TKIlben (Brass is Green 



Nothing to most of us can be more monoton- 

 ous than the ceaseless and seemingly senseless 

 whirling and twirling of the shining black scut- 

 tle-bugs or whirligig beetles that are as familiar 

 " as the gurgling brook or the flecks of foam on 

 its ' golden-braided center,' or the trailing ferns 

 and rustling rushes on its banks," but have you 

 ever caught one and noticed that it has two 

 sets of eyes, so as to look into the water and 

 out into the air? You have always seen them 

 skurrying on the surface ; did you ever see them 

 dive or fly to another brook or pond ? Do you 

 know they smell like rotten apples ? Do you know 

 there are twenty-seven kinds of whirligig beetles ? 

 Which one is yours ? 



For half a day I was one with the wild life 

 about me, and when I returned to the haunts of 

 men the savage in me was not apparent to others, 

 but made them, to me, look less noble than they 

 appeared to themselves. There is many a lesson 

 that wild life can teach us, which, if we are willing 

 scholars, will prove greatly to our advantage. 



V 



LIQUEFY brass by heat and then reduce the 

 liquid to a yellow gas, and you will have what did 

 duty for atmosphere at high noon recently. It 

 was 95 in the shade, on the north porch, and 

 away above 100 out in the fields. For this reason 



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