90 LIFE AND DEATH OF WORRY, THE FLY 



the window-pane, the muscles of her body and legs 

 gaining strength for the labours of her life. That 

 night she slept standing head downwards on the gas- 

 bracket its colour matched her sombre brown and 

 hid her from possible enemies. Her legs had become 

 sticky, for she had put them in her food, and this 

 enabled her claws to get a good hold on the metal. 



In the early morning she woke with day and flew 

 from her home out into the yard and obtained a meal 

 in the dust-bin. Then she entered the house adjoining. 

 This day was full of adventure. She met a male fly 

 and mated with him ; her consort thereupon deserted 

 her. She tasted some jam, and inspected the larder, 

 was attracted to cheese, but was driven out into the 

 open by a servant girl armed with a dishcloth. She 

 had a ride on a coster's barrow containing some fruit ; 

 she traversed some streets and slums. And her mouth 

 and legs became infected with some disease germs 

 which she found on a rotting banana-skin ; they had 

 been deposited there by another fly a few days before, 

 and they had multiplied into a focus of disease during 

 the time which had elapsed. She galumphed with 

 delight at her freedom, for the tide of her life was at 

 flood. She pestered a horse, and examined critically 

 the eyes of a sleeping child ; but the infant brushed 

 her away and nearly damaged her wing. Woii~y was 

 learning the ways of the world and knew how to avoid 

 its dangers and how to linger over its joys. But the 

 germs on her legs were increasing, so she tried to bathe 

 them in a drop of milk on the edge of a jug in a 

 dairy. The milk gave them food, and the germs grew 

 the faster. She paid for her desire for cleanliness 

 by nearly drowning in the milk, and this bath was 

 the last one she had ; hers was the life of pleasure, 



