my
peace and made no futile attempt to clear the Holy Father of the dark
suspicion of having perpetrated their names upon certain of the
American lepidoptera.

I had yet other darker madnesses; had I not been seen spreading upon
trees with a whitewash brush a mixture of brown sugar, stale beer, and
rum?

Asked to explain this lunatic proceeding I could only say that I was
sugaring for moths; these airy fairy gentlemen having a very human
liking for a "wee drappie o't."

"That amiable failin'," Major Appleby Cartwright decided, "is a credit
to them an' commends them to a respectful hearin'. On its face it
would seem to admit them to the ancient an' honorable brotherhood of
convivial man. But, suh, there's another side to this question, an'
it's this:--a creature that's got six perfectly good legs, not to
mention wings, an' still can't carry his liquor without bein' caught,
deserves his fate. It's not in my line to offer suggestions to an
allwise Providence, or I _might_ hint that a scoop-net an' a killing
jar in pickle for some two-legged topers out huntin' free drinks
wouldn't be such a bad idea at all."

But as I pursued my buggy way--and displayed, save in this one
particular, what might truthfully be called ordinary common
sense--people gradually grew accustomed to it, looking upon me as a
mild and harmless lunatic whose inoffensive mania might safely be
indulged--nay, even humored. In consequence I was from time to time
inundated with every common thing that creeps, crawls, and flies. I
accepted gifts of bugs and caterpillars that filled my mother with
disgust and Clelie with horror; both of them hesitated to come into my
study, and I have known Clelie to be afraid to go to bed of a night
because the great red-horned "Hickory devil" was downstairs in a box,
and she was firmly convinced that this innocent worm harbored a
cold-blooded desire to crawl upstairs and bite her. That silly woman
will depart this life in the firm faith that all crawling creatures
came into the world with the single-hearted hope of biting her, above
all other mortals; and that having achieved the end for which they
were created, both they and she will immediately curl up and die.

But alas, I had but scant time to devote to this enchanting and
engrossing study, which, properly pursued, will fill a man's days to
the brim. I gathered my specimens as I could and classified and
mounted them as it pleased God--until the advent of John Flin