HEEMIT AND TROUBADOUR 145 



kind, hurrying toward the same goal, but they are of no 

 interest to him as yet. Like the youth in the famous 

 poem, " Excelsior " is his motto, and he heeds no invita- 

 tion to tarry. When he reaches the highest place within 

 his ken he places himself, probably back downward, 

 on some branch or twig and takes a firm hold with all 

 of his six pairs of claws and keeps very still for a time. 

 Then his skeleton nymph-skin breaks open at the back, 

 and there pushes out of it a strange creature, long and 

 white, except for two black spots upon his back ; on he 

 comes until only the tip of his body remains in the old 

 nymph-skin ; then he reaches forward and grasps the 

 twig with his soft, new legs and pulls himself entirely 

 clear from the old hermit garb. At once his wings 

 begin to grow ; at first they are mere pads on his back, 

 but they soon expand until they cover his body and 

 are flat hke those of a miller. The many veins in the 

 wings are white, and he keeps the wings fluttering in 

 order that they may harden soon. If, in the moonlight 

 of some June evening, a junior naturalist should see a 

 tree covered with cicadas at this stage, he would think 

 it had suddenly blossomed into beautiful, white, flutter- 

 ing flowers. 



As the night wears on, the color of om hero changes 

 and his wings harden, until when the sun rises we be- 

 hold him in the glory of a black uniform, with facings 



