Fred's Relations [pp. 351-355]

1886.] Fred's Relatzons. 351
"Red-legs," responds one freckled urchin, ously, on the twenty-sixth day of my search,
making a dive into the brook, and on being did I see through my microscope a motion
questioned further, it appears that this is the of a little thing about half as big as a pinname of a species of frog that the boys hope head. The speck grew, and, behold, it had
to sell for a fabulous sum to some mythical a wonderful little shell, and, at last, one day
Frenchman. But no such frog appears, and I scraped the clinging sand from the minute
they run on farther up the creek to continue object, and the baby snail lay revealed, the
their search. three black whorls of its tiny shell as perfect
Here and there, on the leaves or chips as those of the biggest of the family.
that float in the water, or on the grasses that There is a stir in the grass at the top of
hang into the streamn, one finds clear, yellow- the cliff.
ish-white jelly drops, as big as dewdrops, or " What do you s'pose she's getting?" says
perhaps larger. To those who have kept one low voice.
these drops, and seen their final outcome, "Fish, of course," answers another redthey are known as the eggs of the common haired boy, contemptuously; and they pass
pond-snail. Dear to my memory is the first on, leaving me to climb the bank and wend
little pond-snail that ever hatched in my own my way homeward, battling all the time with
bottle of snail eggs. How eagerly from day two or three obstreperous water-boatmen,
to day I had gazed into the depths of the which with buzzings of defiance are endeavorwater in my bottle, hoping amidst the grains ing to climb the sides of the pail, and take
of sand and specks of leaves to see some flight back to the brook from which I have
movement indicating life, and how raptur- just drawn them.
Afary E. Barnford.
FRED'S RELATIONS.
MY resolution to visit the western city I reached my destination, looked about
which was the scene of all my woe, was sud- me, presented my letter to Mrs. Cary, and
denly taken for business reasons. Before I received an invitation to dinner. The famleft my native town I asked an old fa'rmily ily consisted of Mrs. Cary, who had been a
friend, Judge Baker, for some letters of in- widow for years, her widowed daughter, Mrs.
troduction, as I knew he held the pleasant- Nichol, the absent Fred, and her youngest
est relations with many of the best people in daughter, May, a charming girl of nineteen
my future home. Among others, he gave or twenty. Besides these, there were at the