XII 



CONCERNING DRAGONS AND DAMSELS 



"Little Brook sing a song 

 Of a leaf that sailed along 



Down the golden-braided center of your 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." 



JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY knew the ways of 

 winged folk. How he would have laughed with 

 us at the persistent efforts of some slender blue 

 damsel -flies to perch upon the face of the fair- 

 haired German youth who spends his summers with 

 us by the lakeside. His swimming was at once our 

 envy and delight, especially when he doubled him- 

 self up like some great fish and dived to escape 

 the attentions of his winged tormentors. The flying 

 spray would frighten them away for a moment, but 

 whenever the swimmer's face appeared above the 

 surface they were back again, their wings a-flutter, 

 to perch upon his nose. 



"And a dragon-fly that lit 

 On the tilting rim of it," 



we jeered in chorus; whereat he would dive again 

 and after what seemed a dangerous interval would 

 come up suddenly so near the timid bathers as to 

 disturb their equilibrium. 



But why should dragon-flies and their slender 



(56) 



