20 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



there branches and stems give out mysterious creaks 

 and groans. 



Now the noises increase. 



On the ground a slight stir catches the ear. It is 

 a beetle hurrying by in search of his prey. He runs 

 nimbly over the grass and among the bushes. He 

 leaps over a scarlet snail, which draws in its antennae in 

 alarm, and passes swiftly down an ant-track. Before 

 the industrious builders realise the injury done to their 

 laborious construction, he has disappeared in the thicket. 



A dreamy murmur fills the ear. 



Flies without number are in the air. Their pellucid 

 wings glitter in the rays of the sun, and they poise 

 motionless, as if hanging by a thread. The whole 

 atmosphere seems to vibrate with the tone of the harp. 

 An infinite harmony swells the breast of the traveller. 



At last the stillness is sharply rent. 



Like the laughter of some spirit of the forest, the loud 

 "gluck, gluck, gluck" of the wood-pecker echoes 

 through the trees, and the ringing tap tells that his 

 fellows are at their carpentering. The cry of the 

 chaffinch resounds ; from point after point comes the 

 chirp of the wood-pigeon ; and the titmouse utters 

 without wearying its tender call. 



Over the clearing is heard the cry of the bird of 

 prey. The mist falls on the meadow. And yonder, 

 where the thick bush marks off the forest from the 

 flower-decked green, a slender deer emerges, lifts up 

 its narrow head cautiously, looks all around, and then 

 bends its neck towards the grass. 



