Mosquito Life 



CHAPTER I 



SYSTEMATIC POSITION AND STRUCTURE 



WE have all read in the Old Testament how, 

 when King Saul was hunting through the 

 wilderness after David to slay him, the monarch, 

 weary, slumbered through the night in a cave, and 

 how David, creeping boldly into the place, secured 

 the king's spear and a bit of his robe. That story 

 is also in the Talmud, with additions. According 

 to this version, it seems that Abner, like a faithful 

 captain, had stretched himself across the door of the 

 cave to sleep. David, in order to enter, found it 

 necessary to creep over him. As David was com- 

 ing away, Abner tossed restlessly, throwing his leg 

 across the ankle of the intruder. Here, then, was 

 a pretty predicament. If David stirred, Abner 

 would wake and seize him ; if he stayed quiet, the 

 day might break ere Abner moved, and death be no 

 less sure. Therefore, says the narrator, was David 

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