126 



they take a drop of air and swim down in the 

 water. There they walk about over the stones or 

 through the water-weed forests. 



What wonderful things they see there : little 

 soft, brown lizards creeping about ; crayfish, with 

 pop eyes and long feelers ; fishes flitting through 

 the water, like birds through air ; and herds of snails 

 feeding on the dead weeds or refuse. 



Sometimes the whirligig beetles climb up a reed 

 or piece of grass and so out of the water. They stop 

 to rest a few minutes, and then they spread their 

 wings and fly away, but they never fly far. Soon 

 they come back again. 



A dingy larva was clinging, with its six legs, to a 

 piece of water weed down in the water. It looked 

 up at the beetles as they skated about. 



"How strange!" it sighed. "They can fly 

 about all day in that beautiful upper world if they 

 choose, and yet they always come back to the water. 

 If I could only fly, how happy I would be ! I would 

 never come back." 



Close by there was another larva. It was differ- 

 ent from the first It was mouse-colored, and al- 

 most transparent, except for the spine down its 

 back. It was busily eating a water-snail. It held 



