a frog's. Anon
he holds his head erect and stretches out his long arms in what is most
palpably a yawn. Then, for pure diversion, he may hold himself
half erect on his umbrella frame of legs and sidle along a sort of
quadrille--a veritable "eight hands in round."

But all the while he conveys distinctly the impression of a creature to
the last degree blase. Even when a crab is let down into his grotto by
an attendant for the edification of the visitors the octopus seems to
regard it with only lukewarm interest. If he deigns to go in pursuit,
it is with the air of one who says, "Anything to oblige," rather than
of eagerness for a morsel of food. Yet withal, even though unhurried,
he usually falls upon the victim with surprising sureness of aim,
encompassing it in his multiform net. Or perhaps, thinking the game
hardly worth so much effort, he merely reaches out suddenly with one
of his eight arms--each of which is a long-drawn-out hand as well--and
grasps the victim and conveys it to his distensible maw without so much
as changing his attitude.

All this of the giant octopus--brown and warty and wrinkled and blase.
But the diminutive cousin in the grotto with the jellyfishes is a bird
of quite another feather. Physically he is constructed on the same model
as the other, but his mentality is utterly opposed. No grand roles for
him; his part is comedy. He finds life full of interest. He is satisfied
with himself and with the world. He assumes an aspect of positive
rakishness, and intelligence, so to say, beams from his every limb. All
day long he must be up and doing. For want of better business he will
pursue a shrimp for hours at a time with the zest of a true sportsman.
Now he darts after his intended prey like a fox-hound. Again he resorts
to finesse, and sidles off, with eyes fixed in another direction, like
a master of stratagem. To be sure, he never catches the shrimp--but what
of that? The true sportsman is far removed from the necessity for mere
material profit. I half suspect that little octopus would release the
shrimp if once he caught him, as the true fisherman throws back the
excess of his catch. It is sport, not game, that he covets.

THE LABORATORY AND ITS FOUNDER

When one has made the circuit of the aquarium he will have seen and
marvelled at some hundreds of curious creatures utterly unlike anything
to be found above water. Brightly colored starfishes, beautiful
sea-urchins, strange stationary asci