WILDWOOD WAYS 



The west wind blew keen, but lightly, and 

 had crowded the ice over toward the east- 

 ern shore, leaving me free northwest pas- 

 sage in sunny shallows where no ripple 

 disturbed. Every dip of the paddle threw 

 drops of water on the surface, drops that 

 shone like diamonds in the warm sun, but 

 sought, always for a time in vain, to re- 

 unite with their kindred water. This in- 

 visible barrier held them up and they 

 rolled about without wetting it, just as 

 they might have on a glossy disk of 

 metal, though they finally vanished into 

 it. Like the drops the disk was made up 

 of molecules of water, but the fact that 

 these rested on the very summit of their 

 fellows and between them and the air 

 seemed to change their character and give 

 them a property of impenetrability. 



It is this disk of water on water that 

 holds up the summer water striders, lean 

 238 



