84 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



the air that caresses them. While we admire 

 him he launches away as if the atmosphere 

 were his native element, and he loved the 

 breeze and the sunshine. He left behind him, 

 still clinging to its anchorage, the old husk with 

 its glassy eyes reduced to transparent shards, 

 its clutching gear folded at its breast in meek 

 mockery, its claws deep sunk in their last grip. 

 The past is past with this dragon forever ; there 

 will be no revisiting of his old haunts where he 

 prowled for prey with his grappling tongs ; he 

 said no " good-bye " to his useless shroud cling- 

 ing there in mimicry of life : " Let the dead 

 bury their dead." 



Thus Nature teaches us or may teach us all 

 possible things are easily possible, and it is 

 scarce harder to believe that even human 

 creatures will in some way, no more wonderful, 

 enter upon a new life for which this is a mere 

 larval or preparatory stage. The book of Nature 

 is writ in eloquent language, and illustrated by 

 endless designs, and the more's the pity that 

 "the world is so much with us getting and 

 spending " that we do not have eyes nor ears for 

 her lessons and her delights. 



