The water-hen has long ago got under cover, and the
squirrel drops no more husks. It is a true Silent Pond, and without a sign
of life.
"But if, retaining sense and sight, we could shrink into living atoms and
plunge under the water, of what a world of wonders should we then form
part! We should find this fairy kingdom peopled with the strangest
creatures--creatures that swim with their hair, that have ruby eyes
blazing deep in their necks, with telescopic limbs that now are withdrawn
wholly within their bodies and now stretched out to many times their own
length. Here are some riding at anchor, moored by delicate threads spun
out from their toes; and there are others flashing by in glass armor,
bristling with sharp spikes or ornamented with bosses and flowing curves;
while fastened to a great stem is an animal convolvulus that, by some
invisible power, draws a never-ceasing stream of victims into its gaping
cup, and tears them to death with hooked jaws deep down within its body.
"Close by it, on the same stem, is something that looks like a filmy
heart's-ease.
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