CHAPTER XL 



COMPANIONS OF MY SOLITUDE. 



" And every cat and dog, 

 And little mouse, every unworthy thing, 



may look on her." 



Romeo and Juliet. 



LET me warn the guileless person who has never 

 sought for water-livers. Unless you mean to be 

 a " bug-hunter " all your days, never, never take a 

 dredger in your hand and go forth to dredge. For 

 the one who does that becomes fascinated. There 

 will always be some pool unexplored, some still 

 pond that hides who knows what ? in its 

 depths. How can one stop when the next lift of 

 the dredger may bring to light some insect-form 

 that one has never seen, but has read of, or found 

 pictured in books ? The mysterious is always 

 fascinating, and an unexplored pond is felicity 

 indeed to an entranced dredger. Occasionally 

 one starts up and says, as the last beetle drops 

 into the bottle, " Oh, I must be going home," and 

 then the baleful glitter of a still pool under a 

 willow-tree meets the eye, and one's resolution is 

 forgotten. If Narcissus had known what crea- 

 tures infinitely more interesting than himself 

 dwelt below the flood, he might not have wasted 

 so much time gazing at his own reflection. 



