102 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



somewhat of the ruffs that ladies wore in olden 

 times. The pair of gills nearest his head stood 

 upright or nearly so. 



I tried to suit the poor fellow in regard to 

 food, for I put into his jar a few water-shrimps, 

 a small dragon-fly larva, a little red water- worm, 

 an earth-worm, and a small scorpion-bug, but, al- 

 though I do not know what better fare he could 

 have found under the weeds from which I took 

 him, my viands were all thrown away on him. 

 He would have none of them. I think he ate 

 nothing while he lived with me. He seemed to 

 be very much alarmed whenever I came to visit 

 him, and would race around the jar in terror, 

 or look at me through the glass with suspicious 

 eyes. 



And then, alas ! after he had sojourned with 

 me for nine days, I came to his jar to find him 

 lying on his back. He was dead, poor prisoner, 

 and I kept him a long time afterward in a bottle 

 of alcohol. But I regretted that I had not given 

 him a larger dish and a place where he could 

 have come out of the water if he so desired. 



What is there about the lizard-shape that gives 

 one a feeling of dislike ? The creatures are often 

 pretty in coloring, intelligent of eye, and yet one 

 shrinks from them, whether in water or on land, 

 whether of the salamander or of the lizard fam- 

 ily. The matter of likes and dislikes is a curious 

 one. Frogs are not so very far removed from 



