ves?"

"Bravo, Master Sunbeam! your idea is an excellent one, but it has been
already proposed; several naturalists reckon an order of _columbidae_.
But you ought to know that pigeons inhabit the whole surface of the
globe, and that they are white, blue, red, green, and brown; and
sometimes all these shades blend together, and add their brilliancy to
the pleasing shape of the bird. The pigeon or dove, which is adopted as
the emblem of mildness and innocence, is readily tamed; its flight is
rather heavy, but lasting; and, in Belgium chiefly, it is used as a
bearer of letters, by conveying the bird to a long distance from its
home, to which its instinct always leads it to return."

Lucien seemed very thoughtful.

"I wish I had known that before," he said; "we might have brought a
pigeon or two with us, and then poor mamma would have had news of us
before now."

Sumichrast, who had taken upon himself the office of head-cook, vacant
owing to l'Encuerado's wound, returned to the bivouac laden with our
game. I skirted the wood in company with Lucien, who was the first to
discover a West Indian cherry-tree--_Malpighia glabra_. The red fleshy
and acid fruit was much to our taste; so the boy climbed the tree in
order to get plenty, rejoicing in the idea of giving his friends an
agreeable surprise. When he had finished, we went to examine a dead
tree. A piece of bark, quickly pulled off, discovered a quantity of
those insects commonly called earwigs.

"Do you notice, papa, those white specks one of the earwigs is covering
with its body?"

"It is a female sitting on her eggs; but look at this!"

"Eight, ten, twelve little ones! How pretty they are! One might well
fancy that they were being led by the big earwig, which keeps turning
round to them. There! now she has stopped, and the little ones are
crawling all round her."

I could hardly get Lucien away from his interesting study; but the
hissing of a snake which I turned out from under a stone soon brought
the boy to me. I caught hold of the reptile, which rolled itself with
some force round my arm. The boy, quite speechless with surprise, looked
anxiously at me.

"Oh father!" exclaimed he in terror, running towards me.

"Don't be alarmed; this reptile has no fangs, and it is so small I can
handle it quite safely."

"But it will hurt you with its sting."

"It has no sting; there is no danger to be feared from its tongue. Here,
you take hold of it."

The boy hesi