142 WAYS OF THE SIX-FOOTED 



that was hollow like a tube. After he came out of his 

 egg he ran about the tree and seemed interested in 

 everything he saw for a time. Then, suddenly, he went 

 to the side of a limb and deliberately fell off. To his 

 little eyes the ground below was invisible ; so our 

 small cicada showed great faith when he practically 

 jumped off the edge of his world into space. He was 

 such a speck of a creature that the breeze took him and 

 lifted him gently down, as if he were the petal of a 

 flower, and he alighted on the earth unhurt and probably 

 much delighted with his sail through the air. At once 

 he commenced hunting for some little crevice in the 

 earth; and when he found it he went to the bottom 

 of it and with his shovel-like forefeet began digging 

 downward. I wonder if he stopped to give a last look 

 at sky, sunshine, and the beautiful green world before 

 he bade them good-by for seventeen long years. If so, 

 he did it hurriedly, for he was intent upon reaching 

 something to eat. This he finally found a short dis- 

 tance below the surface of the ground in the shape of 

 a juicy rootlet of the great tree above. Into this he 

 inserted his beak and began to take the sap as we take 

 lemonade through a straw. He made a little cell 

 around himself, and then he found existence quite bliss- 

 ful. He ate very little and grew very slowly, and 

 there was no perceptible change in him for about a 



