UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Received JlCnJ'' ,1900. 
 
 Accession No. Q / fa Q *7 . Class No. 
 
 Q *7 
 
 010UMI 
 UBRAlfY 
 
ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS 
 
 SHORT STORIES 
 
 OF 
 
 OUR SHY NEIGHBORS 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. M. A. B. KELLY 
 
 Author of "A Volume of Poems," " Leaves from Nature's Storybook," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK-:- CINCINNATI : CHICAGO 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
 
vt 
 
 JIOLOflft 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 
 W. P. 4 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IT has been my aim in arranging the lessons for this 
 volume to select chiefly such subjects, in the study of 
 zoology, as treat of the most familiar objects to be met 
 with in everyday life... 
 
 I have endeavored, also, to give so clear a description 
 of the form, color, and habits of each type under consid- 
 eration, that neither teachers nor pupils can be left at all 
 in doubt as to the identity of a specimen when they have 
 it in hand. 
 
 No one but a teacher can fully realize the joy and the 
 satisfaction of a child who brings to her a moth, a cater- 
 pillar, or some other form of insect life, and proudly places 
 it in the rank to which it belongs. 
 
 This assured success leads on to farther and farther 
 investigation, and awakens an enthusiasm and a desire to 
 become still better acquainted with the wonder world of 
 nature. 
 
 A few short blackboard exercises every day will soon 
 enable the child to master all the necessary technical 
 names and terms involved in the study of these lower 
 forms of life ; and it is far better to learn the right names 
 of things at the outset. 
 
 As far as it is practicable, each subject should be carried 
 on in the way of an object lesson ; and with a little 
 
 3 
 
encouragement on the part of the teacher, every pupil in 
 the classroom will gladly take part in adding to the zoolog- 
 ical treasures of the school cabinet. 
 
 Inasmuch as insect life is supported almost entirely by 
 the products of vegetation (there being only a very few 
 insects that prey upon one another), I have thought it best 
 to give that subject a liberal space in this volume. 
 
 It is now an accepted truth that there are at least ten 
 insects to every plant, and that a large majority of them 
 are harmful to vegetation. 
 
 This being the case, it seems highly important that a 
 careful study be made both of the habits and of the hab- 
 itats of these swift destroyers of plant life. 
 
 For valuable suggestions, as well as for aid in points of 
 reference to the highest authorities, I am greatly indebted 
 to many leading investigators in this line of work. Prom- 
 inent among them are : Dr. L. O. Howard, United States 
 Entomologist; Dr. J. A. Lintner, New York State Ento- 
 mologist; Dr. A. S. Packard, Brown University, Rhode 
 Island ; Dr. Charles E. Beecher, Yale University, New 
 Haven, Conn. ; and Dr. D. S. Kellicott, Ohio State Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 Finally, that this volume may prove to be a helpful 
 guide both to the teacher and to the pupil in their study 
 of the more common types of animal life, is the sincere 
 desire of 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 \J The Isabella Moth 7 
 
 The Birth of a Young Lord 1 S 
 
 Phoebe's Family 22 
 
 Phoebe's Mate ' 2 9 
 
 Tent Builders 3 
 
 Real Gypsies 3 6 
 
 A Little Captive 4 
 
 tf Mr. Rana's Dinner 4 1 
 
 A Plain Story 5 
 
 The Mourning Cloak 5 1 
 
 A Gifted Family 5 6 
 
 A Vain Little Moth 6l 
 
 The Patched Coat 6 4 
 
 A Crusty Fellow ' 6 7 
 
 \/ Was it a Shadow? 72 
 
 Almost a Bird 76 
 
 If" 79 
 
 With Auger and Saw. Part L 8 4 
 
 With Auger and Saw. Part //. 88 
 
 V Four Pink Babies . 9 2 
 
 The Slug Fly and the Grasshopper 9 8 
 
 The Truth of It IO 3 
 
 "Rain Frogs" Io8 
 
 Moving Day. Parti. IJ 4 
 
 Moving Day. Part I L Il8 
 
 5 
 
PAGE 
 
 \/ Growler's Prize 122 
 
 \J The Real Culprit ! 29 
 
 History of a Bug -. ?-. ..'' V-; .-,-... . f . 131 
 
 History of a Beetle 1^5 
 
 Dr. Leech i^g 
 
 / A Divided Household. Parti. 143 
 
 A Divided Household. Part II. 149 
 
 Born in a Ditch !^ 
 
 "I Told You So" 158 
 
 Always at Home 164 
 
 A Skillful Spinner 168 
 
 A Devoted Mother . 175 
 
 Lines to a Spider 179 
 
 Do You Believe It? 180 
 
 Winter Friends 182 
 
 The Chickadee 182 
 
 The Nuthatch 185 
 
 The Red-headed Woodpecker 187 
 
 The Golden-crested Wren 190 
 
 The Brown Creeper . . . 191 
 
 The Downy Woodpecker 192 
 
 Snow Tracks 196 
 
 The Ruffed Grouse 196 
 
 The Wood Mouse 198 
 
 The Chipmunk 200 
 
 The Red Squirrel . . 202 
 
 Reynard, the Fox, and Ranger, the Dog 203 
 
 The Weasel 205 
 
 The Northern Hare 207 
 
 The Muskrat 209 
 
 The Gray Squirrel 211 
 
SHORT STORIES OF OUR SHY 
 NEIGHBORS. 
 
 THE ISABELLA MOTH. 
 
 ONE day, late in autumn, Ruth and her teacher 
 were walking in the fields. 
 
 All at once Ruth cried out, u Oh, see what a 
 queer furry worm! It looks like a wee bit of a 
 clothes brush moving about." 
 
 7 
 
8 
 
 Her teacher smiled. 
 
 " It is not a worm," she said. " It is sometimes 
 called a ' wooly bear,' but it is more generally 
 known as a ' caterpillar.' " 
 
 " Where did it come from ? " asked 
 Ruth. 
 
 The Larva. j t wag hatched f rom an egg la j d by a 
 
 mother moth; and some day it will be a moth itself. 
 
 " We must call it the larva of the moth now ; 
 for that is its right name. When we speak of 
 more than one, we call them larvae. 
 
 " The word ' larva ' means ' a mask.' People 
 sometimes wear a mask to hide their faces. Just 
 so under this furry mask is hidden the form of 
 an insect with four wings." 
 
 " I wish I could see its wings," said Ruth. 
 
 " Let us take it home with us, and put it into 
 a glass-covered box; then we can watch for the 
 coming wings," replied her teacher. 
 
 But when she tried to pick it up, it rolled 
 itself into a little ball and slid from her hands. 
 
 Then she slipped a piece of cloth under it and 
 wrapped it up so that it could not get away. 
 
 " Now look at this caterpillar closely," said the 
 teacher, " and you will find that its body is 
 marked with twelve furry rings ; this fur is made 
 up of stiff, short hairs. 
 
" The first four rings and the last two are quite 
 black; but the six rings that cover the space 
 between these are of a chestnut brown, a color 
 that some people call a 'tan red.' 
 
 " Because of these stiff, spiny hairs and of the 
 way in which it rolls itself up, it is often called the 
 'hedgehog caterpillar'; but when it lies out straight, 
 it is more than an inch long, as you can see. " 
 
 When they reached home they put their furry 
 friend into a large box filled with clover leaves, 
 dandelion, and plantain. 
 
 This was just what it liked, and it began eating 
 at once ; it had sharp jaws and it ate very fast. 
 
 Ruth and her teacher watched it from day to 
 day ; but after a few weeks it crept over its well- 
 spread table without offering to taste its food. 
 
 At last it crawled slowly away toward one side 
 of the box, rolled itself up like a ball, and fell 
 into a sort of sleep. 
 
 If it was asleep, it took a very long nap ; for 
 it was now late in the fall, and it did not wake 
 up again till the next spring. 
 
 And oh, what a hungry creature it was then ! 
 Why, it ate and ate every soft, green leaf that 
 came in its way. 
 
 One day, Ruth placed a large, ripe, sour apple 
 among the leaves. It began at once to gnaw the 
 
10 
 
 Larva on Apple. 
 
 smooth skin of the fruit; and it did not leave 
 off until it had eaten a space around the apple 
 
 as large as the width of its 
 own body. Then it turned 
 again to feast on the leaves, 
 as before. 
 
