THE PLANORBIS COMPLANATUS. ' 21 



any rate I'm clean, which is more than can be said of yon. ^\^ly you never 

 clean your house ; I met a relative of yours as I came down, he had three 

 inches of nasty green weed dangling about, and nearly broke my ladder 

 roUing about ; I can't think why the waywardens don't tell such people 

 not to stop the thoroughfares." She was indeed very pretty, and I was 

 so lost in admiration that I scarcely knew what to say, but I made bold 

 to ask her how she kept her house so clean and shining. " Oh, because I 

 have been educated properly," said she, " My mother always said that 

 all her daughters should know how to look after their own establishment, 

 and quite right too, so I'm never idle; I don't mind a chat, but you must 

 excuse my rubbing up my ceiling a bit." I could not see the necessity, 

 it shone like a bead of gold, but I noticed that she kept five or six busy 

 fingers at work, reaching out from the door of her house, and carefully 

 polishing the roof and walls ; and one thing I saw, which seemed to me 

 strange in so dexterous a lady, — she was left-handed. Her complexion 

 was as fair as a lily, and all her motions showed me that she must be 

 descended from distinguished parentage. She came down by a pretty rope 

 of the most delicate silk with an ease that would have puzzled all the 

 female Blondins that ever existed. I ventured to ask her name. 

 " Physa," she said, " but it is a great liberty to take with a strange lady ; 

 however, one does not expect much from boys like you. Now I would 

 lay a wager," says she, " that you are lounging about doing nothing, 

 talking of seeing the world or something of the kind. Well I don't 

 mind giving you a hint or two. Perhaps you would like to know 

 something about my family. Once upon a time, years ago, there 

 was a great quarrel between us. A very distant ancestor of mine 

 was one day going abroad for his morning constitutional — we always 

 take exercise soon after sunrise — when he saw one of the family with his 

 house very much out of shape, longer and not so elegant ; besides the 

 rascal had the audacity to build it blacker and less transparent. He re- 

 monstrated with him but to no purpose, the renegade said that he and his 

 wife were not going to be dictated to, they had determined to build their 

 house in this shape, and they weru't going to alter it for all the world ; 

 why should they always go on in the conventional way, they would strike 

 out a new line for themselves and form a noble family. Such a thing 

 as this was not to be passed over, my ancestor called a coancil of the 

 oldest and most experienced in our tribe, and it was unanimously deter- 

 mined that they should be banished from the clear water, so they went 

 away and lived in moss, and people called them Physa hypnorum. They 

 are, I believe, a large family, but they live a secluded life and are 

 seldom to be seen, and we think ourselves well rid of them. But what I am 

 going to tell you now is not creditable to us ; a part of our family have 

 determined to give up theii- cleanly habits, and you may see them some- 

 times about in black muddy places; however, like all vicious people, they 

 suffer for it, and instead of being like I am (here she looked down over 

 her white nock and shoulders) their bodies are almost black. " ^^^lat can 

 you expect from a pig but a grunt?" said I "Very true," she said, you have 



