more wrappers, and it often takes months to remove a single one!"

"And then you find it's a carrot after all, or a slate pencil," I said. "Oh, yes, I know that joke; though, even as a little girl, I never thought it a particularly good one!"

He smilingly agreed with me. "But Nature has her practical jokes, too, you know, and occasionally revenges herself for all we've robbed her of."

I suppose he caught me glancing at the spark plug, for he suddenly pulled himself up, and his face changed.

"I fear I have taken a great liberty in telling you all this," he went on, in an earnest, troubled tone. "You must make allowances for a man who sees no one—a scientific Crusoe on a desert island, who, in the absorption of one great dominating idea, has forgotten all the petty rules, and, worse still, even runs the risk of proving himself a bore. This meeting, this little talk here in the woods, that means nothing to you, that will be forgotten