IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 2G9 
Or if you saw a string of soap bubbles, four or five inches 
long, and floating after it in the water a long scarlet cord, with 
elegant silver fringe, and scattered all over with exquisite beads ! 
And if I should tell you the dainty thing was alive ! 
And if you should see a cluster of crystal beads, more lovely 
than any you ever saw, with a long rose-colored ribbon hanging 
from it, and a splendid silvery fringe from each side of the ribbon ! 
If I should tell you it was an animal, and could eat ! 
Or if you saw floating around in the water a transparent soap 
bubble, the' size of a marble, ribbed off like a melon, with thousands 
of little paddles all down the ribs, with which it beat the water and 
darted about like flashes of light ; and hanging from the airy little 
bubble two long silver cords with fringe of short threads that could 
curl and uncurl, and had each one a tiny sucker at the end ! 
Wouldn't you think that fairy stories were outdone ? 
