WONDER OF LONG LEGS. 307. 



"Tipula," " Crane-fly," "Jenny Spinner," "Tailor," or 

 " Daddy Longlegs," it was nothing but his legs which made 

 him, in our childhood, an object of wondering notice: and it is 

 at this prodigious length of shank that some grown-up people 

 may be apt to wonder still ; to wonder also for what purpose 

 it was given ; to wonder, thirdly, why the legs, which seem in 

 truth hardly to belong to their owner, fall off so readily ; and 

 to wonder, lastly, at the unimpaired activity which he is 

 accustomed to evince under the loss of one or more of his six 

 unstable supporters. 



Now, with reference to wonder the second and inquiry the 

 first, that, namely, about the use to its possessor of an extra 

 length of limb no very probable solution is likely to present 

 itself while we merely look at Father Longlegs when we happen 

 to encounter him on stairs or in chambers, which, whether 

 " my lady's" or " my lord's " are places where, in fact, he has 

 no business where he is nothing but an intruder a stranger 

 and where, like other awkward creatures in strange society, 

 he is never to be seen to the best advantage. But let those 

 who would have a shrewd guess at the use of his ungainly 

 members, take a peep at Mr. Longshanks when he is at home 

 in his own element and in the indulgence of his own habits ; 

 for which purpose they can hardly do better than accompany 

 us, this fine September evening, to some pleasant meadows 

 watered by a running stream. 



Here then we are, with the sun about to set in all his glory ; 

 and here is our long-legged acquaintance in his glory too, and 

 full of glee amidst a crowd of his companions ; now rising 

 blithely on the wing now footing it featly over the blades of 

 grass, be they low or be they high, by the help of his con- 

 venient pins, used like stilts to overtop all impediments, and to 

 prove to us, lookers-on, that stilts were given him for some- 

 thing, and for something better than idly to fan the dust of 

 " my lady's chamber," as he waves them up and down in his 

 rest of seeming restlessness upon wall or ceiling. As we look, 