 But it soon grew tired of 
 its food and acted as if it 
 had not slept enough ; so it 
 wove a little blanket around 
 itself and again went to sleep. This warm cover- 
 ing that it made was oval in shape, and of a dark- 
 brown color. 
 
 And what is strangest of all, it was made of 
 the hairs of its own body, fastened together by a 
 silken thread which it spun out of a sticky gum 
 that came out of itself. 
 
 That was indeed a home-made cradle, strong 
 and warm and safe. 
 
 The teacher explained to Ruth that the cater- 
 pillar had spun for itself a 
 cocoon, as its cradle is 
 called, and that it was 
 now a pupa, a word which 
 means "baby." The Cocoon - 
 
 "What a sleepyhead this baby moth is," said 
 Ruth; "one would suppose that it might need 
 
II 
 
 something more to eat. Now if there were two 
 or more of them, what would you call them ? " 
 
 " I would speak of them as the pupae," answered 
 the teacher. 
 
 "Larvae and pupae," said Ruth to herself; 
 " those are not very hard words to remember." 
 
 " If you could peep inside of its cocoon," said 
 the teacher, " you would find that it has cast off 
 its caterpillar skin, and that it is now a very black 
 infant, indeed. In fact, it changed its dress a good 
 many times before it spun 
 its cocoon ; and every new 
 dress was a warm, furry 
 robe like the one in which 
 you first saw it." 
 
 The Isabella Moth. 
 
 So the baby slept and 
 
 slept for nearly a month ; and then a strange thing 
 happened. For one bright morning in June it 
 awoke, and freeing itself from its prison cradle, it 
 came forth a moth; and behold, its baby days 
 were over ! 
 
 It was not very strong at first, for its wings were 
 weak, and were pressed close to its body; but in 
 less than half an hour there was a great change. 
 
 The wings grew broader, while their color began 
 to deepen; and all four of them were of a yellow- 
 buff tinge, dotted here and there with black. 
 
12 
 
 The front pair were marked with two or three 
 brownish lines ; but the hind pair were faintly 
 tinged with red. 
 
 The body of the insect was of a deeper yellow 
 than the wings, and was prettily marked with 
 three rows of black spots,, there being six spots 
 in each row. 
 
 Ruth looked at it carefully. " It has six tiny, 
 brown legs," she said. " And see its little short 
 feelers! They are as yellow as the 
 wings." 
 
 " Those feelers are the antennae of 
 the insect," replied the teacher, " and 
 when we speak of one of them, we 
 
 Antennae of a cal1 ^ tne antenna. 
 
 Moth. " You will not find that a hard word 
 
 to speak, after you have said it once or twice ; and 
 it is always better to call things by their right names. 
 
 " You will see that these antennae are round, and 
 almost smooth ; but the antennae of most moths 
 are feathered. They look like little plumes. 
 
 " Yet you can generally tell a butterfly from a 
 moth by the antennae ; for those of a butterfly are 
 threadlike, with a knob at the end. But both moths 
 and butterflies belong to the same great family l of 
 insects." 
 
 1 Lep-i-dop'te-ra, scale wing 
 
" But where are the eyes ? " asked Ruth. 
 " This insect has so many eyes that it would take 
 you a long time to count them," said her teacher. 
 
 " There is an eye spot on each 
 side of the head ; and in each 
 eye spot there are at least three 
 thousand small eyes. These are 
 called compound eyes, and be- 
 sides these, there are two single 
 eyes on top of the head." 
 
 - No wonder then that it is so Antennae of a Butterfly ' 
 hard to catch moths and butterflies," said Ruth ; 
 " they see everything ! " 
 
 " Look closely at the wings," said the teacher. 
 " You will never have a better 
 chance than now; for they are 
 growing stronger every 
 minute, and the insect 
 will soon fly away." 
 " Oh, how pretty 
 they are ! They 
 look as if they 
 were covered with 
 a mealy powder," 
 
 Wing Scales of a Moth. . , ... . 
 
 said the little girl. 
 
 " They are covered with little scales that lap over 
 one another like the scales of a fish," answered the 
 
14 
 
 teacher, " and they are made fast to the skin of the 
 insect by short, tiny stems ; you will see that the 
 whole body is covered with soft, downy scales, the 
 same as the wings. 
 
 " This pretty little moth has lost its caterpillar 
 jaws, and in their place there is a slender tongue ; 
 for now it will live on the juicy sweets of the 
 flowers." 
 
 As she spoke, the insect rose and floated lightly 
 away on its pretty buff-yellow wings. 
 
 " Ah, we have lost our queen," said the teacher ; 
 " she has gone to find her mate. I know she is a 
 queen because her wings are of a deeper yellow 
 than those of her mate. 
 
 " And now I will tell you why I call her a queen. 
 She was named in honor of Princess Isabella, 
 daughter of King Philip II. of Spain. 
 
 " This princess made a vow that she would not 
 change her linen for three years. She no doubt 
 had some good reason for it. 
 
 " At any rate, she kept her promise, and at the 
 end of that time, her linen must have become fully 
 as yellow as the wings of our little Isabella moth. 
 So I think she is very well named ; don't you ? " 
 
 " She is indeed," replied Ruth ; " and how strange 
 that all this time we have had a noble queen hidden 
 under the furry mask of a caterpillar J " 
 
THE BIRTH OF A YOUNG LORD. 
 
 ONE very hot day in July, Mrs. Papilio l decided 
 to give a select party. 
 
 And it was very select, I assure you; for none 
 but the swallowtail family were invited. 
 
 Now this family are noted for their fine array, 
 there being over three hundred different styles of 
 dress among them ; and had all the guests that 
 were invited accepted, Mrs. Papilio's garden could 
 not have held one half of them. 
 
 The list was headed with the names of Lord and 
 Lady Asterias ; 2 so they came early. 
 
 I was glad of this, for it gave me a very good 
 opportunity to watch their movements; and so 
 pleased was I with their fine appearance that I 
 hardly cast a glance at any other member of the 
 party. 
 
 My lord and lady came sailing in upon their four 
 showy wings (the hind wings of each having tails), 
 and seated themselves at once near a bed of parsley. 
 
 My lord was gayly dressed in a black swallowtail 
 suit, banded with a double row of bright-yellow 
 spots ; and on each of the hind wings was a row 
 
 1 Pa-pil'i-o. The Latin name of the butterfly. 
 
 2 As-te'ri-as. The name of a peculiar species or kind of butterfly. 
 
i6 
 
 of seven blue spots between the outer and the 
 inner line of yellow ones. 
 
 But this was not all ; for on the lower, inner edge 
 of the tailed wings was an eyelike spot of orange 
 yellow, having a black center. 
 
 -The Swallowtailed Papilio. 
 
 He also had a double row of bright-yellow spots 
 on his back that looked like gold buttons, and his 
 shining black head was adorned with the same 
 color. 
 
 Gold and black, black and gold, ah, it was a 
 fine suit indeed ! You should have seen it. 
 
 My lady was dressed in about the same style, 
 
but she had not so many spots on her fore wings. 
 I saw, at a glance, that she was a good deal larger 
 than he ; and I thought that maybe there had not 
 been quite enough of the gilded band for both suits. 
 
 I noticed, also, that they each had six tiny legs, 
 and that the hind pair had small spurs. 
 
 The antennae were long and threadlike, and there 
 was a knob at the end of each ; they were not 
 feathered like those of the moth. 
 
 As soon as my lady lit on the parsley bed, she 
 folded all four of her wings together, so that they 
 stood upright on her back. Then she slowly opened 
 and closed them, as if trying to fan the hot July air. 
 
 Her mate lit very near her and did the same 
 thing. But they did not remain quiet very long; 
 for pretty soon my lady began to dart here and 
 there about the parsley bed. 
 
 Then she stopped quite still, as if to say, " This 
 is just the place for my eggs. I like it much better 
 than the carrot, the pars- 
 nip, the celery, or even 
 the sweet blossoms of the 
 phlox." Papili - 
 
 " Ah," said I to myself, "so you are the mother of 
 those hungry, pale green caterpillars that I find 
 creeping about my garden, are you ? I will watch 
 those eggs of yours, my lady." 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 2 
 
i8 
 
 And I did watch them very carefully, but 1 did 
 not have to wait long ; for in a few days they were 
 hatched, and oh, what tiny things the young cater- 
 pillars were ! 
 
