Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man

G OF SLI

fect; built under the surface like those coral reefs that finally rear themselves into pal

opportunity to be right. Now even among butterflies there are occasional aberrants, but they are the rare exceptions. Give the grub his natu

talisman-a gray moth-had been put into his hand

lowtail whose hideous caterpillar we in the South call the orange puppy, from the fancied resemblance the hump upon it bears to the head of a young dog. It

h that crawls. I saw it stop eating and spit its stomach out and shrivel up, and crawl out of its skin and pull its own head off, and bury itse

, but how it's done I don't know; no, nor no man since the world was made knows, or could do it himself. What does it? What gives that call these dead-alive things he

Nature: but others c

t it thoughtfully. He had used Westmoreland's words, once applied to his own case! "Oh, yes, there's Something, because I've watched It working with grubs, getting 'em ready for five-

ow to know how much I don't know, because I've got a peep at how much there is to

st that finding out and knowing more-and they found their years too few and short for t

d to start, chief." An

ept freshness of out of doors. The hunted and suspicious glance faded from his eyes, which took on more and more the student's absorbed intensity; the mouth lost its sinister straightness; and while it retained an uncompromising firmness, it learned how to smile. He was a familiar figure, tramping from dawn to dusk with Kerry at his heels, for the dog obeyed Mary Virginia's

unting at night; and never, never could either o

, and heard the frogs' canorous quarrelings, and the stealthy rustlings of creatures of the dark. We crossed dreaming fields, and smelt leaves and grasses and sleeping flowers. We saw the heart of

s body banded with yellow and his white opaque delicate wings spotted with black; now the great green silken Luna with long curved tails bordered with lilac or gold, and vest of ermine; now some

nt, and then was off again as swift as thought. The light drew the great Regalis, all burnished tawny brown, striped and spotted with raw gold; and the Cynthia, banded with lilac, her heavy body tufted with white. The darkness in which they moved, the light which, for a mo

flushing with pink. No haul he had ever made could have given him such joy as the treasures brought home

and saving, to cover a sum which, once on a time, he might have gotten in an hour's evil effort. And it represented no small achievement and marked no small advance, so that it was really the feast day we made of it. That limb restored him to a dignity he seemed to have abdicated. It hid his obvious misfortune-you could not at first glance tell that he was a cripple, a something of which he had been morbidly consci

y and scholarly college professor. There was a fixed sentiment in Appleboro that I knew very much more about Mr. Flint's past than I would tell-which was perfectly true, and went undenied by me; that he had seen better days; that he had been the black sh

eople and send no man to Coventry without great cause. And there wasn't a ch

ould glance at your flower-garden, for instance, and tell you what insect visitors your flowers had, and what you should do to check their ravages. He'd walk about your out-buildings and commend white

ill some day arise, not to murder and maim men, but to conquer man

ubs, stopping by many a lonely farm to whisper a word in the ears of d

ch the government issues for the benefit and enlightenment of farmers; and

nment, which spelt for him police and prison, the whole grim machinery which threatened him and which he in turn threatened. He had feared and hated it; it caught men and shut them up and broke them. If he ever aske

hy of respect and admiration in this s

d you g

it, and the B

e got a fr

ree to any one intereste

ys men to find out and write 'em up-pays to have 'em printe

ee. I have a number, if you'd like to go

o it? Where's the

re, why, the whole country is benefited, isn't it? Don't you understand, the government is trying to help those who need help

er of course. That is how and why he found himself in touch with his Uncle Sam, a source hitherto disliked and distrusted. This source was glad to put its trained intelligence at his service and the only reward it looked to was his increased capacity to succeed in his work! He simply couldn't dislike or distrust that which benefited him; and as his admiration and r

overnment could do for him, he had to

nger meant skulking by day and terror by night; it was protection and peace, and a chance to work in the open, and the sympathy and understanding and comradeship of decent f

learns our great lessons easily. We have to live them, breathe them, work them out with swea

as the spraying of fruit trees, and how to save them from blight and scale-insects, and how to get rid of flies, and cut-worms, and to fight the cattle-tick, which is our curse; and the preservation of birds, concerning which he was rabid. His liking for birds began with Miss Sally Ruth's pigeons and the friendly birds in our garden. And as he learne

