WATER-LIZARDS AND THEIR ILK. 113 



although he never seemed to dare to refuse to do 

 what I required him to. Yet he strove to free 

 himself, and was probably glad when I let go. 

 Joan was shorter, being barely six inches long. 

 Every little while these two would lift their heads 

 suddenly up to the surface of the water, or above 

 it, as if to snap up something, and immediately 

 a bubble or two of air would appear on the sur- 

 face. 



Thirteen days after Darby and Joan first en- 

 tered my dish, a girl came to see me. She is one 

 of the few persons of my acquaintance who are 

 interested in " bugs," and she had come in to ex- 

 patiate on the beauty of a dragon-fly larva of hers 

 that had just taken off its skin, and presented a 

 beautiful, velvety appearance. From dragon-flies 

 the talk whisked to the small tortricid moths that, 

 as caterpillars, curl the leaves of rose-bushes, and 

 I invited her into the back yard to see if any more 

 of my tortricid pupae had opened. 



While there I was reminded of my Water-liz- 

 ards, and proceeded with some enthusiasm to un- 

 tie the cloth in order to show Darby and Joan to 

 the visitor's admiring gaze. Off came the cloth. 

 Nothing was to be seen of Darby and Joan, but 

 that was not strange, since they were given to 

 hiding themselves under the grass. So I pulled 

 it aside and took out some of the stones. The 

 polliwogs wriggled blissfully, but no Darby and 

 Joan appeared. 



