THE WATER FAIRY 



April i 



OW is the time to go fairy-hunting. Even 

 earlier in the month we might have 

 sought them, but their stay is short, and 

 we must not miss another week, for in 

 a few days more they will have disap- 

 peared. 



How well I remember the first discovery of my fairy ! 

 It was about the middle of April, some ten years ago. 

 The snow and freshet pools had barely dried in the 

 woods, and while dredging in one of them for micro- 

 scopical animalcules I brought to the surface a creature 

 such as I had never known to exist. It was about an 

 inch and a half in length, and of the consistency of jelly. 

 Its broad head was decorated with two widely separated 

 black eyes, its sides were fringed with scarlet plumy fins, 

 and its rosy tail ended in a long fork. 



I quickly turned my attention to the pool, and found 

 it swarming with these filmy bodies in all stages of 

 growth. In its element the beautiful creature was near- 

 ly transparent. Beneath the shadow of a floating leaf it 

 was almost invisible, but as it emerged into sunlight the 

 body seemed suddenly shot through with opalescence 

 of mother-of-pearl, and was thus mainly revealed. This 

 iridescence played continually through the diaphanous 

 body in various tints of green and pink a,s the fairy 



