164 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



at play in their big bathtub at the Zoological 

 Gardens. 



Place a drop of stagnant water under your 

 lens and watch these atoms of life for yourself. 

 Invisible to the naked eye, they are easily fol- 

 lowed on the slide as they skate and whirl and 

 chase each other to the boundaries of their play- 

 ground and back again, first one of them " it," 

 then another. They stop to eat; they slow up to 

 divide their single-celled bodies into two cells, 

 the two cells now two living creatures, where, a 

 moment before, there was but one, each swimming 

 off immediately to feed and play and multiply. 



Play seems to be as natural and as necessary 

 to the wild animals as it is to the human. Like 

 us, the animals play hardest while young, but as 

 some human children never outgrow their youth 

 and love of sport, so there are old animals that 

 never grow too fat, nor too stiff, nor too stupid 

 to play. 



The condition of the body has a great deal to 

 do with the state of the spirit. The sleek, lithe 

 otter could not possibly grow fat. He keeps in 

 trim because he cannot help it, perhaps; but, 

 however that may be, he is a very boy for play, 



