The Insect Folk

[Illustration]

When the dragon fly larva first hatches it is very small and its legs are rather long and spidery, but it eats and eats and eats,--my, how it eats!

And it grows and grows, and one day it finds its skin too tight.

A tight skin must be rather uncomfortable.

But the larva does not care much for its skin.

It merely splits it open down the back and pulls itself out.

Perhaps you think it must be yet more uncomfortable to be without a skin.

But it is not without a skin. It is covered by a new and soft one that soon hardens, and that is larger than the old one.

It wriggles out of its old skin as though it were an old coat, and leaves it clinging to the weeds in the pond.

Sometime you may find these cast-off dragon fly overcoats.

After it has shed its skin the dragon fly continues to grow. It keeps on growing until it has out