 Why, it would have taken ten of" them, placed 
 end to end, to make one inch in length. 
 
 But these babies, like their parents, were clad in 
 fine array ; and they had a number of pretty suits. 
 
 Their first suit was black, banded with white 
 around the middle and bottom of the dress ; but as 
 they grew larger, this dress was cast aside for 
 another. 
 
 And so they kept on, till they got the fourth suit ; 
 and this last outfit was very fine indeed. It was 
 of an apple-green color, having black bands dotted 
 with bright-yellow spots, and was much more showy 
 than any of the other dresses that they had worn. 
 
 You would not wonder that they outgrew their 
 clothes so quickly, could you have seen them eat. 
 
 There was a very large family of them, about two 
 hundred in all; and with their sharp, hungry jaws 
 they were not long in laying waste that fine bed of 
 green parsley, you may be sure. 
 
 As each hungry baby had sixteen tiny legs, they 
 found no trouble in creeping about, here, there, and 
 everywhere. 
 
 I am obliged to say, right here, that they were 
 
'9 
 
 not very good-natured children either, for when I 
 touched any one of them with a small stick, it 
 would thrust out, from behind its head, a pair of 
 orange-yellow horns. 
 
 And what was still worse, these horns gave 
 out such a bad odor that I was glad to get away 
 from it. 
 
 After a few days, they seemed to have lost their 
 appetite; and did not care to eat. So they crept 
 away to a clump of bushes near by. 
 
 Then I made a discovery. I found that each of 
 these infants, young as it was, knew how to spin. 
 It spun a silken thread, too. But where did it get 
 its silk ? I will tell you. 
 
 Each little spinner of this sort has, in the middle 
 of its lower lip, a tiny tube. This tube opens into 
 two long, slender bags inside of the spinner's body. 
 
 These bags are filled with a sticky fluid that flows 
 through the tube in a very fine stream ; but as soon 
 as the air strikes it, it becomes a strong, slender 
 thread. 
 
 And so these baby spinners have everything at 
 hand, quite ready for their work. As I could not 
 well observe them all, I watched one of them care- 
 fully ; and now let me tell you what he did. 
 
 First, he spun a small tuft of silk, and made it 
 fast to the twig of a low bush. Then he. put the 
 
20 
 
 hooks of his hind feet into this tufted snare. Next 
 he spun a strong, silken loop, made up of many 
 threads, and glued the ends of it fast to the twig; 
 but the ends were not glued very closely together. 
 They were placed a little way apart, so as to make 
 the loop broad and roomy. 
 
 It really did look as if this wise little creature was 
 making a swing for itself. 
 
 But as soon as the loop was made 
 strong enough, he put his head 
 under it, and then worked it over 
 his back. In this way, he bound 
 himself in an upright position, close 
 to the twig. 
 
 How strange that of his own 
 choice he had become a helpless 
 
 Bound Chrysalis. . , , , , ir,i 
 
 prisoner, " bound hand and foot ! 
 
 In about twenty-four hours, he cast off his apple- 
 green suit, and became a pupa, or chrysalis. Then 
 the skin of his body seemed to shrivel up, till it was 
 like a strong, hard case ; but it made a safe cradle 
 for the baby to lie in. 
 
 And just such a cradle was needed; for it was 
 now nearly October, and this tender infant must 
 remain bound to that twig through all the long 
 months of winter. 
 
 There would be no lullaby song to soothe it, 
 
21 
 
 excepting such as the cold, wintry winds sing ; and 
 that is a very harsh song, as we all know. 
 
 " Will it ever come to life ? " I asked myself, as 
 I went from time to time and looked at the poor, 
 helpless thing hanging there in its silken fetters, 
 all alone. 
 
 But behold ! One day in the early part of June, 
 the dry hard pupa case burst open, and out came 
 a poor, feeble, little butterfly, with four limp, moist 
 wings. 
 
 Instead of sixteen legs it had but six; and in 
 the place of sharp, hungry jaws it had a slender 
 tongue. 
 
 Its great eyes seemed to be almost blinded by 
 the sudden bright light ; for, like the moth, it 
 had not only two simple eyes on the top of its 
 head, but it had the two large, compound eyes 
 as well. 
 
 It crept slowly up to the top of the twig, and 
 then the weak, drooping wings began to expand. 
 Broader and broader they grew, till at last they 
 were spread out firm and free. 
 
 And there, right before my astonished eyes, 
 rose up a beautiful creature, clad in shining black ; 
 and I knew by the band of golden spots on all 
 four of its wings that he was a young Lord 
 Asterias ! 
 
22 
 
 PHOEBE'S FAMILY. 
 
 MY first acquaintance with Phoebe began at 
 the garden gate, on the morning that she and her 
 mate called to look for lodgings. 
 
 I could see, at a glance, that their hearts were 
 set on having the broad beam that upheld the 
 roof of my balcony; so I made them welcome. 
 
 It was a bright spring morning, and I remem- 
 ber just how Phoebe was dressed. 
 
 She was clad in a sensible, dull, olive brown ; 
 her small crest was a trifle darker than her body, 
 and underneath she was of a yellowish white. 
 
 Her eyes were brown, but her feet, as well as 
 her bill, were black. The brown feathers of her 
 wings were edged with a dull white, and so was 
 the outer edge of the feathers of her forked tail. 
 
 Her mate was clad in about the same fashion, 
 only that the sides of his neck were darker. 
 
 It was a balmy morning in April when they 
 began to build their nest. 
 
 The whole front of the balcony was draped 
 with vines, so that when it was clothed with leaves 
 it made a heavy, thick curtain of green; and here 
 the nest was hidden, and secure from harm. 
 
 This nest was made of grasses and moss, plas- 
 
Phoebe Birds and Nest. 
 
 tered together with mud, and was lined with bits 
 of down, hair, and shreds of wool. 
 
 Ah, it took many and many a weary flight to 
 gather the materials for that modest home. 
 
 Back and forth, back and forth, the happy couple 
 flew, bearing in their slender bills a scrap of moss 
 
24 
 
 or a mite of down, till at last the whole thing was 
 finished, handsome and complete. 
 
 I placed a stepladder conveniently near, where 
 I could stand and look into the nest; for although 
 I had every reason to believe that Phcebe was a 
 painstaking and tidy little housekeeper, yet I rather 
 wanted to see the inside of her home for myself. 
 
 So one day, when she and her mate were not 
 there, I peeped in at the nest, and lo, there was 
 a small, cream-white egg, spotted on the larger 
 end with reddish brown ! I was very careful not 
 to touch it. 
 
 The next day I looked in again, and there was 
 another. And so, day after day, a new egg was 
 added to the number, till there were five of them 
 in all. 
 
 Then I noticed that Phcebe began to stay at 
 home a good deal; and if she did chance to go 
 out for a little airing, her mate always took her 
 place. 
 
 At length, one morning, I thought I heard a 
 low peep, and seeing that both of the birds were 
 away, I glanced in at the nest. 
 
 There I saw four tiny young birds, cuddled 
 down close together. I found that one of the eggs 
 did not hatch, and that it had been thrown out 
 of the nest to the porch. 
 
But what a clamor there was among the young 
 ones when the old birds came back with food ! 
 Why, they opened their mouths so wide that it 
 did seem as if their heads would split open. And 
 such dainty food as was brought to them ! 
 
 There were no wriggling worms, and no stale 
 pieces that some other bird had discarded. No, 
 indeed! for Phoebe's children must have the freshest 
 meat in the market. 
 
 In order to secure 
 this, it must be taken 
 on the wing ; for the 
 couple belonged to the 
 family of flycatch- 
 ers, and woe to the 
 unlucky insect that 
 came within reach of 
 their open bills. 
 
 As for the parent birds, they usually bolted 
 their food at one mouthful, but the infants were 
 fed in not quite so hasty a manner. 
 
 And so they ate and ate, and grew stronger 
 every day, and when they were a week old, I 
 thought it was time to name them; so I gave 
 each of them a pretty double name. 
 
