36 EYE SPY 
to rest on one of them, it is doubtful whether we 
would recognize him, so different is the guise of 
these real fairies from those invented creatures of 
the books. Once, when a mere boy, I caught one 
of the little imps at work, and watched her for 
several minutes without dreaming that I had 
been looking at a real fairy all this time. What 
did I see ? I was sitting in a clearing, partly in 
the shade of a sapling growth of oak which 
sprang from the trunk 
of a felled tree. While 
thus half reclining I 
noticed a diminutive, 
black, wasp -like insect 
upon one of the oak leaves 
close to my face. 
The insect seemed almost stationary, 
and not inclined to resent my intru- 
sion, so I observed her closely. I soon discovered 
that she was inserting her sting into the midstem 
of the leaf, or perhaps withdrawing it therefrom, 
for in a few moments the midge flew away. I 
remember wondering what the insect was trying 
to do, and not until years later did I realize that 
I had been witnessing the secret arts of the ma- 
gician of the insect world a very Puck or Ariel, 
as I have said a fairy with a magic wand which 
any sprite in elfmdom might covet. 
The wand of Herrmann never wrought such a 
