74 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



silver through your fingers. He is buzzing derisively 

 in your ears : " Slap away as much as you like it 

 pleases you and doesn't hurt me." And then down 

 again hi the same place! 



When the others the serious flies on business bent 

 got too numerous, I began to slap my legs, killing 

 one or two of the greediest at each slap, and to throw 

 their small corpses on the sunlit current. These slain 

 flies were not wasted, for very soon I had quite a 

 number of little minnows close to my feet, eager to 

 seize them as they fell. And, by-and-by, three fiddlers, 

 or pond- skaters, " sagacious of their quarry from afar," 

 came skating into sight on the space of bright water; 

 and to these mysterious, uncanny - looking creatures 

 insect ghosts that walk on the water, but with very 

 unghost-like appetites I began tossing some of the 

 flies ; and each time a fiddler seized a floating fly 

 he skated away into the shade with it to devour it 

 in peace and quiet all alone by himself. For a fiddler 

 with a fly is like a dog with a bone among other 

 hungry dogs. When I had finished feeding my ghosts 

 and little fishes, I got up and left the place, for the 

 sun was travelling west and the greatest heat was 

 over. 



