see some ugly and clumsy black bugs crawling upon the bottom of the pond. They have six legs, and are covered with hard, horny scales, laid plate upon plate, like the armor of some old knight of the Middle Ages. This insect is dull and heavy in appearance and movement; and he might be called very stupid were it not for the manner in which he catches and eats every little fly and mosquito that comes within his reach.

3. I am afraid you will think he is not very interesting, and will not care to make his acquaintance; but, let me tell you, something very wonderful is about to happen to him. If you will stay, and patiently watch him, you will see what I saw once upon a time, and you will never forget it.

4. On this fine May morning the water spiders are dancing and skipping upon the water as if it were a floor of glass; here and there a blue dragon fly is skimming joyfully through the air upon his fine, firm, gauzy wings; but our dull, black, mail-coated bug is lazily crawling in the mud at the bottom of the pond. He sees all these bright insects sporting in the sun above him. For the first time in his life he feels discontented with his place in the mud. A longing comes upon him, quite different from his desire for mosquitoes and flies.

5. "I will creep up the stem of this rush," he says to himself, "and perhaps when I reach the surface of the water I can skip about like the water spiders, or, what is better, dart through the air like the blue-winged dragon fly."

6. But as he crawls slowly and with great toil up the slippery stem he is disheartened by the thought that he has no wings; his legs are heavy and clumsy, not light and nimble like the water spider's. What can he do in a sphere so much above that in which he has always lived?

7. At last, however, he has reached the surface; he creeps out of the water, and, clinging to the green stem, feels the spring air and sunshine all about him. Why does he not enjoy himself? Why does he appear so ill at ease, now that he has freed himself from the dark mud and can look down upon his old home at the foot of the rushes?

8. A very strange feeling comes over him. He is not used to the sunshine and the warmth. His coat of mail has become dry in the warm air; it shrinks, it cracks, it is going to fall off!

9. "What folly in me to crawl up here," says the poor insect. "The mud and water were good enough for my brothers, and good enough for me too had I but known it! If I were safe at the bottom again I should never look up at the sunshine, however bright it might be."

10. He is very uneasy; he feels about him, as if ready to plunge again into the water. His helmet has broken off at the top, and is falling down over his face; he cannot see. A minute later it drops beneath his chin, and what is his surprise to find that as his old face breaks away, a new one comes in its place; and this face is larger and more beautiful than the first, with two of the most wonderful eyes. Two, did I say? They look like two, but each of them is made up of hundreds of little eyes.

11. These eyes stand out like globes on each side of his head. The world which they look upon is altogether different from anything that the dull, black bug at the bottom of the pond had ever imagined. The sky is bluer, the sunshine is brighter, the nodding reeds and the wild flowers on the bank are a thousand times gayer and more graceful. Now he lifts his new head to see more of the

great world; and, behold! as he moves he is drawing himself out of the old suit of armor. From two neat little cases at his side come two pairs of wings, folded up like fans until the right time for using them shall come; they are still half folded, and must be carefully spread open and smoothed before they are ready for flight.

12. And while he trembles with surprise, see how, with every movement, he is escaping from the old armor, and drawing from their sheaths fine legs, longer and more slender and more beautifully colored than the old. And now his body-a long, slim body-which has been packed away like a spyglass, is drawn slowly out, one part after another. At last the dark coat of mail hangs empty from the rushes, and above it sits a dragon fly, with great wondering eyes, a slender, green body, and two pairs of bright, gauzy wings.

13. Need I tell you that, months ago, the mother dragonfly dropped into the water her tiny eggs, which lay in the mud until, by and by, dark, crawling bugs were hatched from them, so unlike the mother that she does not know them as her children? She flies over the pond, and, looking down through the water where they crawl among the rushes, she has not a word to say to them. But, after a time, they will find their way up into the air, where they will pass into the new life, and be gay-winged dragon flies like herself.

JANE ANDREWS, (Adapted).

spyglass movement

skimming

sphere
patiently

horny

warmth

FREAKS OF THE FROST.

1. The frost looked forth one still, clear night,
And whispered, "Now I shall be out of sight!
So, through the valley and over the height
In silence I'll take my way.

I will not go on like that blustering train,
The wind and the snow and the hail and the rain.
That make such a bustle and noise in vain,

But I'll be as busy as they."

2. So he flew to the mountain, and powdered its cres
He lit on the trees, and their boughs he dressed
With diamonds and pearls; and over the breast
Of the quivering lake he spread

A coat of mail that need not fear

The downward point of many a spear
Which he hung on its margin far and near
Where a rock could rear its head.

3. He went to the windows of those who slept,
And over each pane like a fairy crept;
Wherever he breathed, wherever he stepped,
By the light of the moon were seen

Most beautiful things: there were flowers and tree
There were bevies of birds and swarms of bees;
There were cities and temples and towers-and the
All pictured in silvery sheen.