tales
of outlandish places and unfrequented isles. Well, I was doing these
things now, long after the disillusionment adolescence brought to these
childish dreams. But in addition it was in a sense _my_ island, _my_
mountain, _my_ land--for I had caused it to be. A sensation of
tremendous vivacity and wellbeing seized upon me; I could not have lain
upon the grass more than half a second before I leaped to my feet. With
a nimbleness quite foreign to my natural habits I detached the
encumbering chute and jumped and danced upon the sward. The goat
regarded me speculatively through rectangular pupils, but did not offer,
in true capricious fashion, to gambol with me. Her criticism did not
stay me, for I felt absolutely free, extraordinarily exhilarated,
inordinately stimulated. I believe I even went so far as to shout out
loud and break into song.

The descent of Slafe, still solemnly recording the event, camera before
him in the position of present arms, did not sober my intoxication,
though circumspection caused me to act in a more conventional way. I
freed him from his harness, for he was too busy taking views of the
grass, the sky, the animals and me to perform this service for himself.

I do not know if he was affected the way I was, for his deceptively
genial face showed no emotion as he went on aiming his camera here and
there with sour thoroughness. Then, apparently satisfied for the moment,
he applied himself once more to the nasalsyringe and the pillboxes.

On Gootes, however, the consequence of the landing must have been much
the same as on me. He too capered and sang and his dialect renderings
reached a new low, such as even a burlesqueshow comedian would have
spurned. "Tis the old sod itself," he kept repeating, "Erin go bragh. Up
Dev!" and he laughed inanely.

We must have wasted fully an hour in this fashion before enough coolness
returned to allow anything like calm observation. When it did, we
unpacked the equipment, despite obstacles interposed by Gootes, who,
still hilarious, found great delight in making the various instruments
disappear and reappear unexpectedly. It was quite complete and we--or
rather Slafe--recorded the thermometer and barometer readings as well as
the wind direction and altitude, these to be later compared with others
taken under normal conditions at the same hour.

Included in the gear were telescope and binoculars; these we put to our
eyes only to realize with surprise that we