Among the Night People | Page 5

was sure a certain Robin had seen
his new suit. It was because of that vanity he never lived to be a
Mosquito.
After they had changed their skins a few times, they had two
breathing-tubes apiece instead of one, and these two grew out near their
heads. And their heads were much larger. At the tail-end of his body
each Wiggler now had two leaf- like things with which he swam
through the water. Because they used different breathing-tubes, those
Wigglers who had moulted or cast their skins several times now floated
in the water with their heads just below the surface and their tails down.
When a Wiggler is old enough for this, he is called a Pupa, or
half-grown one.
There are often young Mosquito children of all ages in the same
barrelÑeggs, Wigglers, and Pup¾ all together. There is plenty of room
and plenty of food, but because they have no work to do there is much

time for quarrelling and talking about each other.
This year the Oldest Brother had put on so many airs that nobody liked
it at all, and several of the Wigglers had been heard to say that they
couldn't bear the sight of him. He had such a way of saying, "When I
was a young Wiggler and had to keep my head down," or repeat- ing,
"Up with your tails and down with your eyes, if you would be mannerly,
healthy, and wise." One little Wiggler crossed his feelers at him, and
they say that it is just as bad to do that as to make faces. Besides, it is
so much easierÑif you have the feelers to cross.
Now the Oldest Brother and those of his brothers and sisters who had
hatched from the same egg-mass were talking of leaving the rain-barrel
forever. It was a bright moonlight night and they longed to get their
wings uncovered and dried, for then they would be full-grown
Mosquitoes, resting most of the day and having glorious times at night.
The Oldest Brother was jerking himself through the water as fast as he
could, giving his jointed body sudden bends, first this way and then that,
and when he met any one nearly his own age he said, "Come with me
and cast your skin. It is a fine evening for moulting."
Sometimes they answered, "All right," and jerked or wiggled or swam
along with him, and sometimes a Pupa would answer, "I'm afraid I'm
not old enough to slip out of my skin easily."
Then the Oldest Brother would reply, "Don't stop for that. You'll be
older by the time we begin." That was true, of course, and all members
of Mosquito families grow old very fast. So it happened that when the
moon peeped over the farmhouse, showing her bright face between the
two chimneys, twenty-three Pup¾ were floating close to each other and
making ready to change their skins for the last time.
It was very exciting. All the young Wigglers hung around to see what
was going on, and pushed each other aside to get the best places. The
Oldest Brother was much afraid that somebody else would begin to
moult before he was ready, and all the brothers were telling their sisters
to be careful to split their skins in the right place down the back, and

the sisters were telling them that they knew just as much about
moulting as their brothers did. Every little while the Oldest Brother
would say, "Now wait! Don't one of you fellows split his old skin until
I say so."
Then two or three of his brothers would become impatient, because
their outer skins were growing tighter every minute, and would say,
"Why not?" and would grumble because they had to wait. The truth
was that the Oldest Brother could not get his skin to crack, although he
jerked and wiggled and took very deep breaths. And he didn't want any
one else to get ahead of him. At last it did begin to open, and he had
just told the others to commence moulting, when a Mosquito Mother
stopped to lay a few eggs in the barrel.
"Dear me!" said she. "You are not going to moult to-night, are you?"
"Yes, we are," answered the Oldest Brother, giving a wiggle that split
his skin a little farther. "We'll be biting people before morning."
"You?" said the Mosquito Mother, with a queer little smile. "I wouldn't
count on doing that. But you young people may get into trouble if you
moult now, for it looks like rain."
She waved her feelers upward as she spoke, and they noticed that heavy
black clouds were piling up in the sky. Even as they looked the moon
was hidden and the wind began to