s not what we are searching for, we shall enjoy seeing
it.

Look at little Nell! She has tumbled into the brook. Her foot slipped,
and down she went.

Don't cry, deary, you are not wet enough to do any harm. The warm sun
will soon dry you.

No, indeed, you will not have to go home.

[Illustration]

Perhaps you will be the first one to find a dobson after all.

Hurrah! hurrah! hear John shout!

He must have found the first dobson.

Yes, he has.

What, May? It is a horrid monster, and you have a good mind to scream?

Well, scream if you want to; that won't do any harm.

It _isn't_ pretty! but we shall like to look at it. You see it is a
larva and a big one, dark gray in color and with a thick leathery skin.

Mollie says it reminds her a little of the larva of the May fly; that
is, in shape.

Let us look at a picture of the May-fly larva.

You see it has a head, a thorax to which is attached the six legs and
the rudimentary wings, and an abdomen, all distinctly separated from
each other.

[Illustration]

The dobson has a head, but no thorax.

The body behind the head is divided into segments that all look very
much alike, and there is a pair of legs attached to each of the first
three segments.

The dobson eats other larvae that it chews up with its strong jaws.

It lives almost three years in the larval state, so you see it has
plenty of time in which to grow. Of course it moults. It is usually to
be found under stones in swift, running water. Those two pairs of hooks
at the tip of its body are its anchors.

It clasps them about a bit of stone or a stick that is firmly lodged,
and then it can bid defiance to the swirling stream.

Ned wonders why it is always found hiding under stones.

Listen to John, he says fishes are very fond of dobsons, and that is why
they hide away.

Fishermen hunt the dobsons for bait; so you see they have a hard time in
spite of their large size and their strong jaws.

When they have lived nearly three years in the water they crawl out on
the bank and hollow out a place under a stone.

Here they lie, apparently dead, but they are not dead.

They are undergoing a wonderful transformation.

It takes about a month for this transformation, or _metamorphosis_, as
it is called, to be completed.

All of our other insect friends have changed gradually from larval to
adult form. At each moult they became a little more like their parents,
and finally at the last moult,