age got tired of that sort of thing, refused to fee the Germans any
longer, and ordered them to go and play somewhere else. They refused, and
he, worn out by their music, left his study to seek a policeman and have
them moved on. Like Carlyle, he dressed quaintly, and, moreover, at the
moment, he was bare-headed. Not seeing a policeman, from his door-step,
he walked into the street to search for one.

'Babbage's dispute with the band soon collected a small crowd, eager to
witness the fun. It is impossible for me, to say if those forming it,
knew the mathematician or not. That would depend on the elements of the
gathering, whether local or casual, and who can determine the point in a
city like London? A crowd gathers and disperses here, as the wind plays
with a volume of dust on a March day. But, anyhow, the onlookers favoured
the band against Babbage, and they let their views be understood, by
pelting him with mud. Still, he held to his purpose, routed out a
policeman, and had the band driven off. That time, at all events, he was
able to resume his calculations without molestation.'

It was a far cry, from these home-keeping transactions, to that outermost
fringe of British dominion for which Sir George Grey found himself
sailing:

What time with hand and heart aglow
The sower goeth forth to sow.

The cabin Darwin had occupied on the clumsy "Beagle," was his home from
Plymouth to the Cape. Instead of sleeping in a bunk he swung a hammock,
which he regarded as the better sea-going bed. Though no yacht in heels,
the "Beagle" had her own qualities for rough weather, and she behaved
loyally towards her passengers. All the water supply had to be carried in
casks, with the effect, under a blazing sun, that it soon grew bad. The
ship called at South America, where Sir George had his first revelation
of nature, as she blooms in the gorgeous tropics. The colour, richness,
luxuriance, dazzled him; the more so that he had not read any description
of the tropics, which adequately conveyed the sentiments they inspired.

He walked on shore of an evening, and the feelings engendered in him by
the scene were wild, of a truth indescribable. He turned from the
luxuriant foliage, to the stars aflame above, and he followed the
fireflies as they danced. The woods were vocal with the hum of insect
life, and balm loaded the breezes as they blew softly. These things at
first oppressed his senses as so novel, so strange, that his