gage] the story of LITTLE RED-SPOT 139 



for such a little fellow. Xo path, — a mole hill is huge to him. 

 Down he goes into valleys, helping himself from falling headlong 

 by hooking his finger-like tail to any projection; then up over 

 hills, — mountains to him. — over hot sand, through high brambles, 

 until someway he reaches what he longed for, — water. 



Were his eves dazzled by the mirrored sunshine ? If so he shuts 

 them and plunges in. Perhaps he is not at ease at first for he is not 

 yet completely fitted for the changed life. Even his memor\' does 

 not serv-e him, for this is not the pool of his babyhood. That is far 

 away and his wanderings have brought him to the lake, to him a 

 boundless place. The water plants are not just the same. The 

 moving creatures are new and strange. Here are great fish, larger 

 than his wildest fancy could picture, and they are all such hungn,- 

 fellows, too. Only his caution and shy darting movements keep 

 him from the deadly mouths opening so often all around him. 



But all is not horror ; there is great joy, too, for he finds here, 

 stately and dignified, many figures that are most precisely like the 

 dimly remembered father and mother. These are old residents. 

 Besides them are others so like himself that he must be puzzled. 

 They, too, were driven to find water, and from far and near they 

 have come. 



He is now becoming used to staying under water, for he can take 

 water instead of air into his throat and breathe just as he did when 

 he was small. Imagine his terror one day, when he has been a little 

 uneasy, to turn around and see his own form, transparent but 

 perfect in outline, floating about in an aimless manner. It looks 

 like a ghost, but, like most ghosts, is not so queer when looked at 

 more closely. It is only his Y&ry outermost skin, just like what he 

 has been casting off all his life, but he never saw it take on his 

 image before like this. After this his color begins to change and 

 soon he is decked in an olive green coat and a buff vest, the whole 

 suit set off with black ornaments. His ever present red spots have 

 fine black rings around them instead of the two or three black 

 specks they had a little while ago. If he knew how to sigh he 

 might "wonder if its I." like a certain old lady we know so well 

 about. Then his tail grows wider with a handsome wa\'ing frill 

 all around it, and on his legs comes black horny ridges. He is as 

 proud as a young man with a mustache and a cane. He can swim 

 with the greatest ease, and can sit on nothing with the- most 

 pompous air imaginable. 



