Very Respect'y,
HAMILTON FISH.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
* * * * *
COMIC ZOOLOGY.
ORDER, REPTILIA.--WORMS.
Worms are invertebral animals; in other words, they are backboneless,
but nevertheless some of them--for example the prickly caterpillars--are
full of spines. In Texas they call a chicken-snake seven feet long a
worm; but it would be just as reasonable to call the Rosse Telescope an
opera-glass.
The common earthworm is the most unfortunate variety of the species.
Beaks are always after him, and he is often taken up early in the
morning while lying perdue in the moist meadow grass. Earthworms are a
good bait for trout, but the highflyers of the gentle craft consider it
infra dig to dig them. Impaled on a hook, they are as lively as if on a
bender, and if thrown, in this condition, into a stream or pool, the
fish are apt to mistake them for their natural Grub. When quickly drawn
from the liquid element by the angler, they sometimes come up with a
single drop of water hanging to them, and sometimes--though more
rarely--with two Gills. The question whether the hook hurts them, or
only tickles till they squirm, is one of those knotty problems that
physiologists have failed to solve. COWPER, the poet, had a tenderness
for the earthworm. So also had IZAAK WALTON, who recommends that he be
skewered "tenderly, as if you loved him."
From the cradle to the grave, and even after we are deposited in the
latter, our bodies are liable to be infested with worms.
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