them all off again for a lot
of naughty packs, and I verily believe they were no better.
Look at the butterflies, now! Don't you wish you were a boy
again, and not too proud to go catching them in your cap?"

And so the two wandered on together through the glorious
tropic woods, and then returned to the beach to find the sick
already grown cheerful, and many who that morning could not
stir from their hammocks, pacing up and down, and gaining
strength with every step.

"Well done, lads!" cried Amyas, "keep a cheerful mind.
We will have the music ashore after dinner, for want of mer-
maids to sing to us, and those that can dance may."

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