Pupa-case, Larva, and Fly of Caddis-Worm.
"Will no one make me a bid? Everything is to be sold without reservation," cried the auctioneer.
"Five shillings," said Frank.
"Going at five shillings!—going! going!—gone!"—and the lot was knocked down to Frank.
"What are you going to do with them?" asked Jimmy.
"Make them into aquaria, of course. Don't you see they are just the thing. The idea came into my head as soon as I saw them."
"Then we can put some water insects in," said Dick.
The glass reservoirs were placed on a shelf in the boat-house, and the next morning before breakfast they were fitted up. They got a quantity of fine gravel and sand, and thoroughly washed it in water, so as to cleanse it from all mud and impurity. This was placed to the depth of a couple of inches in each vessel, and a rock-work of worn flints was built upon it. Water was poured in to within a few inches of the top, and pieces of anacharis were planted in the gravel, their roots kept down by the stones. In a day or two the water had got clear, and the plants had taken root, and the boys proceeded to stock the aquaria. The small brook near afforded minnows and sticklebacks in plenty. In a stagnant pool they got some newts and water-insects. From the broad they obtained a few small perch, roach, and bream, and an eel about six inches long. They at first put these all together without any attempt at sorting them, and then the following consequences ensued. The water-boatmen fastened on the heads of the small fish and speedily killed them, and ate them up. The sticklebacks made themselves at home at once, and proved very pugnacious, fighting each other, dashing at a stick or finger, if put into the water, but, worst of all, annoying the minnows. Each male stickleback took up a position of his own, and resented any approach to within a few inches of it. With his glaring green eyes, and scarlet breast, he would wage war against any intruder; and when an unsuspecting minnow came within his ken he would sidle up to it, till within striking distance, then dash at it, and strike it with his snout in the stomach. The perch swallowed the minnows, and when they had vanished, attempted to swallow the sticklebacks, but the spines of the latter stuck in the perches' gullets and choked them. The eel, too, would writhe and poke through the gravel and stir it up, displacing the weeds and doing a lot of mischief.