FLIGHT OF THE DRAGON-FLY. 205 



ward, particle over particle, along the ripples 

 and the shallows. As it moves 



"It sings a song 

 Of a leaf that sailed along 

 Down the golden braided center of its current swift 



and strong, 



And a dragon-fly that lit 

 On the tilting rim of it, 

 And rode away and wasn't scared a bit." 



In the pools beyond the ripples crayfish, 

 frightened by every shadow, move backward and 

 downward into the mud and silt. Perchance 

 a sand darter or a "johnny" lounges in the bot- 

 tom, its head alone visible, ever waiting in si- 

 lent expectancy for some morsel in the form of 

 gnat or mosquito larva to come its way. 



Above these pools dragon-flies in number 

 wing their ceaseless flight in headlong zigzag 

 fashion, and court and mate and die. Just now 

 it is a green headed monster with long, slender 

 black body whose wings, as it hovers a foot or 

 two away, are wholly invisible, so swift is their 

 revolving motion. Anon it hawks up and down 

 a few rods of the stream, its eagle eye ever on 

 the search for other flying form small enough 



