Part 7

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What are you looking at, Charlie?

Something moving in the bottom of the pond?

Let us get it out.

Here, we will dip it out with this cup.

What a lot of stuff!

Sticks and mud--and--what is that?

Something alive, surely.

Let us put some clean water in the cup and examine what we have found.

My! my! what a queer little thing!

What do you suppose it is?

Ah, I know now, but I do not think you could ever, ever guess, not if you tried a week.

It is a young dragon fly!

It does not look much like its shiny-winged parents.

It looks like I don't know what, with a face like--well, when you look right in front of it, like a pug dog.

Queer! Well, I should think so! What is that, Amy? Am I sure it is a dragon fly?

Yes, there is no mistake; a dragon fly one day dropped an egg in the pond, and out of it hatched--this.

It will some day become a shiny-winged dragon fly and catch mosquitoes.

We will call it larva, and we will watch it a little while.

Look and see if it has a head, a thorax, and an abdomen.

Are there antennae on its head? And has it eyes?

If you were to look at its eyes with a microscope, you would find that they are made of six-sided facets, like the eyes of the grown-up dragon fly.

They are compound eyes, but they are not as large as the eyes of the grown-up dragon fly.

How many legs has it? What are its legs fastened to?

Yes, Nellie, thorax is right.

Its six legs are fastened to its thorax. I am glad you remembered thorax.

Has it a jointed abdomen? and has it wings?

Look! did you see that?