The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1914-09-18
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 4 FLY


weighing and squirniug in nice
warm bed of manure, where / spent
my time ea,ng and drinking the
food about me- After a while ! be-
gan to feel uncomfortable and found
that had grown too big for my skin.
Relief came soon and my skin came
off, and ! ate some more manure and
enjoyed it. In II few days more my
skin again got too tight, and off it
came, and then ! went to sleep for
don't know how long. When awokc
was kicking and struggling out Of
q very dry hard skin, and after freeing
myself found | was in the open air
and had legs and wings and looked
and felt very differently than when
went to sleep. | was thirsty, so
tried my wings for the first time
and flew to puddle by the manure
pile and took long drink, after
which felt much better.
Up to this time | had eater moth
ing but manure, but | soon found out
that there were other things just as
good saw u lot Of other flies, big
and little, around an outbuilding, Il
| privy. not far from the manure pile,
so flew over and had feast. 1t
was fun to wade around in your food
and find so much that you hardly
know where to begin. I'm afraid
I'm a gluten.
spent quite a while here and then
flew out in the sunshine where the
white clothes were hanging on line
and walked over the napkins for Il
while. Wet things are very pleasant
for a time, but my feet get covered
with little pieces of food and things
that wigglc around and tickle me
so like to wipe them Off on a nice
white napkin or tablccioth, aud thcr
get around better. While / was en-
jcying the sun | smcl!cd the most de-
iightfuI smell thai had ever come tC
me. Il came from an open window
so in | flew. Things were smoking
ON a stove and a woman was mixing
up some soft white stuff ON table
There were a lot of other flies about
and one that was too busy eating tC
see his danger got rolled up in the
dough and / never saw him again, 50
/ was careful and flew in aud out anc
got a mouthfuI each time ! got rio
of some more manure there, too. fol
the dough wassticky and pulled it of
my feet.
Nearby there was a bowl Of mill
which smelled good, so | flew over anC
took a drink. Here nearly lost my
life, and if | had not been young anC
active, ! am sure | would never hav,
escdped. Several of us were drink.
ing when the woman suddenly put
out her hand in our direction, and We
all made n jump. Two got hit anC
fell right in the middle. She hit me
too, but / landed near the edge anC
struggled out and flew away, but she
caught the other two and pinchec
them an trew them on the floor, anC
went on mixing her dough, apparently
without a thought that she had killec
two Of my companions.
stayed in the kitchen a long tim,
and then went into another room
where there was not so much to eat
as / was not very hungry. Here
found lot of flies and the table set
One poor fly had drowned in the ice
water; it must have been awfully cold
and two or three had their feet SC
tangled up in the butter that they
couldn't get away, and the number o.
little germs that they had wiped of
was enormous. They were swarmint
VIZ bit bublSIf buI lldu tdttl tHOuE
that day, and before long it got darl
and | was tired, so went to sleep OF
the edge of glass, scraping Off n
much dough as could. The edge o
a glass is a very nice thing to wip,
your feet on.
: In the morning the man and woman
and a child came in to eat, and tn
woman poured out glassful of mill
for the child-in the glass | hat
slept on. guess people like germ
and manure and things just as muc!
as | do, for the baby drank all of tn
milk. Day after day went by; W,
spent part of our time in the hous
and then we would fly TO the manur,
pile and the little building back of it
and we lived on the fat Of the land
Two or three times a day we woul'
get Whit of that lovely smell iron
the kitchen and then we would hay,
race to see which would get ther,
first. The woman would slap at u
and the child chase US, but only few