t the
creature tarries a minute or more, reaching out in the empty space, then
turns back and hits a smaller twig on this twig about an inch long. This
it explores over and over and sounds the depths that surround it, then
loops back again to the end of the main twig it has just explored,
profiting nothing by experience; then retraces its steps and measures
off another small branch, and is finally lost to sight amid the leaves.

Has the course of life up through geologic time been in any way like
this? There has been the push of life, the effort to get somewhere, but
has there been no more guiding principle than in the case of this worm?
The singular thing about the worm is its incessant reachings forth into
surrounding space, searching, searching, sounding, sounding, as if to be
sure that no chance to make a new connection is missed.

Finally the black worm comes to rest and, clinging by its hind feet,
lets itself down and simulates a small dry twig, in which disguise it
would deceive the sharpest-eyed enemy. No doubt it passed the night
posing as a twig.

Among the sylvan denizens that next came upon the stage were a
hummingbird, a little red newt, and a wood frog. The hummer makes short
work of everything: with a flash and a hum it is gone. This one seemed
to be exploring the dry twigs for nesting-material, either spiders' webs
or bits of lichen. For a brief moment it perched on a twig a few yards
from me. My ardent wish could not hold it any longer. Truly a fairy
bird, appearing and vanishing like a thought, familiar with the heart of
all the flowers and taking no food grosser than their nectar, the winged
jewel of the poets, the surprise and delight of all beholders--it came
like a burnished meteor into my leafy alcove and was gone as quickly.

All sylvan things have a charm and delicacy of their own, all except the
woodchuck; wherever he is, he is of the earth earthy. The wood frog is
known only to woodsmen and farm boys. He is a real sylvan frog, as
pretty as a bird, the color of the dry leaves, slender and elegant in
form and quick and furtive in movement. My feet disturbed one in the bed
of dry leaves. Slowly I moved my hand toward him and stroked his back
with a twig. If you can tickle a frog's back in any way you put a spell
upon him. He becomes quite hypnotized. He was instantly responsive to my
passes. He began to swell and foreshorten, and when I used my finger
instead of the twig, he puffed up very rap