SAVAGES IX THE TUXCLES ( >l< IIOAXG HO. 



39 



scene, surrounded the cell-contents with 

 those jelly-like arms, and threw them 

 into the mouth of the stone house, and 

 beyond my sight. 



The animal was actually feeding". I 

 was witnessing" a sight that other micro- 

 scopists had yearned to see, hut to happy 

 me it had come unsought, as a part of 

 this enchanted glen. 1 then recognized 

 the terrible creature as the Difflugia, 

 one of the Rhizopods, to he taken in 

 every ditch, and familiar to every owner 

 of a microscope; and in the mass of 

 plants with the banded spirals of green, 

 I knew the common fresh-water Alga, 

 the Spirogyra. 1 was delighted, al- 

 though I felt that I was in an enchanted 

 country, and that as soon as 1 felt my 

 dendron. 1 should awake to the realities 

 of the ordinary world, in spite of the 

 youthful savages yonder, that never 

 ceased to utter those raucous yells, 

 which, as far as I could perceive, were 

 entirely unnecessary. I afterward 

 learned, that boys always and almost 

 continuously, make such noises. 



Rut there was something" wrong with 

 one of the canoes, and in the savages' 

 interest they, for a few moments, forgot 

 to yell. The silence was delightfully 

 soothing, in the rarefied state of that at- 

 mosphere, where every rustle was mag- 

 nified into a roar. As the youths ex- 



amined the damage, I heard the most 

 delieate and delicious musie thai ever 

 greeted mortal ear. In faintest waves 

 and whispers of an unearthly melody, 

 the music rose and fell, until the jungle 

 was trembling under the daint) vibra- 

 tions of a symphony from crystal bells, 

 that pealed and tossed until they seemed 

 to be delirious with their own melody. 

 What was it. Where was it? If those 

 savages would keep still for another 

 moment, I could find the source. In- 

 deed, 1 must, though 1 descend and 

 throttle those wild creatures. Dainty 

 and delicate, that music fainted into si- 

 lence, and delicate and dainty it swelled 

 again until the world seemed to he a 

 music-hall of the fairies. 1 see them, 

 I see them! In the depths of the water, 

 silver and crystal hells are swinging" and 

 tossing at the end of their supports, as 

 the waves flow past, and that delicious 

 oratorio became a part of the very soul 

 of the only human being that heard it. 

 The bells, colorless, minute, exquisite, 

 were attached to the filaments of var- 

 ious fresh-water Algae, and I recog- 

 nized them, too, as old friends seen in 

 a new locality. Many a time I had had 

 them under my microscope, but never 

 before had 1 heard their music. My 

 dull ears had never before been sensi- 



THE "SAVAGES" HAD MADE BOATS FOR THEMSELVES. 

 "But around the curve they dashed in a reckless way. * * It must have been a delightful 



experience and sensation. 



