254 THE LACE-WINGED FLY. 



We might have repeated appropriately, from the volume in 

 our hand, 



" Oh ! qui n'eut partage 1'ivresse universelle, 

 Que 1'air, le jour, 1'insecte apportaient sur leur aile I 



" This glad ebriety who could but share 

 The winged mirth of insect-season air ?" 



The intoxication of the day was with us, however, entirely 

 of the somnolent character, and we had already closed our 

 eyes on the bulkiest moving object within our range of sight 

 namely, the lashing tail of a solitary cow, ruminant in an ad- 

 jacent pond when we were startled by a light footstep on the 

 back of our hand. It was not exactly a fairy who had come 

 to visit us ; but it was a little creature, both in form and attire, 

 of most fairy -like seeming. It was none other, in short, than 

 a lace- winged fly,* the most graceful insect of its elegant and 

 graceful tribe. "Truly," said we, as we looked upon her 

 gauzy wings of delicate green, mingled in their iridescence 

 with rainbow hues " truly it is a pity, my little lady, that 

 there's so precious little of you ; that all this tissued bravery, 

 and even those eyes of gold, should, only for lack of size, be 

 overlooked by nearly all other eyes, save those only of some 

 lace-winged lover, who for beauty, perhaps, may have no eye 

 at all 1" Our winged fair-one had, at all events, no ear for 

 admiration expressed in (to her) an unknown tongue ; for before 

 our complimentary address was ended she had, disappeared. 



* Vignette to " Fair and Fierce." 



