ut
the Owl explained that she would see hundreds of them before the day was
over, coming to admire Nature.

'The English people,' he observed, 'are great worshippers of Nature, and
write many guide-books about her, some on large paper at ten guineas the
volume. I have sometimes fancied, indeed,' he added, doubtfully,' that
it was their own capacity for admiring Nature that they admired, but
that were a churlish thought. For, do they not run innumerable excursion
trains for the purpose of bowing at her shrine? Epping Forest must be
one of Nature's favourite haunts, from the numbers of people who come
here to worship her, especially on Bank Holidays. Those are her high
festivals, when her adorers troop down, and build booths and whirligigs
and circuses in her honour, and gamble, and ride donkeys, and shy sticks
at cocoanuts before her. Also they partake of sandwiches and many other
appropriate offerings at the shrine, and pour libations of bottled ale,
and nectar, and zoedone, and brandy, and soda-water, and ginger-beer.
They _always_ leave the corks about, and confectionery paper bags, for
the next people to gaze upon who come to worship Nature: you may see
them now, if you look down. I have often thought those corks, and
cigar-ends, and such tokens that the British public always leaves
behind it, must be symbolical of something--offerings to Nature, you
know, an invariable part of the rite, and typical--well, the question
is, of what are they typical?' mused the Owl, getting beyond his depth,
as he had a way of doing.

'However,' he resumed, 'it is certain that their devotion is strong,
and they offer to Nature the sacrifices dearest to their own hearts,
and probably dearest, therefore, to the heart of Nature. They cut
their names all over her shrine, which is, I have no doubt, a welcome
attention; but they do not look at her any more than they can help, for
they stay where the beer is, and they are very warm, and flirt.'

'What is "flirt"?'

'A recreation,' said the Owl decorously; 'a pastime.'

'And does _nobody_ believe in fairies?' sighed Queen Mab.

'No, or at least hardly anyone. A few of the children, perhaps, and a
very, very few grown-up people--persons who believe in Faith-healing and
Esoteric Buddhism, and Thought-reading, and Arbitration, and Phonetic
Spelling, can believe in anything, except what their mothers taught them
on their knees. All of these are _in_ just now.'

'What do you mean by "in"?'