the; story of pike. 213 



But when he was small there was reason enough why 

 he should be afraid of the many hungry things that swam 

 around him, crawled over the sand, hid among the rocks 

 or burrowed in the mud. Besides the fishes, that would 

 have been glad to eat him before he got to be big enough 

 to eat them, there were flat things and round things, long 

 things and short things, all alive and very hungry. Near- 

 ly all had gills to breathe with ; some carried their 

 gills inside and pumped a stream of water in and out, 

 much as creatures on the land breathe air ; others wore 

 their gills outside, waving them like fans. Some were 

 covered with hard shells, some with bristles and spines ; 

 some built houses of bits of wood and dragged these 

 houses around with them. But, whatever fashion each 

 might have for himself, all had big jaws or sharp beaks 

 and knew how to use them. 



Of all the strange and hungry things at the bottom of 

 the brook where Pike was hatched or of the lake where he 

 lived afterwards, the ugliest in appearance and the most 

 to be feared by little fishes, were the dragon-fly nymphs. 

 Dragon-flies are graceful and beautiful creatures as we see 

 them flying about in the air, skimming over the water of 

 s lake or the grass of a meadow, but when they are young 

 and live in the mud, they have neither beauty nor grace. 

 Their legs are awkward, their eyes big, their jaws fierce ; 

 and they have an under lip that is the queerest and most 

 cruel thing imaginable. It is long and narrow, more like 

 an arm than a lip, and it has a joint or hinge near the mid- 

 dle, like an elbow. At the outer end is a pair of strong, 

 sharp jaws. 



The dragon-fly nymph does not wander around, hunting 

 for food, but just waits. It hides in the mud up to its 

 eyes, and stretches out its long, jointed under lip. By and 

 by, some insect or small fish comes along, does not notice 

 the trap, and is caught. 



