VII 



NATURE'S FONDNESS FOR 

 POLKA DOTS 



TT would be interesting to know for what 

 * particular one of her creations nature first 

 designed the polka dot. However that may 

 be, the result was evidently pronounced 

 good, for this dot appears on nearly every- 

 thing from hard, mottled stones and the bark 

 of trees to the daintiest of feathers and flow- 

 ers. 



One would like to believe that the beauty 

 of the polka dot, in all its glorified forms 

 and tints, was to nature an end in itself. 

 Perhaps it was. But one must also acknowl- 

 edge the findings of the naturalists, who have 

 studied nature's cipher so long that they 

 know a good deal of her code and can tell 

 with considerable certainty just why she dots 

 an eye in one case and does not in another. 

 Be it granted, then, at the outset, that the 



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