gely afraid of hearing it.
But, I suppose I am not a man of the world, and have no tact."

"But why don't you turn round and tell them so?"

"Because I can't. You see, I am one of the sons of Epimetheus, and must
go backwards, if I am to go at all."

"But why don't you stop, and let them come up to you?"

"Why, my dear, only think. If I did, all the butterflies and
cockyolybirds would fly past me, and then I should catch no more new
species, and should grow rusty and mouldy, and die. And I don't intend
to do that, my dear; for I have a destiny before me, they say: though
what it is I don't know, and don't care."

"Don't care?" said Tom.

"No. Do the duty which lies nearest you, and catch the first beetle you
come across, is my motto; and I have thriven by it for some hundred
years. Now I must go on. Dear me, while I have been talking to you, at
least nine new species have escaped me."

And on went the giant, behind before, like a bull in a china-shop, till
he ran into the steeple of the great idol temple (for they are all
idolaters in those parts, of course, else they would never be afraid of
giants), and knocked the upper half clean off, hurting himself horribly
about the small of the back.

But little he cared; for as soon as the ruins of the steeple were well
between his legs, he poked and peered among the falling stones, and
shifted his spectacles, and pulled out his pocket-magnifier, and cried--

"An entirely new Oniscus, and three obscure Podurellae! Besides a moth
which M. le Roi des Papillons (though he, like all Frenchmen, is given
to hasty inductions) says is confined to the limits of the Glacial
Drift. This is most important!"

And down he sat on the nave of the temple (not being a man of the world)
to examine his Podurellae. Whereon (as was to be expected) the roof caved
in bodily, smashing the idols, and sending the priests flying out of
doors and windows, like rabbits out of a burrow when a ferret goes in.

But he never heeded; for out of the dust flew a bat, and the giant had
him in a moment.

"Dear me! This is even more important! Here is a cognate species to that
which Macgilliwaukie Brown insists is confined to the Buddhist temples
of Little Thibet; and now when I look at it, it may be only a variety
produced by difference of climate!"

And having bagged his bat, up he got, and on he went; while all the
people ran, being in none the better humour for having their temple
smashed for the