100 USES OF LONG LECis. 



glory ; and here is our long-legged acquaintance in his glory 

 too, and full of glee amidst a crowd of his companions ; now 

 rising blithely on the wing now footing it featly over the 

 blades of grass, be they low or be they high, by the help of 

 his convenient pins, used like stilts to over-top all impedi- 

 ments, and to prove to us, lookers-on, that stilts were given 

 him for something, and for something better than idly to fan 

 the dust of " my lady's chamber," as he waves them up and 

 down in his rest of seeming restlessness upon wall or ceiling. 

 As we look, now, on the movements of Father Longlegs, we 

 seem to see clearly that long legs were given him because his 

 proper business, exercise, and pleasure require him to make his 

 way, not over level ground, but over high, uneven grass."* 



Our stilted walker is now upon the wing, and, as he rises 

 into air, we perceive another of the apparent uses of his 

 lengthy legs. AVe notice now, that in the act of flying his 

 1 \vo fore legs are horizontally pointed forwards, while the four 

 hinder are stretched out in tin opposite direction ; the one 

 forming the prow, the other the stern, of his trim-built vessel, 

 in its voyage through the ocean of air."* 



AVe see in this, his manner of aerial progress, an additional 

 lit ness of our Tlpulas name of Crane-fly, and are forced to 

 confess that the crane-fly has reason to glory in the length of 

 his legs ; but why he is so remarkably apt to lose them is a 

 thing which remains rather less apparent to our comprehension. 



* Sec Vignclte. 



