The Dragon-Flies have always lived near the pond. Not the same ones that
are there now, of course, but the great-great-great-grandfathers of
these. A person would think that, after a family had lived so long in a
place, all the neighbors would be fond of them, yet it is not so. The
Dragon-Flies may be very good people--and even the Snapping Turtle says
that they are--still, they are so peculiar that many of their neighbors
do not like them at all. Even when they are only larvae, or babies, they
are not good playmates, for they have such a bad habit of putting
everything into their mouths. Indeed, the Stickleback Father once told
the little Sticklebacks that they should not stir out of the nest,
unless they would promise to keep away from the young Dragon-Flies.
The Stickleback Mothers said that it was all the fault of the Dragon-Fly
Mothers. "What can you expect," exclaimed one of them, "when Dragon-Fly
eggs are so carelessly laid? I saw a Dragon-Fly Mother laying some only
yesterday, and how do you suppose she did it? Just flew around in the
sunshine and visited with her friends, and once in a while flew low
enough to touch the water and drop one in. It is disgraceful!"
The Minnow Mothers did not think it was so much in the way the eggs were
laid, "although," said one, "I always lay mine close together, instead
of scattering them over the whole pond." They thought the trouble came
from bad bringing up or no bringing up at all. Each egg, you know, when
it is laid, drops to the bottom of the pond, and the children are
hatched and grow up there, and do not even see their fathers and
mothers.
Now most of the larvae were turning into Nymphs, which are half-grown
Dragon Flies. They had been short and plump, and now they were longer
and more slender, and there were little bunches on their shoulders where
the wings were growing under their skin. They had outgrown their old
skins a great many times, and had to wriggle out of them to be at all
comfortable. When a Dragon-Fly child became too big for his skin, he
hooked the two sharp claws of each of his six feet firmly into
something, unfastened his skin down the back, and wriggled out, leaving
it to roll around in the water until it became just part of the mud.
Like most growing children, the Dragon-Fly larvae and Nymphs had to eat a
great deal. Their stomachs were as long as their bodies, and they were
never really happy unless their stomachs were full. They always ate
plain food and plenty of it, and they never ate between meals. They had
breakfast from the time they awakened in the morning until the sun was
high in the sky, then they had dinner until the sun was low in the sky,
and supper from that time until it grew dark and they went to sleep: but
never a mouthful between meals, no matter how hungry they might be. They
said this was their only rule about eating, and they _would_ keep it.
They were always slow children. You would think that, with six legs
apiece and three joints in each leg, they might walk quite fast, yet
they never did. When they had to, they hurried in another way by taking
a long leap through the water. Of course they breathed water like their
neighbors, the fishes and the Tadpoles. They did not breathe it into
their mouths, or through gills, but took it in through some openings in
the back part of their bodies. When they wanted to hurry, they breathed
this water out so suddenly that it sent them quickly ahead.
The Snapping Turtle had called them "bothering bugs" one day when he was
cross (and that was the day after he had been cross, and just before the
day when he was going to be cross again), and they didn't like him and
wanted to get even. They all put their queer little three-cornered heads
together, and there was an ugly look in their great staring eyes.
"Horrid old thing!" said one larva. "I wish I could sting him."
"Well, you can't," said a Nymph, turning towards him so suddenly that he
leaped. "You haven't any sting, and you never will have, so you just
keep still." It was not at all nice in her to speak that way, but she
was not well brought up, you know, and that, perhaps, is a reason why
one should excuse her for talking so to her little brother. She was
often impatient, and said she could never go anywhere without one of the
larvae tagging along.
"I tell you what let's do," said another Nymph. "Let's all go together
to the shallow water where he suns himself, and let's all stand close to
each other, and then, when he comes along, let's stick out our lips at
him!"
"Both lips?" asked the larvae.
"Well, our lower lips anyway," answered the Nymph. "Our upper lips are
so small they don't matter."
"We'll do it," exclaimed all the Dragon-Fly children, and they started
together to walk on the pond-bottom to the shallow water. They thought
it would scare the Snapping Turtle dreadfully. They knew that whenever
they stuck out their lower lips at the small fishes and bugs, they swam
away as fast as they could. The Giant Water-Bug (Belostoma), was the
only bug who was not afraid of them when they made faces. Indeed, the
lower lip of a Dragon-Fly child might well frighten people, for it is
fastened on a long, jointed, arm-like thing, and has pincers on it with
which it catches and holds its food. Most of the time, the Dragon-Fly
child keeps the joint bent, and so holds his lip up to his face like a
mask. But sometimes he straightens the joint and holds his lip out
before him, and then its pincers catch hold of things. He does this when
he is hungry.
When they reached the shallow water, the Dragon-Fly children stood close
together, with the larvae in the middle and the Nymphs all around them.
The Snapping Turtle was nowhere to be seen, so they had to wait. "Aren't
you scared?" whispered one larva to another.
"Scared? Dah! Who's afraid," answered he.
"Oh, look!" cried a Nymph. "There go some grown-up Dragon-Flies over our
heads. Just you wait until I change my skin once more, and then won't I
have a good time! I'll dry my wings and then I'll----"
"Sh-h!" said one of the larvae. "Here comes the Snapping Turtle."
Sure enough, there he came through the shallow water, his wet back-shell
partly out of it and shining in the sunlight. He came straight toward
the Dragon-Fly children, and they were glad to see that he did not look
hungry. They thought he might be going to take a nap after his dinner.
Then they all stood even closer together and stuck out their lower lips
at him. They thought he might run away when they did this. They felt
sure that he would at least be very badly frightened.
The Snapping Turtle did not seem to see them at all. It was queer. He
just waddled on and on, coming straight toward them. "Ah-h-h!" said he.
"How sleepy I do feel! I will lie down in the sunshine and rest." He
took a few more steps, which brought his great body right over the crowd
of Dragon-Fly children. "I think I will draw in my head," said he (the
Dragon-Fly children looked at each other), "and my tail (here two of the
youngest larvae began to cry) and lie down." He began to draw in his legs
very, very slowly, and just as his great hard lower shell touched the
mud, the last larva crawled out under his tail. The Nymphs had already
gotten away.
"Oh," said the Dragon-Fly children to each other, "Wasn't it awful!"
"Humph," said the Snapping Turtle, talking to himself--he had gotten
into the way of doing that because he had so few friends--"How
dreadfully they did scare me!" Then he laughed a grim Snapping Turtle
laugh, and went to sleep.