cadence of an organ, or a suddenly remembered
theme of opera.

As my aquatic van drew up to the sandy landing-beach, I looked at the
motley array of paddlers, and my mind went back hundreds of years to
the first Spanish crew which landed here, and I wondered whether these
pirates of early days had any fewer sins to their credit than Case's
convicts--and I doubted it.

Across my doorstep a line of leaf-cutting ants was passing, each
bearing aloft a huge bit of green leaf, or a long yellow petal, or a
halberd of a stamen. A shadow fell over the line, and I looked up to
see an anthropomorphic enlargement of the ants,--the convicts winding
up the steep bank, each with cot, lamp, table, pitcher, trunk, or
aquarium balanced on his head,--all my possessions suspended between
earth and sky by the neck-muscles of worthy sinners. The first thing
to be brought in was a great war-bag packed to bursting, and Number
214, with eight more years to serve, let it slide down his shoulder
with a grunt--the self-same sound that I have heard from a Tibetan
woman carrier, and a Mexican peon, and a Japanese porter, all of whom
had in past years toted this very bag.

I led the way up the steps, and there in the doorway was a tenant, one
who had already taken possession, and who now faced me and the
trailing line of convicts with that dignity, poise, and perfect
self-possession which only a toad, a giant grandmother of a toad, can
exhibit. I, and all the law-breakers who followed, recognized the
nine tenths involved in this instance and carefully stepped around.
When the heavy things began to arrive, I approached diffidently, and
half suggested, half directed her deliberate hops toward a safer
corner. My feelings toward her were mingled, but altogether
kindly,--as guest in her home, I could not but treat her with
respect,--while my scientific soul revelled in the addition of _Bufo
guttatus_ to the fauna of this part of British Guiana. Whether
flashing gold of oriole, or the blinking solemnity of a great toad, it
mattered little--Kartabo had welcomed me with as propitious an omen as
had Kalacoon.

* * * * *

Houses have distinct personalities, either bequeathed to them by their
builders or tenants, absorbed from their materials, or emanating from
the general environment. Neither the mind which had planned our
Kartabo bungalow, nor the hands which fashioned it; neither the
mahogany walls hewn from the adjoinin