Aileen Aroon; A Memoir, with Other Tales of Faithful Friends and Favourites, Sketched from Life (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1884 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIV. MR. AND MRS. POLYPUS: A STORY FOUNDED ON A FACT IN" NATURAL HISTORY. "Our plenteous streams a varied race supply."--Pope. "Creatures that by a rule of Nature teach The art of order to a peopled kingdom."--Shaktpere. Scene: The old pine forest; a beautiful day in later summer. Grey clouds flitting across the sky's bright blue, and occasionally obscuring the sun's rays. A gentle breeze going whispering through the woods, the giant elms, the lordly oaks, and the dark and gloomy firs bending and bowing as the wind passes among their branches. Patches of bright crimson here and there where the foxgloves still bloom; patches of purple and yellow where heather and furze are growing. Not a sound to be heard in all the wood, except the clear, joyous notes of the robin; all his young ones are safely hatched and fledged, and flown away, and he is singing a hymn of thanksgiving. Aileen Aroon lying as usual with her great head on my lap, Theodore Nero as usual tumbling on the grass, Ida close at my side peeping over my shoulder at the paper I am reading aloud to her. Ida (loqxdtur): "What mites of people your hero and heroine are " The author: "Yes, puss; didn't you order me to write you a tale with tiny, tiny, tiny people in it? Well, here they are. They are microscopic." Ida: "But of course it is not a true story; it is composed, as you call it." The author: "It is a romance, Ida; but it is a romance of natural history, because, you know, there are creatures called polyps that live in the sea, and are so small you have to get a microscope to watch their motions, and they often eat each other, or swallow each other alive, and do all sorts of strange things; and so I call my story--"MR. AND MRS. POLYPUS: A TALE OF THE CORALLINE SEA, a tale of the Indian Oc...