 I called one of them Fluff Wing ; another, 
 Feather Down ; a third, Brown Breast ; and because 
 
 Nest of Young Phosbe Birds. 
 
26 
 
 the very smallest one of the family looked so much 
 like its mother, I called her Phoebe Junior. 
 
 Now, a better behaved family of children one 
 could not desire to see ; there was no confusion 
 whatever in the nest, and I never heard an angry 
 peep from one of them. 
 
 What was my surprise, then, on seeing them 
 when they were a little more than two weeks old, 
 all sitting in a row on the garden paling, while 
 both the father and mother were perched on a 
 low bough, chirping loudly, in a harsh, scolding 
 tone. 
 
 I ran to look into the nest, thinking that per- 
 haps some enemy had driven the family from home ; 
 but I saw nothing. 
 
 Finally, in about an hour, the young birds left 
 their perch, and flew toward the nest, a few paces 
 at a time ; for their wings were weak and their 
 flights were short, and they made several stops 
 before reaching home. 
 
 The next day, not hearing any sound from my 
 little neighbors, I peeped in again, and behold, the 
 nest was empty ! 
 
 On the day following, Phoebe and her mate came 
 back, but the young ones were nowhere to be seen. 
 
 Thv*y at once began to clean and repair the nest. 
 They threw out bits of thread, down, hair, moss, 
 
TJN 
 
 27 V2^j r ^ 
 
 and other things that seemed to be in their way; 
 and then added a mite of down here, and a thread 
 of wool there, till the nest was all ready for -use 
 again. 
 
 Then Phoebe laid four small, cream-white eggs 
 like the others, and in due time her heart was made 
 glad by hearing the faint " peep peep " of four wee 
 baby birds. 
 
 Both parents seemed quite as proud of their sec- 
 ond brood as of the first, and were never weary of 
 cramming them with the rarest tidbits that they 
 could find. 
 
 And when the children were a little more than 
 two weeks old, they were driven from the nest to 
 the garden paling, and were taught to try their 
 wings, in the same way as the other brood. 
 
 A day or two later, the whole family disap- 
 peared ; and what is strangest of all, they went 
 away in the night. 
 
 Now, as Phoebe and her mate had occupied their 
 snug quarters all this time, free of charge, I thought 
 it was rather ungrateful of them to steal away in 
 such a manner as that. 
 
 But I have since learned that it is the habit 
 of this family of flycatchers, on the approach of 
 autumn, to forsake the nest at night, and travel 
 southward to a milder clime. 
 
28 
 
 Who knows but that their little hearts are so 
 sad, at leaving the home in which they have been 
 so happy, that they can not well endure a final 
 leave-taking in the open sunlight? 
 
 I felt very lonely after they were gone, for I 
 never expected to see them again. 
 
 But behold ! when the genial sunshine and the 
 gentle raindrops of the next spring brought back 
 the swelling leaf buds of the boughs, I heard, one 
 day, a low chirp at the garden gate. 
 
 And then two little birds, clad in dull, olive 
 brown, flew in at the old nest on the beam ; and 
 I hailed their coming with delight. 
 
 One of them was Phoebe's mate, but the other 
 was a shy little creature, of a much smaller size 
 than the Phoebe that I had known, and let me 
 whisper a little secret in your ear Phoebe's mate 
 had come back with a second wife ! 
 
PHOEBE'S MATE. 
 
 THERE'S a little brown bird on that low, leafy 
 bough 
 
 Do you see ? Do you see ? 
 He is calling his mate, for I heard him just now 
 
 Say, " Phoebe " and " Phoebe." 
 
 I do wonder what secret he holds in his breast 
 Some good news it may be 
 
 For the shy little mate sitting there on her nest 
 His Phoebe sweet Phcebe. 
 
 He is brimful of joy, and he sings all the day; 
 
 But it seems strange to me 
 That this glad merrymaker finds nothing to say 
 
 But " Phoebe" just " Phoebe." 
 
 I should think she might weary of such a dull 
 
 song, 
 
 But not she, oh, not she ; 
 It is music to her through the whole summer 
 
 long, 
 Good Phoebe fair Phoebe. 
 
30 
 
 By and by they will find some wee birds in that 
 
 nest, 
 
 He and she he and she; 
 And they'll cram them with tidbits, the choicest 
 
 and best, 
 And so proud will he be 
 
 That hell call her name twice where he calls it 
 
 once, now; 
 
 You will see, you will see, 
 If you '11 watch him some day when he sits on the 
 
 bough 
 With Phoebe his Phoebe. 
 
 TENT BUILDERS. 
 
 "THE gypsies are coming! The gypsies are 
 coming ! " cried little May, and she hurried into the 
 house, and took her station at the window. 
 
 "How do you know?" asked her brother, as 
 he slowly followed her to the window and looked 
 out. 
 
 " Because I can see their long, cloth-covered 
 wagons full of little stolen children." 
 
 " But how do you know they are stolen children ? " 
 he said. 
 
" Because I have heard that gypsies do steal 
 children whenever they get a chance ; and I hope 
 they will not pitch their tents near our house, for 
 I am afraid of them." 
 
 " Why, little sister, we have had tent builders all 
 around our house for months, and I have never 
 heard you say a word 
 about it before." 
 
 " Tent' builders all 
 around our house ! " an- 
 swered his sister in 
 great surprise. " Where 
 are they, pray ? " 
 
 " Come, and I will 
 show you," he replied. 
 
 By this time the 
 gypsy wagon had passed 
 well out of sight, and 
 so the little girl was not 
 afraid to venture out. 
 
 , Her brother led the way to a large apple tree 
 that stood in one corner of the garden. 
 
 "Look up at those boughs," he said, "and tell 
 me what you see." 
 
 " I don't see anything but a lot of worms' nests," 
 she replied. 
 
 " Those are not worms' nests," he answered. 
 
 Eggs, Larva, and Butterfly of Tent 
 Builders. 
 
32 
 
 " Worms do not build nests like that. Those are 
 silken tents, and they are just as full as they can 
 be of the little workers that put them there." 
 
 " Then I want to see them," said she. 
 
 The boy took up a long pole having a brush at 
 the end of it ; this he dipped into a pail of strong 
 lime water, and thrust it into one of the nests. 
 
 Behold ! down tumbled a large family of cater- 
 pillars, each one of them nearly two inches in 
 length. 
 
 The heads of these creatures were black ; their 
 bodies were tinged with yellow, marked with finely- 
 crinkled black lines, and there was a whitish line 
 running the whole length of their backs. 
 
 On each ring of the body there was a black spot, 
 and in the middle of each spot there was a dot of 
 blue; then, too, every ring of the body sent out 
 thin tufts of soft, short hairs. 
 
 " You see these little busybodies wear gay colors," 
 said the boy. 
 
 Little May looked at the squirming caterpillars 
 for a few moments, and then said, " How is it that 
 so many of them happen to be living together on 
 one apple tree ? " 
 
 " I will tell you," he replied. 
 
 " One day, a mother moth laid about four hundred 
 eggs around the end of a twig or branch ; these 
 
33 
 
 eggs were crowded close together and formed a 
 solid ring. They were very pretty, too, for they 
 looked like little pearls. 
 
 " Then, to keep them warm and dry, she covered 
 them with a thick, dry varnish ; and no matter how 
 hard the rain came down, 
 her eggs could not get 
 wet. 
 
 " As soon as the leaves 
 of the apple tree began to 
 unfold, the wee babies came 
 out of their shells, as hun- 
 gry as they could be. 
 
 " Then they joined to- 
 gether and built a tent. 
 And do you notice that all 
 their tents are built in the 
 forks of the branches ? 
 That makes them more 
 secure. 
 
 " Now when they are not 
 
 eating, they hide themselves under this weblike 
 tent. Are they not wise little builders ? 
 
 " They crawl about all over the tree ; but, young 
 as they are, they never lose their way, for they spin 
 a silken thread as they go along, and this thread 
 guides them back to the tent. 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 3 
 
 Tent. 
 
34 
 
 " As they grow older and larger, they find their 
 tent too small; and then they build it out, so that 
 all can have plenty of room. 
 
