THE POND AT LOW TIDE 



forming also peculiar organs of sense. 

 The hooks and the sense organs are 

 provided that they may not miss that 

 free ride which is the privilege of every 

 young unio if he is to reach the period 

 of adolescence. 



At the moment of being sent forth 

 from the home shell the golchidium, for 

 that is what the scientific men call the 

 unio at this stage of the affair, begins 

 to hunt, aided by his sense organs, for 

 a thoroughfare. Here he takes the first 

 conveyance, whether the slow coach of 

 the sluggish hornpout, the bream auto- 

 mobile, or the pickerel flying-machine. 

 To the first fish that comes by he at- 

 taches himself, oftentimes to the gills, 

 and there he rides and, like most trav- 







elers, continues to develop. 



By and by, being " finished " by travel, 

 he gets off his vehicle at some convenient 



211 



