THE LITTLE WATER-MEN.
You know of spiders that live on land. You also know of spiders that run upon the water. There are also land-beetles and water-beetles.
The water-spiders have rafts, boats, skates, and diving-bells. They sit and float on lily leaves. Their homes are cool and bright under the clear, still waters.
There is also a happy race of beetles that have all these things. The story of these beetles is like the story of a fairy prince, but it is a true story.
A Happy Race.
All living things are fitted for the places where they are to live. The animals that live in cold lands have thick fur. Birds are made with light bodies,[18] so that they can fly easily. The fish have scaly, pointed, slippery bodies, so they can glide swiftly through the water.
So you must expect to find that the water-beetles are not quite like the land-beetles. They have bodies made fit to live in their water-home.
If you place a water-beetle beside a land-beetle, you will see that the parts of the water-beetle fit more closely than the land-beetle’s. They join each other so as to form a smooth, water-tight case. When we build a boat, is it not our first care to make it tight, so that it will not leak?
Next you will see that the water-beetle’s body is longer, narrower, and more pointed in front than the land-beetle’s. It is made so as to part the water as it moves along. The water-beetle’s shape is more fish-like than that of the land-beetle. When we build a boat, we do not make it broad or square at both ends. We make the fore-part narrow and sharp, to cleave the water as the fish does.