The gnat-bites and mosquito buzzings are sometimes harder to bear than an operation with a surgeon's knife.

In the reeds there are a lot of little dams and canals with green, still water, where duckweed and pondweed run to seed; and where gnat-eggs and blackfish and worms are hatched out in uncountable masses.

A faint far gnat-voice says, "Is that Zed Ess?" "No," I shout.