CHAPTER XXXIV 



THE VERY IMPORTANT BUT VERY LITTLE PEOPLE OF 

 THE OUT-DOOR WORLD AND THE ASTOUNDING THINGS 

 THEY DO 



MANY of my frosty-headed readers smile with 

 glee when they remember the time that they 

 were freckled-faced, tow-headed, and bare- 

 footed country boys, the terror of all owners of orchards 

 and melon patches. This is not written, however, to re- 

 call the memory of the orchard and the melon patch, or 

 of other boyish escapades, but to remind them of the 

 happy days spent in the midst of tall, waving corn 

 catching the ants from one hill and transferring them to 

 another to see the little insects fight, or carefully placing 

 hairs from the tail of the plow horse in the pool in the 

 swail, firmly convinced that the sun and water would 

 transform them into living " snakes." 



But schoolboys are not the only ones who believe in 

 such myths. Not long ago I had a letter from a man sol- 

 emnly telling me that he had killed a hoop snake, and 

 every day I meet people who are firmly convinced that 

 the gordius or horsehair u snake " is really produced 

 from hairs* which have been accidentally dropped into 

 water. If you tell them that you have personally con- 

 ducted experiments in this line, the result being only 



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