 " These infants seem to know how to take care 
 of their health, too; for they have only two meals 
 a day, and not even the smallest baby among them 
 thinks of such a thing as eating between meals. 
 
 " And what is more, they will not venture out 
 when it rains ; they would rather go hungry than 
 get their bodies wet. 
 
 " But about the first week in June, this happy 
 family will begin to separate, one from another. 
 
 " Then they will wander about in a lonesome sort 
 of a way till they finally reach some sheltered place, 
 and then each one will weave for 
 itself a cocoon. 
 
 " This will be a sort of silken web, 
 and it would be a very frail affair 
 indeed, only that such cocoons are 
 held together by a thin paste ; but 
 when this paste becomes dried, it 
 looks like yellow dust. 
 
 " They will stay in these cocoons a little more 
 than two weeks, and then they will come out full- 
 grown moths." 
 
 " But how can they get out of a cocoon that is 
 woven of silk ? " asked the little girl 
 
35 
 
 " Oh, they moisten one end of it so as to make 
 it soft, and then they can easily press through the 
 opening. 
 
 " And now would you like to see the mother, 
 herself ? " he inquired. 
 
 She followed him to his room, and he showed 
 her a small cabinet having a glass door. In this 
 cabinet were two moths, pinned one above the 
 other; but the female moth was much larger than 
 the male. 
 
 They were clothed in a color of reddish brown; 
 and each of the fore wings was crossed by two 
 dull, whitish lines that did not run straight across 
 the wings, but were a trifle slanting. 
 
 The upper portion of their bodies was tufted 
 with short, soft hairs. Some of these hairs were 
 brown, some were yellow; but the mother moth 
 had a few that were tinged with red. 
 
 May looked at the insects very closely; but 
 her brother noticed that she seemed to be dis- 
 appointed. 
 
 " Never mind," said he ; " these are only the 
 moths of the tent caterpillar; and now you shall 
 come with me and I will show you some real 
 gypsy moths ; and when I tell you all about them, 
 you will agree with me that they are rightly 
 named." 
 
REAL GYPSIES. 
 
 LITTLE May's brother had another cabinet in 
 which there was a large collection of insects ; and 
 when he opened the door of this one, the little 
 girl again saw two moths. 
 
 " One of these moths is a gypsy queen," he 
 said. " Can you tell which one it is ? " 
 
 " I think it is the one that wears the soiled 
 white dress," replied the child ; " for it would be 
 just like a gypsy queen to wear such a dress 
 as that." 
 
 Her brother smiled. " You are right," said he. 
 
 " It is her mate that wears the coat of brownish 
 yellow, and he is much smaller than she. See 
 how prettily his hind wings are bordered at the 
 margin with brown." 
 
 " But they both have dark-brown lines on their 
 fore wings," said the girl, " and the fine fringe of 
 their edges is broken by, let me count, yes, 
 there are eight dark-brown spots along the edge 
 of each wing. Isn't it pretty ? " 
 
 u Very pretty," he said, " but I can plainly see 
 that you are not so well pleased with some of the 
 queen's finery." 
 
 " I do not call that finery" replied the girl. 
 
37 
 
 " Her dress is of a dirty white ; and her antennae 
 are not so prettily feathered as those of her mate. 
 No, I do not like her at all. 
 
 " Besides I can not see why she is any more a 
 gypsy queen than the mother moth of the tent 
 caterpillar in the other cabinet." 
 
 "You are right," replied her brother. "She is 
 not a queen at all that is only a title that I 
 have given her. But she is a real gypsy moth, 
 and now I will tell you why she has received this 
 name ; and then you will see that she has a right 
 to it. 
 
 " Many years ago, a gentleman who was studying 
 the habits of moths brought a few eggs of this 
 kind to our country, from over the sea. 
 
 " One day, he laid them on the sill 
 of an open window, and when he 
 turned to look for them they were 
 gone. 
 
 " The wind had scattered them far 
 and wide ; and this proved to be a 
 great misfortune, as you will pres- 
 ently learn. 
 
 " The Qfypsy moth lays a large num- 
 
 r n i ,1 Gypsy Moth Eggs. 
 
 ber of cream-yellow eggs; and these 
 
 eggs she covers with soft hairs plucked from her 
 
 own body. 
 
38 
 
 "She takes care to place them on the under 
 side of leaves, twigs, and branches, in such a way 
 that no harm can come to them ; and so nearly 
 every egg brings forth a caterpillar. 
 
 " Even those eggs that were blown away by 
 the wind soon hatched out ; and I now will show 
 you what the caterpillars were like." 
 
 Then little May saw, pinned fast to the back 
 of the cabinet, a somewhat shriveled-up larval 
 baby, nearly two inches in length. 
 
 It had a very black head ; and its body was 
 of a brownish yellow, having a pale-yellow line 
 running along the middle of the back. On each 
 side of this line was a row of spots, five of which 
 were blue, and the others were of a deep-crimson 
 shade. / 
 
 There were tufts of hairs all along 
 the sides of the body ; and although it was 
 clothed, for the most part, in bright colors, 
 it was an ugly thing to look at. 
 
 " These caterpillars," said her brother, 
 "are very hungry creatures; and they 
 travel about everywhere, devouring all the 
 tender, green things that they chance to 
 find. 
 
 "When they have stripped a twig or Lar j a s f 
 a branch of its leaves, they spin a slender, Moth. 
 
39 
 
 silken thread and let themselves down to the earth ; 
 and then, like the true gypsies that they are, they 
 roam about till they find something to eat else- 
 where." 
 
 " But how can you 
 be so cruel as to pin 
 them fast ? " asked 
 the child. 
 
 " Oh, I never run a 
 pin through the body 
 of any insect while it 
 is alive, little sister; 
 that would be cruel 
 indeed. 
 
 " I put them in 
 a covered box and Gypsy Moths. 
 
 smother them with something that kills them in- 
 stantly; and when I am quite sure that they are 
 dead, I place them here in the cabinet as you see 
 them now ; and in that way I make a good use of 
 them. 
 
 " For by this means, I have been able to show 
 you a family of gypsies that are much more to be 
 feared than that small band of sun-browned men 
 and women who have pitched their tents in the 
 edge of the forest yonder. 
 
 " It is true, such people as those may now and 
 
40 
 
 then carry off a few supplies from our gardens ; 
 but they will not destroy every green thing in their 
 way, so as to leave nothing behind them but with- 
 ered vines and leafless trees, as these gypsy insects 
 do." 
 
 Little May was silent for a moment, and then she 
 said, " These gypsy moths are very bad insects 
 indeed ; but after all, they do not steal their babies, 
 and our real, grown-up gypsies do." 
 
 And with that, she ran away to the attic to watch, 
 at a safe distance, that strange company of restless 
 rovers whose great-great-grandfathers, like those 
 of the gypsy moth, were born in a far-away land 
 beyond the sea. 
 
 A LITTLE CAPTIVE. 
 
 So, Madam, I've caught you at last ; 
 
 Pray, why did you venture so near ? 
 Your four dainty pinions are fast ; 
 
 Tis useless to struggle, my dear. 
 
 Ah, little you've gained, pretty one, 
 In breaking your self-woven chain, 
 
 To flaunt your fine robes in the sun 
 If you must a captive remain. 
 
41 
 
 To sit in the heart of the flowers, 
 To drink of their honey and dew, 
 
 To flit amid rose-scented bowers, 
 Gay butterfly, this is for you. 
 
 'Tis yours in the sunbeams to sport 
 On bright, jeweled wings all the day ; 
 
 And since you're glad life is so short, 
 Here's freedom, my lady, away! 
 
 A Captive. 
 
 MR. RANA'S 1 DINNER. 
 
 A FROG and his mate that had lain rolled up in 
 their mud blankets all winter came up into the sun- 
 shine one spring day, and sat down on an old, mossy 
 log. 
 
 1 Ra'na, the family name of the frog. 
 
42 
 
 Just before they leaped out of the water, the 
 female laid a number of dark, round eggs, inclosed 
 in a thin, gluey case. 
 
