THE LITTLE BROOK. 355 



sitj need humble itself to seek tlie favor of either plutocracy or 

 democracy if its graduates can convince mankind, by their own 

 lives, that its aim is not to gain deference or success or distinction 

 or reward of any sort, but solely to propagate and diffuse among 

 mankind " that enthusiasm for truth, that fanaticism of veracity, 

 which is a greater possession than much learning, a nobler gift than 

 the power of increasing knowledge." 



IN THE LITTLE BEOOK. 



BY DAVID STARR JORDAN. 



LONG ago, in the old Devonian times, when life was very lei- 

 surely, all the beasts and people that there were lived in the 

 sea together. The air was dull and murky on the land. It was so 

 light that it gave no support to the body, and so those that ventured 

 about in it had to lie prone on the ground all the time wherever they 

 went. So they preferred to stay in the water, where motion is 

 much easier. Then, too, water is so much better to breathe than 

 air, if one has gills fitted for it! He has only to open his mouth 

 and the water rushes in. Then he has only to shut his mouth and 

 the water rushes out backward, bathing his gills on the way. Thus, 

 the air dissolved in the water purifies all the little drops of blood 

 that run up and back through the slender tubes of which the gills 

 are made. 



But in those days, besides the gills, some of the beasts of the sea 

 had also a sac in the throat above the stomach in which they could 

 stow away air which they took from the atmosphere itself. This 

 served them in good stead when they were in crowded places, in 

 which the air dissolved in the water would fail them. 



And those which were so provided used to venture farther and 

 farther out of the water, pushing their way heavily on the ground. 

 And those which could put forth most effort survived, until at last 

 their descendants were able to maintain themselves on the land 

 altogether. These gave rise to the races of reptiles and birds and 

 mammals, the ancestors of all the land beasts that you know, as well 

 as men and women and all the monkey people. But it was very 

 long ago when this happened, and because these ancestors came 

 finally out of the water they have no part in the story I am trying 

 to tell to-day. 



Those that remained in the water grew more and more con- 

 tented with their condition. Because the medium in which they 

 lived was as heavy as their bodies, they swam without much effort, 



