I2S 



THE TWO WORLDS 



Down in the brook is a wonderful water world, — 

 a world that is separated from the world of air above 

 by what is called the surf ace film. 



This surface film is thinner than anything you 

 can think of. It is all over the water like a sheet of 

 fairy glass. 



You cannot see the surface film, and you cannot 

 feel it, but it is there, all the same. 



It is easy enough to break it. Drop a stone in 

 the brook or stir the water with your finger, arid the 

 surface film is broken and mixes with the other 

 water. Immediately, however, another surface film 

 forms to take its place. There it is again, like 

 fairy glass between that world and this. So the 

 two worlds are always apart. 



There are some things, however, that can go 

 backward and forward from one world to the other, — 

 from the world of air to the world of water and then 

 back again, as though they were magicians. 



That is what the whirligig beetles can do. 

 Sometimes they go whirling and speeding about 

 on the surface film, as though they were skating, 

 and it bends under them like thin ice. Sometimes 



