230 NOVEMBER 



she examined the weed very carefully as it lay in 

 the water. The wind blew it towards us, but surely 

 the little frond-like excrescences had independent 

 movements of their own, which carried them back- 

 wards against the wind sometimes for a moment. 

 We secured a portion of the spray, and discovered 

 that the lateral fronds were in reality caddis worms 

 living in unwonted houses. Many a time had I 

 found them moving slowly at the bottom of the 

 water in their tiny tenements composed of pebbles, 

 sticks, and shells. But here they were climbing 

 near the surface on the Anacharis, which they 

 had so cunningly imitated with little bits of stalk 

 bound together and sticking out crossways, that 

 one's first impulse was to suspect the weed of un- 

 natural growth rather than to regard that growth 

 as the home of a little colony of caddis worms. 



" Tell me more about caddis worms," I said to 

 Petunia. 



11 1 once assisted at the debut of eight," she 

 answered, "which I had kept in a bell-glass 

 aquarium. It seemed to me one morning that the 

 largest of them looked very uncomfortable, and 

 appeared to be struggling inside his tight little 

 house. At last he wriggled his tail out of it 

 a very ugly little tail. I had never before seen 

 more of him than his head and four of his front 

 legs. Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle, he went, until I 

 thought that he must break in half, but I found he 

 was only trying to discard his old tail, so useful 

 when he had to cling to his house, but no longer 

 needed when he was starting for airier regions. 

 He walked painfully up a small twig, and when 