 This egg case of the frog swells out in the water 
 and looks like a mass of jelly. It takes about a 
 month for the egg of a frog to hatch out; and the 
 little creature that comes out of it is called a tadpole. 
 Just as soon as it is hatched, it begins to swim 
 about in search of food, and it is then very active ; 
 
 but it would quickly die 
 if it were taken out of 
 the water. It has a pair 
 of small, horny jaws with 
 which it feeds upon soft 
 animal food, as well as 
 upon the tender roots and 
 
 The Frog. . - 
 
 leaves of water plants. 
 
 Upon its upper jaw there is a row of very fine 
 teeth ; but the lower jaw is toothless. 
 
 Its wide mouth extends more than half way round 
 its head, and its two nostrils open upon the inside 
 of the head. 
 
 Just back of each bulging eye there is a round 
 patch of thin, tight skin that forms the eardrum. 
 
 This tadpole, or baby frog, is a queer-looking 
 creature ; it has a large head, a long flat tail, and no 
 limbs at all. 
 
43 
 
 But it does not remain in this condition long; for 
 pretty soon it gets a pair of hind legs, and then a 
 pair of fore legs ; and as soon as its fore legs appear, 
 it has a tongue. Then it can see, hear, taste, and 
 smell. 
 
 Its hind legs grow very fast, and as they get larger 
 and larger, its tail becomes smaller and smaller, till 
 at last it disappears altogether. 
 
 Eggs, Tadpoles, and Frogs. 
 
 But the tail of a tadpole never drops off, although 
 some very ignorant people declare that it does. If 
 they would collect a few tadpoles and put them into 
 a wide-mouthed jar, they could easily watch their 
 growth, and then they would see for themselves that 
 the tail becomes a part of the young frog's body. 
 
44 
 
 Now, as I have told you before, our baby frog can 
 not live out of the water. How, then, does he 
 breathe ? I will tell you. 
 
 On each side of his head there is a small tuft 
 that is made up of thin, horny plates. These tufts 
 are called gills ; and as the water passes through 
 these small gills, it is separated from the air that is 
 in it, and in this way the little tadpole gets all the 
 air that he needs to support life. 
 
 But as soon as he becomes a frog, he can no 
 longer live all the time under the water; for he is 
 then a changed creature, and instead of breathing 
 through gills, he has a pair of lungs. 
 
 So when he comes to the surface of the water for 
 air, he gets his first glimpse of the great world 
 around him ; and what a strange sight it must be ! 
 
 But while frogs breathe through lungs, they also 
 breathe through the pores of the skin, which have 
 to be kept moist most of the time ; and if a frog is 
 left out of the water too long, he will die. 
 
 It takes about five years for these animals to get 
 their full growth, from the time they are hatched 
 from the egg; and as they become too large for 
 their skins, they pull them off over their heads. 
 
 Their cousins, the toads, do the same thing with 
 their warty hides ; and both toads and frogs have 
 been known to live to be ten or twelve years of age. 
 
45 
 
 But toads, unlike frogs, can live all the time on the 
 land ; and they never visit the water except to lay 
 their eggs there. 
 
 Now let us see what became of our two friends 
 on the old mossy log. 
 
 Ah, well, they had not been sitting on the log 
 very long^ when they heard a loud noise that fright- 
 ened them, and in an instant they were back in the 
 water, and were lost to sight. 
 
 After awhile, they came up to the surface, and 
 leaped upon the log as before. 
 
 Then the largest one said, in a harsh, croaking 
 tone, "Well, I wonder what will happen next? 
 There seems to be no peace for us anywhere. 
 
 " If we had only tried to be contented when we 
 were tadpoles, how much happier we might have 
 been ; but young ones never know when they are 
 well off. 
 
 " For I remember well that I could hardly wait to 
 see the last bit of my tail disappear, I was in such a 
 hurry to put on this shining, spotted coat ; and now 
 that I have it on, see what trouble it brings me." 
 
 On each side of the frog's neck there was a 
 large sac which filled with air every time that he 
 spoke; and that is why his voice had such a 
 croaking tone. / 
 
 " What you say is very true," replied his mate ; 
 
46 
 
 "but it does seem good to have a tongue in one's 
 head, after all." 
 
 There was no harsh, croaking sound in her 
 voice, for a mother frog has no air sacs in the 
 sides of her neck to produce it. 
 
 As she spoke, she darted her tongue out very 
 swiftly, and caught a large fly that went buzzing 
 past; and presently her mate did 
 the same thing. 
 
 Now the tongue of these ani- 
 mals is large, flat, and fleshy, and 
 is tied fast to the jaws in front, so 
 
 Jaw and Tongue of ^ wnen it is at rest, it points 
 
 backward, toward the throat. 
 
 But if an insect of any kind ventures too near, 
 out flies this very nimble member, and glues it 
 fast. For on the tongue of both the frog and 
 the toad, there is always a thick fluid that is as 
 sticky as glue. 
 
 But the poor frogs did not have a change to 
 enjoy their banquet very long; for not far away 
 there was a group of boys with a fishing basket 
 and a strongly woven net, and as soon as they 
 spied the frogs, they crept very softly towards 
 them. 
 
 " I wonder what a frog would do without its 
 head," said one of the boys. 
 
47 
 
 " Or without its brain," said another. 
 
 At this, both frogs held up their heads and 
 listened. 
 
 " Did you hear that ? " croaked the larger one. 
 
 "What would I do without my brain, indeed! 
 Why, it is my brain that sets me to thinking. 
 
 " And as for my head, it is fully one third the 
 size of my body, so how could I do without 
 that ? " 
 
 Then he raised one of his short fore legs and 
 pointed towards his head with his four small fin- 
 gers; and at the same time, he stretched out his 
 very long hind legs, spreading apart the five 
 webbed toes on each foot as if getting ready for 
 a leap. 
 
 But before he was aware of it, both he and his 
 mate were caught in the fine meshes of a net, 
 and were dragged from the log. 
 
 As the boys were walking along with their prize, 
 they met their teacher on the way. 
 
 "What are you going to do with those frogs?" 
 said he. 
 
 " We shall broil their hind legs and have them 
 for our dinner," they replied. 
 
 At this, the male frog opened his wide mouth, 
 and gave such a loud croak that the boys dropped 
 their basket on the ground. 
 
4 8 
 
 " If you will come with me," said the teacher, 
 " I will place a foot of one of your frogs under 
 my microscope ; then you can see the fine drops 
 of blood in the thin web that holds its long toes 
 together." 
 
 The boys were delighted; and very soon they 
 had the pleasure of seeing this web through a 
 glass that made even the smallest atoms 
 look very large. 
 
 The little drops of blood followed one 
 another in such a way that one of the 
 boys said, " Why, they look ever so much 
 like the fine grains of red sand that fall 
 from the upper part of an hourglass ! " 
 
 They were never weary of watching it; 
 but the teacher said that it would be cruel 
 to keep the animals out of the water too 
 Foot of a long, and that he thought they had earned 
 their liberty, and ought to be carried back 
 to the pond. 
 
 So they were placed in a tub of water, and 
 covered up carefully, till after dinner. , 
 
 But when the cover of the tub was removed, be- 
 hold, the male frog was the only one to be found ! 
 
 What could have become of the other? The 
 cover was put on so securely that neither of the 
 animals could leap out. But there sat the larger 
 
49 
 
 frog, all alone, looking a good deal puffed up, and 
 quite stupid, withal. 
 
 Now, inasmuch as these animals have no ribs 
 at all, they sometimes look very lank, and at other 
 times very full. 
 
 As the boys stood staring at him in amazement, 
 one of them said, " Where is your companion, 
 my fat fellow ? " At this question, the frog drew a 
 film over his eyes, and pretended to be asleep. 
 
 Now, toads, frogs, and other animals of this class 
 have three eyelids; and this third eyelid that the 
 frog drew over his eyes is a very thin film indeed. 
 
 But his pretense of being sound asleep did not 
 aid him in the least; for the teacher said, " Ah, 
 Mr. Rana, I greatly fear that you will never see 
 the slimy waters of your native pond again. For 
 we shall not permit you to get a second mate till 
 we find out what you have done with the first one." 
 
 Then he caught him, and smothered him with 
 a piece of soft cotton soaked in ether, so that he 
 died quickly and without pain. And when his 
 stout body was opened, there lay his lifeless mate, 
 stretched out at full length in his stomach. 
 
