126 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



that ants are " Muryans," or small people of the 

 fairy tribs, "in a state of decay from off the 

 earth." 



Whatever they are, they boldly intrude into a 

 bug-keeper's tins. I have, in feeding my cater- 

 pillars with leaves, carelessly put in some that 

 had aphides living on them, and on looking in 

 once I saw two ants, each carrying an aphis in 

 his mouth. Evidently the ants were going to 

 bear the aphides to some spot that in ant-judg- 

 ment was better adapted for their cows than my 

 tins were. I doubt, however, whether the ants 

 could squeeze through the mosquito-bar with such 

 burdens. 



The black polliwogs come very near being 

 Mud Folks in April. One will find the water 

 black with a quivering company of them next to 

 shore, or directly on it where the water just 

 covers their backs from the sun's rays. 1 am 

 afraid some of these black polliwogs miscalculate 

 sometimes, or are thrust by some cruel fate a frac- 

 tion of an inch out of their element, for one can 

 sometimes see them above water-line, miserably 

 waiting till the sun shall dry them up or till 

 some kind hand shall put them into the water 

 again. If the latter, their passiveness vanishes, 

 and they go off through the water, shaking them- 

 selves with happiness. I wonder if, when those 

 unlucky Lycian shepherds who mocked Latona 

 received their punishment of being turned into 



