chance and
haphazard had originated it all; but the mind of our hero was cast, if
we may say so, in too logical a mould to accept such an absurd origin
for anything.

"My Father made it all," he said, mentally, with a glow of enthusiasm;
"and although, like a little child gazing at an intricate machine, I see
not the order or arrangement, certain am I that both _must_ be there."

Between the tree-stems they saw ant-hills fully five or six feet high.
From the trees hung thousands of orchids of various colours, and so
attractive was the aspect of things overhead, that Lawrence was more
than once tripped up by the long tangled grasses through which, in some
parts, they had to push their way. Of course, there were plenty of
parrots and monkeys and other creatures to make the forest lively.
Indeed, in some parts there seemed a prospect of its becoming still more
lively, for their little guide pointed out in soft places the footprints
of tapirs and jaguars, which seemed to be quite fresh. Lizards
innumerable crossed their path at every point; snakes were seen gliding
out of their way--a fortunate tendency on the part of most snakes!--and
the woods resounded with the singing of the yapu, a bird something like
a blackbird, with yellow tips to its wings, and somewhat like the
mocking-bird in that it imitated every other bird in the forest.
Whether there is jealousy between the yapu and the parrot we have not
been able to ascertain, but if birds are like men in their sentiments,
we fear it is more than probable. Unlike man, however, the yapu prefers
to sing upside-down, swinging the while from the branch of a tree, and
ruffling its plumage.

"Hallo! massa. Look dar!" said Quashy, pointing with intense surprise
at a neighbouring tree-stem. "Did you ebber see a crab climbin' up a
tree?"

"I certainly never did," replied Lawrence, as he looked in the direction
indicated, where he saw, not a crab indeed, but a monstrous hairy spider
as large as a goodly-sized crab. Stepping forward to examine the
creature, he was surprised to have his hat twitched off his head, and
found that it was the web of the said spider which had done it!
Afterwards he learned that the spider in question subsists by catching
little birds, and that its bite is not so venomous as that of a smaller
kind which abounds in the woods there. Not being desirous of testing
the creature's power in that way at the time, he contented himself with
inspecting it,