XXIV. BEGINNINGS OF ANIMAL LIFE

LET us suppose that we of the human family had been the only living things upon the earth.

No, that will not do; for earth must provide food for us, and every mouthful of our food has come from something that has lived and grown.

Well, then, we will suppose that there had been no creatures of any sort, for we could live well upon grains and fruits, roots and savory leaves:-no birds of the air, no fishes of the sea, no pets among the smaller animals, or helpers among the larger ones, nor anything to harm or destroy as many of the creatures do.

What an odd world it would be! We cannot think how much we should miss !

Some of the higher animals have the same powers that we have. They see, hear, taste, and smell as well

perhaps as we.

In a wild state they know what is good for them to eat and when they have had enough. Beginning as little babies they build up a body and keep it in repair. Most of them know when enemies are near and how to defend themselves or find places

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of safety. It would be a wise human child that could do all that.

The eagle's sight, the keen scent of the dog and fox, and the wisdom of the ant and bee are powers we would like to borrow.

This is not to be an animal book; but an earth without animals would not be earth as we know it, so we must not have a book about earth without some notice of its animal population.

Instead of the higher creatures I am going to select beginners in the art of living, so that you may see life at work with simple tools of its own making.

The world is full of living creatures that are too small for us to see without help. The germs that make people ill are examples of the marvelous power life has in even very simple bodies.

When you are

you are older you will understand how each little bit of the body of large creatures can have a life and a work of its own, like the tiny moneron of

the next lesson, as well as a part in the work of the whole creature.

XXV. A CREATURE WITH ONE GIFT

WHEN you began to study numbers you had one for a first lesson. All the numbers are made of ones. The amoeba may be called the one among the living creatures. Would you like to study it?

It is so tiny that you will have to put on spectacles; not common ones either, but the kind called microscopes. A very good microscope it must be, with one glass above the other in a hollow tube, and with a mirror to throw light where it is needed.

When you look through the microscope you will think at first that there is little to see, for this simplest of creatures has neither feet nor hands, arms nor legs, eyes nor ears, nor anything suitable for a body to put them upon if it had them. Yet it can teach us a lesson and set us an example which, if we followed it, would make our lives noble and beautiful.

Where is this tiny one-being (moneron), called the amoba, to be found, and what has it?

It might be found almost anywhere, but remember it takes a microscope to help us to discover it.

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As to what it has, what have you that you think is your best possession, the one you would not lose for the world? This creature has it also. It is a little spark of real life, and it can take food and grow.

When this moneron gets its growth it does the wonderful thing I have spoken of. Instead of trying to go on living by itself, it begins to draw

itself together in the middle, and lo, in a little while it has given half itself away to make a new amoeba! Is not this a lesson and an example of sacrifice and service?

Let us try to put ourselves in the place of the amœbæ. We are little drops of something like jelly with hardly color enough to make us visible.

Presently we begin to feel hungry,

everything which has life does, and

having no arms to reach out with, and no wings, or fins, or legs, to help us move, we see what we can do with our very soft elastic bodies.

The plan works, and the little body stretches out a bit of itself and clings with it. It happens that what it clings to is good for it to eat. Then it seems to

say: "Here I am!" and bring the rest of its body

up to the new place.

How does the amoeba eat without a mouth? By making a mouth just in the same way that it made a foot or arm. Indeed, the creature is all mouth, for it stretches itself to cover all of its food, and then is all stomach until its need is satisfied, when it gathers itself together and is a living drop again.

This is about all it can do till it begins to feel like attempting this other work of giving away instead of taking; then it gathers about two centers, and as a result there are two amœbæ in place of one.

Suppose it could understand this singular act, what would it think of this other creature just like itself? What are they to each other? Which is mother and which is child?

There is another animal higher up the stairway of life to which the same thing might happen by accident. The next story, from Little Meadow People, tells about it.