A JUNGLE CLEARING 43 



carnation of her present form, knowledge of an 

 earlier, infinitely coarser diet. 



Together with the pure artistic jo}^ which w^as 

 stirred at the sight of these tiny ornate globes, 

 there was aroused a realization of complexity, of 

 helpless, ignorant achievement; the butterfly 

 blindly pausing in her flower-to-flower fluttering 

 — a pause as momentous to her race as that of the 

 slow daily and monthly progress of the weed's 

 struggle to fruition. 



I took a final glance at the eggs before return- 

 ing to my own larger world, and I detected a new 

 complication, one which left me with feelings too 

 involved for calm scientific contemplation. As 

 if a Martian should suddenly become visible to 

 an astronomer, I found that one of the egg 

 planets w^as inhabited. Perched upon the sum- 

 mit — quite near the north pole — was an insect, a 

 wasp, much smaller than the egg itself. And as 

 I looked, I saw it at the climax of its diminutive 

 life; for it reared up, resting on the tips of two 

 legs and the iridescent wings, and sunk its ovipos- 

 itor deep into the crystalline surface. As I 

 watched, an egg was deposited, about the latitude 

 of New York, and with a tremor the tiny wasp 

 withdrew its instrument and rested. 



