INFANCY 19 



birch grew low, and its branches hung 

 partly over the water. 



For a few days the school of tiny bass 

 did little more than wriggle in the water. 

 They partook of no food. It was as if there 

 was that within them that sustained life and 

 impelled growth without sustenance. Even 

 as a grain of wheat placed in water seems 

 to have life within it that, coupled with the 

 nourishment it receives from the water, will 

 enable it to sprout and reach a certain 

 growth, so the tiny bass seemed to develop 

 from within save as the water sustained 

 them. 



Then faint hunger pangs quickened them 

 and they fed, now on minute Crustacea to be 

 found on the bottom, now on insect larvae 

 that drifted through the water, and occa- 

 sionally on the small insects that fell upon 

 the surface. 



For three months their history is a record 

 en masse. They lived together in a group 

 no one member of which was particularly 

 set apart from the others. Seen from above, 

 the school resembled the shadow of a fragile 

 shawl thrown on the surface of the water. 

 Of individuation, whereby one became 



