ilies.

The heat was great, but forgotten in the excitement of collecting, and,
with the help of his young companions, Brazier kept on making additions
to his specimens, while Rob's great regret was that they were not
seeking birds and insects as well.

"Seems such a pity," he confided to Joe. "The orchids are very
beautiful when they are hanging down from the trees, with their petals
looking like the wings of insects and their colour all of such lovely
yellows and blues, but we shall only have the dried, bulb-like stems to
take back with us, and how do we know that they will ever flower again?"

"If properly dried, a great many of them will," said Brazier at that
moment.

Rob started.

"I didn't know you were listening, sir," he said.

"I was not listening, Rob, but you spoke so loudly, I could not help
hearing your words. I can quite understand your preference for the
brilliant-coloured and metallic-plumaged birds, and also for the lovely
insects which we keep seeing, but specimens of most of these have been
taken to Europe again and again, while I have already discovered at
least four orchids which I am sure are new."

"But if they do not revive," said Rob, "we shall have had all our
journey for nothing."

"But they will revive, my boy, you may depend upon that--at least, some
of them; and to my mind we shall have done a far greater thing in
carrying to England specimens of these gorgeous flowers to live and be
perpetuated in our hothouses, than in taking the dried mummies of bird
and insect, which, however beautiful, can never by any possibility live
again."

"I didn't think of that," said Rob apologetically.

"I suppose not. But there, be content to help me in my collecting; you
are getting plenty of adventure, and to my mind, even if we take back
nothing, we shall carry with us recollections of natural wonders that
will remain imprinted on our brains till the end of our days."

"He's quite right," thought Rob as he sat alone some time after; "but I
wish he wouldn't speak to me as if he were delivering a lecture. Of
course I shall help him and work hard, but I do get tired of the
flowers. They're beautiful enough on the trees, but as soon as they are
picked they begin to fade and wither away."

The conversation took place at the end of the lake, just where the river
issued in a narrow stream, walled in on either side by the trees as
before, and the intention was to cross this exit and go back by