86 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



" Yes 'm. You just take and keep one of them 

 and you '11 have good luck." 



" Why, is n't that strange ! Did you ever try 

 it ? " asked I, being bent on finding out what the 

 little revealer of superstition would say. 



" Yes 'm," responded he ; "I kept some of 

 them, and I always had good luck, every day 

 'most. One day I found two bits ; " and, having 

 proved his theory to his own satisfaction, and 

 demonstrated his right to be called a Californian 

 by his use of the common expression for twenty- 

 five cents, he proceeded to assist in the dredging, 

 innocent of the knowledge that to be a healthy, 

 dirty boy, with no care but to hunt red-legs in 

 the creek, is indeed to " have good-luck every 

 day," without any assistance from the virtuous 

 Whirligigs. 



But if he was mistaken in regard to the bles- 

 sedness of possessing these beetles, this boy had 

 observed their habits, for he informed me that 

 when he kept the " good-luck bugs," he gave them 

 " about five flies " every day at noon, and that 

 the Whirligigs would jump for them, as soon as 

 they were thrown in, and would eat them. This 

 statement can be verified by any one who is will- 

 ing to catch a fly for Gyrinus. Three or four 

 beetles will try to devour a single fly ; in fact, on 

 an especially hungry day I have seen eleven 

 Whirligigs form a circle around a fly and grasp 

 it, while on the outside of the circle were still 



