118 



UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



So I put my friend into a dry bottle and left 

 him for about a day. He was then a 

 miserable little ball with no apparent 

 life, but I gave him some water and 

 he was soon stretching himself in it. 

 He was unmistakably alive. 



Rejoiced at my success I allowed 

 Gordius only a few minutes' happiness. 

 I resolved that I would try him with a 

 longer drying spell. Two days should 

 be the limit this time ; and into the 

 driest of tin cans went poor Gordius. 

 I think it was a few hours over 

 the allotted time when I remembered 

 my captive. He was wofully dry, but 

 I had hopes of him and put him into 

 his bottle of water. 

 But it had been too much of an experiment for 

 poor Gordius. His body became plump and 

 round, but there was no life in him. Even when 

 he had stayed in the water over night and all the 

 next day, he was motionless and allowed me to 

 measure him, a thing that he refused to do when 

 alive. He was about thirteen inches long. I had 

 thought that when alive he was considerably over 

 a foot in length, but perhaps his drying shrunk 

 him. 



There are numbers of big flies sitting on that 

 margin where the sun shines so warmly. Are 

 they not also Mud Folk? If St. Macarius 



Gordius 

 aquaticus. 