r-and at parting you found that very knife slipped into your enraptured palm. You might save the pennies you earned by picking berries and gathering nuts, but you could never, never find at any store any candy that tasted like the sticks that came out of his pockets, and you needn't hope to try. He had the inviolable secret of that candy, and he imparted to it a divine flavor no other candy ever possessed. If you were a little doll-less girl, he didn't leave you with the provoking promise that Santa Claus would bring you one if you were good. He was so sure you were good that he made you right then and there a wonderful doll out of corn-husks, with shredded hair, and a frock of his own handkerchief. When he came again you got another doll-a store doll; but I think your child-heart clung to the corn-baby with the handkerchief dress. I have often wondered how many little

here with the kids." If there was anything he couldn't have, in th

work at times terrifie

here," he reminded me. "So I've got twent

names that stood for very much. Sometimes when I read aloud a passage from a letter that praised him

incisive power of brain which on a time had made Slippy McGee the greatest cracksman in America, was, trained and disciplined in a better cause, to make John Flint in later

I had not lived for nothing. A great naturalist is not born every day, no, nor every year, nor even every century. And I had caught me a great bu

m. A sympathetic listener who seldom contradicted, but often shrewdly suggested, Flint somehow knew how to bring out the big doctor's

uppose it's all for the best that Father De Rancé beat me to you-at least you've done less damage learning your trade." So abs

d the better magazines came regularly to John Flint's address. That was Eustis's way. This friendship put the finishing touch upon the Butterfly Man's repute. He was my associate, and my mother was devoted to him. Miss Sally Ruth, whose pet pear-tree he had saved and whose pigeons he had cured, approved of him, too, and said so with her usual openness. Westmoreland was known to be his firm friend; nobody could forget the incident of those butterflies in the doctor's hat! Major Cartwright liked him so much that he e

ajor. "An' he's so orthodox he thinks he'll get chucked

ithout outward protest; though the major declared that Pitache al

n-shockable, and never repeated what he heard. The unaffected simplicity of his manner delighted my mother. She said you couldn't tell her-there was good blood in that man, and he had been more than any mere tramp before he

Latin prayers I sensed pleasantly the light wind that rustled the vines, and how the Mayne bees went grumbling from flower to flower, and how one single bird was singing to himself over and over the self-same song, as if he loved it; and how the sunlight fell in a great square, like a golden carpet, in front of the steps. It was all very still and pea

hough I never witnessed one of these outbursts without being shaken to the depths. This one was different-as if the evil force had invaded him suddenly, giving him no time to resist. A glance at his

od but against ... the rulers of the world of t

oat felt as if it had been choked with ashes. I could only stare at him,

ery morning, and I do the same damn thing, over and over and over and over, day in, day out, day in, day out. Nothing else. ... No drinks, no lights, no girls, no sprees, no cards, no gang, no risks

Childs' bucks. I want to see the electrics winking on the roofs. I want to smell wet asphalt and see the taxis whizzing by in the rain. I want to see a seven-foot Mick cop with a back like a piano-box and a paw like a ham and a foot like a submarine with stove-polish on it. I want to see the subway in the rush hour and the dips and mollbuzzers going

was trembling violently, and

. You're all of you so good down here you're too much for me. I'm home-sick for hell. It-it comes over me like fire over the damned. You don't fool yourself that folks

was it Paul had said we were to

e given to me ... that I may o

ords woul

got to go, and try m

et heart, been more or less afraid of this. Always had I feared that the rulers of the wor

ning the respect and confidence of all decent people-and you wish to

ld wallow in her dust. Besides, there's not such a lot of risks. I don't have to leave my card at the station-house to let 'em know I'm calling, do I? They haven't been sitting on what they think is my grave to keep me from getting up before Gabriel beats 'em

. I'd be a hog if I didn't play fair, and I'm trying to do it. I'm going because I can't stay. I've got enough of m

dy, and endeavor, and progress, seemed to have slipped from him as if they had never been. They were swept aside like cobwebs.

nd was bolting. I had for the time being lost all power of control over him, and before I might hope to recover it he would be out of my reach. Perhaps, I reflected wretchedly, the best thing to do u