WORRY, THE NYMPH 89 



some of the fly-larvse down the throat of a fledgeling. 

 However, Worry escaped these intentions on the part 

 of her enemies. On the seventh day of maggot life 

 our heroine rolled herself up and entered the phase of her 

 life known to human beings under the pretty name of 

 " Chrysalis." 



The chrysalis is a living but unheeded thing, a life 

 within a web. Worry passed the hours without feeding, 

 her body developing, like that of an ugly duckling, from 

 a hideous youth to a beautiful maturity, from a crawling 

 creature to a thing of gossamer wings, the development 

 from caterpillar to moth. The world of the stable went 

 on unnoticed within her web. The rain came down, 

 and many of her brothers and sisters were drowned ; 

 they had crawled into the stable-yard, there to become 

 nymphs like herself, but the rain had formed puddles 

 between the stone flags of the yard, and they, being 

 unable to move, had drowned. Worry was quite 

 oblivious of all this, unmindful of the world outside 

 her sphere. Slowly her wings developed, and her legs 

 became obvious within her chrysalis shell. Then the 

 shell opened, and Worry the maggot became Worry 

 the fly. 



Her real insect life had begun. She was to go forth 

 into the world to do her share of its work. She shook 

 herself free from her shell, tried her wings and legs, 

 walked slowly and cautiously to the edge of her 

 former home, and then gently raised herself on her 

 pair of outstretched wings and flew quietly to the 

 stable window-ledge. She was hungry and thirsty, 

 and she fed on some of the filth of the place and 

 drank from a raindrop. Afterwards she flew again 

 and alighted on the stable floor and fed again. As 

 the evening came on she took some gentle exercise on 

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