The Wicked Flea. 



57 



the flea in shape. It is flattened horizontally so as to 

 slip into cracks in the wood-work. 



If the flea were still a fly it would need plenty of eyes, 

 but as it works in more or less darkness it has reduced 

 expenses by cutting down the eye account to one small 

 knob on each side. We often say that we had rather 

 suffer any other deprivation than that of sight, but that 

 is because \ve have so much on our minds. If we are 

 savages, \ve have to hunt our food and avoid being 



Fig. 3. Pulex serraticcps, the common cat-and-dog flea of America; egg- 

 mass above; larva, pupa, imago, and implements of torture. 



hunted by animals that consider us their food. If we are 

 civilized, we have to read the market reports and dodge 

 the trolley cars. But if we and our fathers and mothers 

 before us for millions of generations had been engaged 

 in a profession that entailed our dwelling in a perpetual 

 twilight in a furry jungle, with plenty of food right 

 beneath the grass roots, ready to ooze up whenever we 

 sunk a shaft, warm meals at all hours, we should not 

 care much what Consolidated Copper closed at. I fear 

 we should not read at all. 



It seems an idle existence, this thing of living off other 

 people, but even millionaires are not really idle. On the 



