38 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
very funny! Id like him to come back now to 
show him a tree-snake with a cylindrical body two 
yards long and no thicker than a man’s middle 
finger, green as a green leaf and smooth as ivory, 
going as freely about in a tree as a cat or a monkey. 
Also my blue sea-snake, cleaving the water like a 
fish; also my ground-serpents of numberless types, 
moving swiftly over the earth with a grace sur- 
passing that of creatures endowed with organs of 
progression.” 
But not a word did she say about the flying-fish, 
which was not a great success. 
Then he: “Well, I should advise the person 
from the Milky Way to keep out of your way. No — 
doubt you have done clever things, but the snake 
problem was not so very difficult after all. You 
thought of the rib and the scale, and the thing 
was done.” 
And she: “Yes, it was quite simple, and so 
when I wanted to make reptiles fly I thought of 
this and of that and of something else and the 
thing was done.” 
Then he: “Yes, yes, my dear lady—that was 
clever, too, no doubt; only your flying lizard 
wasn’t wound up to go on for ever—not as a lizard 
at all events; and what I should like you to tell 
me is: When you have got your little beast in the 
air how are you going to get him to stay there?” 
Her sharp reply was: “By thinking,” for she 
was angry at his supercilious Aldebaran airs. And, 
put on her mettle, it was only by sheer hard think- 
