38 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



very funny ! I'd like him to come back now to 

 show him a tree-snake with a cyhndrical 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- 



