DREDGING NOTES. 5 



livered by the disappearance of the juices of the 

 polliwogs through the proboscides of these water- 

 boatmen ; of the multitudes of mosquitoes that 

 never have a chance to bite us, because as wig- 

 glers they have met their fate under the masks 

 of these dragon-fly larvae ? I excuse myself from 

 this lecture on zoology, and make answer, " I 

 take them home and keep them, and study their 

 habits." 



The boy eyes me suspiciously. Evidently that 

 answer is not satisfactory to his mind. He thinks 

 I am trying to cover up some great secret, some 

 profound mystery that I object to his understand- 

 ing. 



He has constructed a theory of his own. Per- 

 haps he lay awake nights thinking of the problem. 

 He may have done so. I have been here often 

 enough to excite the curiosity of any one who has 

 observed me. 



He has an idea. He will throw it at me and 

 see if I, the guilty criminal, do not start when 

 my secret plans are so openly disclosed. 



He puts the momentous question. 



" Do you make them into medicine ? " he cries. 



He eyes me as I repudiate the charge. I think 

 he is persuaded in his own mind that he has 

 hit on the exact solution of the mystery. I am 

 a concoctor of horrible drugs. I fear that I 

 am henceforth to be classed by him with those 

 Chinese medicos who are rumored to concoct 



