THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
67 
Rudolph. “ For one, I feel disposed to give the 
good doctor a fair and candid hearing, and will 
try and hold fast to all that is good, and I hope 
you will fully join me in this determination. 
We shall at least make some progress in natural 
science, if we do not in forming truer concep¬ 
tions of life.” 
“ Oh, certainly,” was Davidson’s reply. “ I 
was very much interested in the strange and 
beautiful revelations of the microscope, and 
shall be ready to attend the doctor whenever 
he shall invite our attention to new objects of 
study.” 
“ All right, then,” was the answer; “ we are 
in for the frog-pond course, and I hope it may 
as completely remove the mirk from our minds 
as we have cleansed its mud and slime from 
our clothes.” 
At the appointed time teacher and pupils were 
standing on the borders of the pond, and Doc¬ 
tor Dean began his lesson by saying: 
“ Our attention was arrested the other day 
by some elegantly shaped and colored objects 
that were floating across the field of our micro¬ 
scope. The first strong impression of the un¬ 
instructed would be that they were gazing upon 