 Now the truth is, that while we were all taking 
 our dinner, this greedy fellow happened to think 
 that it was about time for him to dine also. 
 
 And finding nothing nearer at hand, he seized 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 4 
 
upon his helpless mate, and gulped her down, 
 without the least scruple whatever; but it is no 
 more than fair to say that had she been the larger 
 and stronger of the two, she would have devoured 
 him, instead of being eaten herself. 
 
 Ah, Mr. Rana, you no doubt greatly enjoyed 
 that dinner ; but it might possibly have taken away 
 the keen edge of your appetite, had you known 
 that it was to be your last meal ! 
 
 I 
 
 The Common Toad, 
 
 A PLAIN STORY. 
 
 I'M a clumsy, awkward toad, 
 And I hop along the road 
 
 'Tis the only way we toads can well meander; 
 While in yonder marshy bog, 
 Leaps my relative, the frog, 
 
 Very near my aunt, the water salamander. 
 
And if you should ever stray 
 
 Near a slimy pool, some day, 
 And along its grassy margin chance to loiter, 
 
 Do not pass it lightly by, 
 
 For it is the spot where I 
 Was born, a lively little tadpole in the water. 
 
 And although I take no pride 
 
 In my ugly, warty hide, 
 Yet they say within my head there is a jewel ; 
 
 But I hope you will not tell, 
 
 For you all know, very well, 
 That some boys (whom I could name) are very cruel. 
 
 I'm a homely, harmless thing, 
 I catch insects on the wing, 
 
 And in this, I serve you all, it is my duty; 
 And now tell me, which is best 
 To be useless and well dressed, 
 
 Or be useful, even though I have no beauty ? 
 
 THE MOURNING CLOAK. 1 
 
 IT was a very sunny day in March, just such a 
 day as one might mistake for April. 
 
 But April had not come yet ; for there were 
 
 1 Van-es'sa An-ti-o'pa, the name of a particular kind of butterfly. 
 
patches of snow here and there upon the hilltops, 
 and the air was not without a touch of frost. 
 
 Yet it really did seem so much like spring that 
 
 many a shy thing peeped 
 out from its hidden nook, 
 as if wondering whether 
 the long, wintry months 
 were really over. 
 The little pussy cats of the 
 willow sat in double rows along 
 the stem, all ready to throw off 
 their scaly cloaks so as to make a 
 fine display of their soft, mouse- 
 colored fur. 
 
 And the squirrels and chipmunks 
 sported about as if they had never seen 
 a hard, crusted snowdrift in all their lives. 
 Far down in the meadow there was a 
 great heap of stones, from which the 
 snow had melted away; and even this 
 rough, hard pile held its share of win- 
 ter's hidden treasures, as you will 
 presently see. 
 For in a deep space between two large stones 
 there was the faint flutter of a tiny sash of gold. 
 Was it the gilded border of a fairy queen's mantle? 
 Ah, but there was another, and still another ! 
 
 Pussy Willows. 
 
53 
 
 And some of them had the edges badly soiled and 
 torn. 
 
 There were so many, in fact, that it looked as if 
 there might be a whole band of fairies shut up in 
 that strong, stone fortress. 
 
 And so it proved that a large troupe of fairy 
 beings had been caught in a November snowstorm, 
 and had fled to this stony refuge for safety. 
 
 And there they had remained during the long, 
 dreary winter, waiting for the warm breath of spring- 
 to float over their hiding place and set them free. 
 
 Now can you guess what this fairy circle was ? 
 I will tell you. It was nothing more nor less than 
 a family of butterflies that had hidden themselves 
 away during the winter, so as to come out and greet 
 the pale sunbeams of the early spring. 
 
 The helpless, almost lifeless little creatures were 
 very closely huddled together as if to keep one 
 another warm ; and they had no doubt found it 
 quite a safe stronghold for their winter quarters. 
 
 Each one had its wings folded closely together 
 above its back, as if it had settled down for a very 
 long nap. 
 
 The wings of this family of butterflies are of a 
 purplish brown above, prettily edged with a broad 
 band of buff ; and near this yellow edge there is a 
 row of pale-blue spots. 
 
54 
 
 But the under part of the wings is of a much 
 darker color; it is of a dull blue-black, marked, here 
 and there, with a few faint streaks of a lighter hue. 
 
 It is perhaps on account of its somber shade that 
 this insect is sometimes called the mourning cloak. 
 
 Mourning Cloak Butterflies. 
 
 Not very many butterflies are able to live through 
 the cold weather ; but quite a number of this family 
 may often be found in midwinter, sticking fast to 
 the rafters of old buildings, and in the cracks of 
 stone walls. 
 
55 
 
 When found in this way, they appear to be dead ; 
 but if they are placed in the warm sunshine, they 
 will soon show signs of life, and become as active 
 as ever. 
 
 They are very welcome visitors in early spring, 
 even though their pretty 
 wings are often somewhat 
 faded and torn. 
 
 A very close observer 1 of 
 insects and of their 'habits 
 tells us that this butterfly, if 
 disturbed, will often fold up 
 its legs and appear to be 
 dead. I wonder if it thinks 
 it will escape harm by doing 
 that! 
 
 Its larval babies are homely 
 things, and they are hungry 
 things too ; they feed on the 
 leaves of the poplar, the elm, 
 and the willow. 
 
 And like their parents, they huddle together as 
 closely as possible ; so closely, indeed, that it does 
 seem as if they would all feed on the same leaf if 
 they could. 
 
 Sometimes they crowd so thickly upon a single 
 
 1 Dr. J. A. Lintner, N. Y. State Entomologist. 
 
 Larvae of the Mourning 
 Cloak. 
 
56 
 
 branch that they bend it dcwn very low with their 
 weight. So you may be sure that it does not take 
 them a great while to strip a tree of its green leaves. 
 
 These black, bristly creatures are marked with 
 very small, white dots ; and there is a row of eight 
 brick-red spots along the back. 
 
 As they creep along over the trees, they eat and 
 grow, and eat and grow, while all along their track 
 may be found their shriveled, cast-off clothing. 
 
 And now, should you chance to come across a 
 family of these ugly larval children, you need have 
 no fear of their black, bristly spines, for they will 
 not harm you. 
 
 And if you will gather a few of them, and feed 
 them on the leaves that they like best, they will 
 enter the pupa state after a time; and then, in a 
 little less than two weeks, they will all come forth, 
 each one clad in a mourning cloak. 
 
 A GIFTED FAMILY. 
 
 Do you know the brown thrasher? He is own 
 cousin to the mocking bird, and is a noted singer. 
 
 He wears a coat of cinnamon red, trimmed with 
 brown, and marked at the edges with lines of white. 
 His vest is of a somewhat lighter shade, and is 
 streaked with dark-brown lines. 
 
57 
 
 When he is on the wing, he spreads out his 
 yellowish-red tail feathers like the rays of a fan. 
 
 He knows so many tunes, and can sing in so 
 many different voices, that he is often called the 
 brown mocker; and he sometimes gives such fine 
 evening concerts that he has won for himself the 
 title of " nightingale." 
 But he is not the real 
 nightingale that we read 
 so much about. 
 
 He belongs to the 
 thrush family, and is 
 the largest of them all ; 
 in fact, he is a brown 
 thrush, if you call him 
 by his real, plain, home- 
 spun name, leaving off 
 his titles. 
 
 You should see him 
 when the cherry trees 
 
 and the hedgerows are in blossom ! His throat is 
 so brimful of melody then, that it runs over; and 
 his gushing strains, so sweet and clear, may be 
 heard a half mile away. 
 
 A pair of these birds once made a nest in a 
 thicket of briers very near the ground. It was 
 built of small sticks, filled in with layers of dry 
 
 The Brown Thrasher. 
 
58 
 
 leaves, and was lined with fine, threadlike roots; 
 but there was no mud plaster to make it firm and 
 strong. 
 
 These birds build so low that the rough winds 
 can not shake their nests, so they do not need to 
 make them very secure. 
 
 Within the nest the mother bird laid five 
 greenish-white eggs, dotted with reddish brown ; 
 they were prettily ovate in form, and were nearly 
 an inch in length. 
 
