4 MAGGOTS. 
Mother, As several kinds of cater- 
pillars or maggots live in rotten wood, 
mud, carrion, dunghills, and other sub- 
stances of which we have the most dis- 
agreeable notions, we are too apt to ex- 
tend the disgusting or nasty idea of the 
place in which they live to the creature 
itself. 
Lucy, I understand that; but you 
say that some of these creatures live in 
mud ; now I thought, mamma, that mud 
was only earth and water. 
Mother, Mud is chiefly composed of 
earth and water; but it also contains 
many other things, as roots of vegeta- 
bles and plants, both dead and alive ; and 
also numberless small living creatures, so 
small, that they cannot be seen without a 
magnifying glass. Mud contains also a 
large portion of air. 
Lucy, Oh, mamma, you cannot be 
serious now ; air in dirty mud ! nice clean 
bright air in dirty mud! You told me that 
air is what we all breathe and feel, what 
is round us, and every thing. 
Mother, Certainly we do breathe and 
