148 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



into the air and was hurled down the precipice to 

 the table. Such adventures merely agreed with 

 Corydalus' temperament. I fancy that he passed 

 the whole of his life in that sort of defiant humor 

 that sometimes makes a foolish human being re- 

 ject the comfort of his fireside and rush out into 

 the storm, rejoicing in whirlwinds and pouring 

 rain, merely because they furnish something to 

 combat, and the very force exerted in battling 

 with the elements serves to quiet the tempest 

 within the one who uses the force. 



I took out a portion of the earth and lowered 

 the mortar, replanting the grass around it. Cory- 

 dalus speedily came out, and, after some hesita- 

 tion and going back to the water, established 

 himself in the darkness and dirt under his lake. 

 He was evidently no longer to inhabit the water, 

 and the poor earth-worm might rejoice, for Cory- 

 dalus would never eat him. 



I looked in on Corydalus several times. The 

 last time he was so indignant that he plunged 

 deeper into the earth and I let it fall in so that he 

 was buried from sight in the flower-pot. I care- 

 fully kept the hole closed in the bottom of the 

 pot, however, for I did not want him to escape 

 that way. He burrowed under the earth, as Rabbi 

 Simeon declared the just do. That truthful rabbi 

 asserted that for those righteous persons who were 

 buried outside the land of Canaan there should 

 be caverns made beneath the earth, by which the 



