The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-05-28

the frog had raised it an inch or two out
Of its element it let 90 and catapulted itself
by means of its pump and Its injector back
to the bottom. The frog crawled onto
bog and sat down to ponder over his ad-
venture. lie pondercd so deeply that he
did not know IL water snake was gliding
up behind him. He might just well
have surrendered to the foe down in the
pool, for the snake g"bbed HIM and made
Il meal of him anyhow.
.'As time passes al'n% some startling
changes come over this aggressive and
rapaciuus dweller in the pool that have
been describing. Its head begins to swell
and its back 10 get hnmpy. The more its
head swells and the higher Its back humps
the harder the creature works tur ;s ar-
petite seems to increase with lis apparent
importance If YOU watch it closely you
can help noticing by and by, that ii has
evidently struck Il streak of bad health
Physical distress of some kind seems To be
getting Il clutch on it. Any one who has
ever himself disputed with the asthma, or
heard some one else wrangling with it. will
be struck with the fact that if anything
ails this erstwhile lively and stalwart des-
poiler of its fellows it is asthma.
..When the changed creature eyerts
itself it is easy to see that it can scarcely
catch its breath. Its eyes bul lge more
than ever. and it labors hard for the in
sufficient oxygen it manages to draw in.
You can almost imagine that you can hear
the sufferer wheeze. At last the invalid
makes up its mind that change Of climate
is the only hope, and it seeks the change.
The insect climbs the stalk Of some conven-
lent rush or reed and leaves its native
element for the open air. Ascending the
stalk few inches above the surface Of
the water, the insect rests, having taken
the third degree Of that tired feeling,
clutching the stalk with its six legs as with
the grasp of death and rolling its head
and swaying its body, and struggling for
! breath.
Now if you keep your eye on this in
teresting creature you will presently see it
hump itself as if for one supreme and final
effort for relief, and crack goes something.
If anything was ever ripped up the back
this late resident Of the pond bottom is.
But this was just what it was struggling
to do, and everything is all right. The
insect S clothes had become too small for
it. and it is now emancipating itself from
their clasp There is glistening sheen
at the head and shoulders that are now
reared aloft, and the big eyes are as brilliant
as diamonds 1t was hard struggle, but
the creature breathes again. Its gills have
given place to lung power, and it will
never have to separate oxygen from water
again in order to live. The insect rests a
while, but the observer will note that there
is still something of much moment disturb
ing its serenity Pretty soon it begins to
tug at itself again, and you will be scarce
| ly able to believe your eyes when you see
from that chunky, segmented thing, not
more than an inch in length, that only Il
few minutes before was prowling on the
pond bottom. Il slender trunk more than
two inches long, and cleaning in brilliant
hues, developed.
This new apparition resembles nothing
50 much as bumped back mosquito wrig
gler, enlarged hundred times or more.
But that big hump back has its duty to
perform The great club like insect still
clings to the reed stalk and it is still agi
tated by a palpable unrest. Presently,
from each side Of the rounded hump, some
thing slowly moves outward, until at last it
has unfolded gradually into two pairs of
long. slender, quivering, delicate, grOssa
mer wings. For moment longer this
strangely transformed creature rests upon
| the stalk, waving its iridescent wings to
| the passing breeze and then rises and sails
away in swift and erratic flight among the
reeds and rushes and over the waters of
the pond-the dreaded devil darning
needle of your childhood, whose sole mis-
sion, you thought, was to pounce upon you
and sew up your ears; in reality the harm
less and useful dragon fly, most wonder
| fully and beautifully transformed, and 60
ing forth to prey upon and destroy its mil
lions of noxious insect pests, which, but
for the race Of dragon flies and their per
sistent and tireless pursuit, would make the
life of man scarcely worth the living.
The unfolding of the dragon fly is not
the only wonderful thing about the insect.
The mission of the perfect insect is to eat
always eat. So determined is it to full
fiji its mission that, although it may be be-
reft of both its wings and lie a helpless
cripple on the ground, it will snap up any
fly, bug, spider, moth or other thing Of
that sort that is so inconsiderate as to come
within its reach oflightning like jaws orlips,
and vii! devour the prey with as much en-
joyment as if it had been captured as the
dragon fly sailed through the air on un-
hindered wing. Catch dragon fly if you
can and hold it between your thumb and
finger bv it's broad shoulders. You might
naturally suppose that then fear would
surely get the better of its appetite. But
not So Hold fly or other insect near
the dragon fly and those jaws will close on
it like flash 1t will take flies thus of
fersd all day long if You choose to feed
them to it. The dragon fly never gets
enough to eat and the quantity of insects
one will devour in the course of a day $ for
aging is beyond computation. You might
fill big room with flies, mosquitoes,
spiders, moths, &C., and turn dragon fly
loose among them and it would not cease
in its devounng Of them single second,
day or night, no matter how long it took
to get at the last one.
''There is no winged creature, unless it
may be the humming bird, that has the
extraordinary machinery governing its
flight that the dragon fly possesses. Its
speed is marvellous, and yet its wings
never seem to move. A dragon fly may
be going forward with the velocity of the
wind, and yet can stop instantly in the
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