," Mr. Atherton laughed, "it is possible to have too
much of a good thing. I might jog along with a colonial force well
enough and benefit by it, but Rapata and his men would kill me in a
week. I do not think those fellows know what it is to be tired. No, I am
very well contented, and I intend to do no end of work in the woods and
keep myself down to my present weight. There is an immense deal to be
done in the way of botanizing. I have already found twelve new sorts of
ferns, and I have only just begun, and have not even looked at the
orchids yet or the mosses."

"I should have thought, Mr. Atherton, that it would have been well worth
your while to go in for collecting and sending home rare and new plants,
instead of merely drying specimens for your herbarium. I know new
orchids fetch a tremendous price, because a gentleman near us at home
had a large house full of them, and I know he used to pay what seemed to
me prodigious prices for little scraps of plants not a bit more
beautiful than the others, simply because they were rare."

"The idea is a very good one, Wilfrid, and I will think it over. I have
never gone in for collecting in that way, for my income has been amply
sufficient for my wants, but there can be no doubt that in these days,
when people are ready to give such large sums for rare plants, a
botanist like myself might make a really good thing of it out here. The
woods are literally crowded with rare plants, and it would add to the
interest of my excursions. As it is now I simply look for new species,
and even here these are hard to discover; but if I took to getting rare
specimens for sending home, there would be an unlimited field of work
for me. Of course the difficulty is getting them home alive, for in a
country like this, where there is practically no winter, they are never
in an entirely quiescent state, and would require the most careful
packing in cases specially constructed for them, and would need
attention on the voyage. Still all this might be managed, and a steward
might be paid well to take them under his charge.

"Well, I will think it over, Wilfrid. Your idea certainly seems a good
one, and if it pays the great horticulturalists to send out skilled men
to collect plants for them from all parts of the world, it should
certainly pay me, who am living in the centre of one of the most varied
groups of vegetation in the world, to send home consignments."

Ten minutes later they rode into th