136 WAYS OF THE SIX-FOOTED 



than a half inch in length when fully grown. In color 

 he is brownish or olive-green, and has three pairs of 

 true legs, which are longer than the legs usually vouch- 

 safed to caterpillars. He has black eyes which give 

 him a keen, alert expression of countenance when seen 

 through a lens. Along the lower surface of his body 

 are tiny tassels of thread, which are his tracheal gills 

 and enable him to breathe the oxygen mixed with the 

 swift-flowing water, so he does not have to rise to the 

 surface to take breath. His body bears at the rear end 

 a pair of stout hooks. It is by means of these that he 

 grasps his silken ropes and is not swept away down- 

 stream by the swift current. He loves to spread his 

 nets on the very brink of waterfalls, and there they 

 remain long after he has abandoned them, making the 

 rock dark with the refuse caught in their cunning 

 meshes. 



When the fisherman has found in his nets, day after 

 day, sufficient sustenance to complete his growth he asks 

 no more of the kindly waters but retires to his shabby 

 house, patches it up, mayhap, making it stronger and 

 more torrent-proof; and he builds a grating of silk at 

 either end which allows the water to pass through 

 freely, bringing oxygen for breathing, but carefully 

 excludes small enemies that might find their way in 

 through an imbarred door. Thus protected, he changes 



