The Dragon-Fly.



DRAGON-FLIES may be found near ponds

and streams. As they are among the largest

of insects, their bodies long, and their colors

brilliant, they may be very easily known.

The dragon-fly first comes from an egg. A

number of eggs, fasten to each other in a 

cluster, are dropped by the mother into the

 water, where they sink to the bottom. After 

a while,the young ones break the shell and 

separate.

Here, then, we have this insect in the early

stage of its life that is in the water.

At this time it is like a worm with six legs.

The tail is furnished with means for drawing

up and driving out the water, by which it

supplies itself with oxygen, and pushes itself

forward at the same time. Its lower lip

grows into a strangely-jointed organ which

can be shot forward nearly an inch, the more

readily to seize its prey. It has a great appetite,

and eagerly devours whatever grubs or

worms may come within its reach.

Ten or eleven months are spent in the first

stages of its life in the water. If it were

taken out and kept for any length of time it

would perish. Above it, there is a world in

which it is destined to live, for which, in its

present state, it is utterly unfit. Of the thin

air and bright sunshine and beautiful flowers,

and of the freedom and joy of a winged life,

it knows nothing.

But at length a time comes when it is

seized by a strange restlessness. It loses its

relish for the pursuits in which it had hitherto

spent its life. It can live no longer in the

water, and yielding to an impulse to ascend,

it climbs the stalk of some plant and passes

from the water. When high enough up, it

pauses and takes a firm hold of the plant with

its claws. If closely observed, it is now seen

to quiver, as if in mortal agony. At length

the skin of the back splits open, the dragonfly

thrusts out its head, and at last succeeds

in drawing out the whole body, leaving the

old skin behind.

It still remains for a time upon the plant,

shaking out its wings until they are dry and

gain strength, when it launches away on the

air for the toils and joys of the new life which

it has begun.

There are several kinds of dragon-flies,

and all are very beautiful. Their wings,

which are four in number, are light and gauzy,

like network, and some of them are tinted

with all the colors of the rainbow. Their

eyes are hard, but clear, and very large, forming,

indeed, the greater part of the head.

They are strong of wing, and quite as greedy

in their new state of life as in the old.


 

Children's Guest.



What a wonderful change this curious insect

experiences in passing from the dull,

sluggish life which he led in his gloomy 

prison-house of water and mud, to his 

subsequent life of freedom and activity!

And should we not look for as great a

change in one who has been set free from the 

cruel bondage of sin and Satan? One who

has, spiritually, passed from death unto life?

Whose sins have been forgiven and who rejoices

in the love and favor of God?

And all who have met this spiritual change,

and who go on serving the Lord, faithful to the

end, will experience a transformation in body,

more sudden and more wonderful than that

experienced by the dragon-fly. May all who

read this, meet with that glorious change

when our Lord shall come.




 ED.