 Now it happened, one day, while the owners of 
 this small abode were away from home, that a large, 
 black snake took it upon himself to visit their quar- 
 ters, in search of fresh eggs. 
 
 He had hardly made his way through the tangled 
 briers when the two birds returned, and, finding the 
 intruder's head so near their open door, they flew 
 at him in a great fury. 
 
 They beat him with their strong wings, and 
 pecked at his head and eyes with their hard, horny 
 beaks, till he was forced to glide swiftly away 
 through the sharp, thorny briers that pierced and 
 stung him on either side. 
 
 Soon afterwards the mother bird took her place 
 upon the nest, and she did not leave it till the eggs 
 were hatched. 
 
 Her mate kept her constantly supplied with bee- 
 
Fight between the Brown Thrashers and the Snake. 
 
 ties, crickets, and other insects, and I am afraid that 
 he stole a kernel of corn now and then from a newly- 
 planted hill. But the large number of insects that 
 he destroyed more than made amends for the theft. 
 
 V^TB'R^T^^ 
 
 W OJf 'CO.U, 
 
 t "UNIVERSITY 
 
6o 
 
 One day a man, who was strolling in the fields, 
 came upon the nest of small fledgelings, and carried 
 one of them home with him to raise as a pet. 
 
 The parent birds pursued him, scolding loudly, 
 but finally returned to the nest to look after the 
 others that were still left to them. 
 
 The young thrasher was put into a cage, and he 
 grew to be very tame, and had many cunning ways. 
 
 When a crust of bread was thrown into the cage, 
 he would pick it up and carry it to his saucer of 
 water and soak it well before eating it. 
 
 Like his parents, he was fond of crickets, beetles, 
 wasps, and all insects having a crusty, hard cover- 
 ing for their bodies. 
 
 One day a large wasp was dropped into his food 
 basket. He caught it, at once, and knocked and 
 thrashed it about till its wings were so broken that 
 it could no longer fly. 
 
 Then he threw it down on its back, and eyed it 
 very closely to see if it had a sting ; and, to make 
 himself very sure on this point, he took up the 
 insect's abdomen in his bill and gave it a tight 
 squeeze, so as to make the poison flow out, before 
 he ventured to swallow it. 
 
 Then he gulped it down with a relish, and turned 
 his pretty head from side to side, as if asking for 
 more. 
 
6i 
 
 As he did so, there was a proud look in his 
 golden-yellow eye that seemed to say, " Oh, I am 
 a knowing fellow ; but it is not to be wondered at, 
 for I belong to a very gifted family." 
 
 A VAIN LITTLE MOTH. 
 
 I KNOW I must be a lovely creature, else why do 
 people call me the "beautiful wood nymph"? 
 
 Look at my pure white fore 
 legs, marked here and there with 
 brown spots. 
 
 See the dark, purple-brown 
 band that is set along the edge 
 of them. Is it not pretty? 
 
 This band has a narrow head- 
 ing of olive green, and there is a 
 slender, wavy line of white run- 
 ning through it. 
 
 You will see my hind wings 
 are of a rich yellow; and they, too, are edged on 
 the hind border with a deep, purple-brown band. 
 
 My finely-shaped yellow body is dotted with 
 small, pearly scales, and striped with narrow bands 
 of black. 
 
 I wear tiny white mufHers on my fore legs, but 
 
 The Wood Nymph 
 Moth. 
 
62 
 
 my other legs, all four of them, are black, and so is 
 my head. 
 
 My antennas are very graceful because they are 
 so long and threadlike ; they are not feathered like 
 the antennae of most moths. Is it any wonder that 
 I am called beautiful ? 
 
 I was as handsome when I was a larval baby as 
 I am now, for I was clad in a pretty blue dress, 
 banded with twelve orange stripes, and each band 
 was dotted with black. 
 
 Are you quite sure that you did not see me when 
 I had on that dress ? You must have seen me then, 
 although you may not have known my name. 
 
 I used to visit your grapevine often and often in 
 those days ; for I was very fond of chewing the 
 young, juicy leaves, and sometimes my friends and 
 I would strip the vines bare. 
 
 Then we would go to the climbing creeper above 
 your doorway, and take a good nip at the leaves 
 and stalks of that. 
 
 We were as pretty a family of larval infants as 
 one would care to look at; our colors were very 
 bright, and our heads, as well as our feet, were of 
 a deep-orange hue. 
 
 But we did not always keep together on the 
 same leaves, and if you had looked for us almost 
 any hot day in August, you would have found us 
 
63 
 
 resting, singly, on the under side of a cool, green 
 leaf. 
 
 Now it is the habit of some of our family, after 
 they have eaten all they need, to bore into the 
 stem of a plant, or sometimes into a piece of wood, 
 and make it their winter quarters. But I was too 
 wise to do that, for I wanted a still safer place for 
 myself. 
 
 So one night, late in September, I crept softly 
 down a slender vine and buried myself in the 
 ground. There I was, a helpless pupa, an under- 
 ground baby, without so much as a cocoon to 
 cover me. Was I not very brave ? 
 
 But it was the right thing to do after all, for I 
 slept there safely through all the cold winter, and 
 it was early in June before I awoke from my long 
 nap. Then I came up from the dark earth. 
 
 I was very weak and feeble at first, but it was 
 not long before I found myself sailing gaily about 
 in this handsome robe that I am wearing to-day. 
 
 And now I will tell you a strange thing about 
 some of my relations. There is quite a large 
 family of them, and they fed on the leaves of a 
 fine creeper that ran over the walls and windows 
 of a city church. 
 
 So when they had eaten and eaten till they were 
 satisfied, they crept inside the church and hid them- 
 
6 4 
 
 selves under the edge of a soft, woolen carpet. 
 What a snug, cozy corner they had found, to be 
 sure! 
 
 Then with their sharp jaws they bit off some 
 threads here and there, and soon they had a fine, 
 warm place for their winter quarters. 
 
 But it turned out that this was not a safe place 
 for them at all ; they might better have gone down 
 into the cold earth as I did. 
 
 For in a very short time, the poor, helpless things 
 were discovered, and I have heard that not one of 
 them was left to tell the tale. 
 
 THE PATCHED COAT. 
 
 " WHAT an odd-looking coat you have on ! " said 
 a buzzing June beetle to a larval infant of the 
 common clothes moth. 
 
 " Yes, it is made up of a good many colors," 
 replied the other ; " but you will not wonder at that 
 when I tell you that I was born in a rag bag." 
 
 " Born in a rag bag ? " said the beetle, and he 
 went flying and buzzing about the room for nearly 
 five minutes before he spoke again. 
 
 Then he came back, and lit on the soft, woolen 
 rug where the plump larval infant was at work. 
 
" What in the world are you doing now ? " he 
 inquired. 
 
 " I am just setting a small gore into one side of 
 this open case in which I live ; for if you look, you 
 can easily see for yourself that it is a case, and not 
 a coat. 
 
 " The truth is, I 
 eat so much, and 
 grow so fast, that 
 my narrow quarters 
 will not hold me; 
 so, with my sharp 
 jaws I make a slit 
 here, and another 
 there, and weave 
 in a small patch 
 wherever it may be 
 needed." 
 
 " But pray, how 
 did you happen to 
 be born in a rag 
 bag ? " asked the 
 beetle. 
 
 " Because my mother chanced to lay her eggs 
 there ; she found a bag full of soft, warm, woolen 
 scraps, and she knew it would be a good place for 
 her babies. 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 5 
 
 Larva and Pupae of Clothes Moth. 
 
66 
 
 " And it was a good place, for as soon as we came 
 out of the shell, we found our food ready for us. 
 
 " So we gnawed and gnawed everything within 
 our reach, and covered our bodies with the bits 
 that were left. 
 
 " Some of these scraps were red, some were 
 white, and others were blue ; that is why my coat, 
 as you call it, has so many colors in it. 
 
 " But by and by, I shall get my growth ; then I 
 shall close one end of my case, and lie still, with 
 my head toward the open end, through all the long 
 winter. 
 
 " And when the spring comes, I shall change to 
 a pupa ; then I shall be a real baby moth, and in 
 
 about three weeks 
 from that time I shall 
 leave my close, nar- 
 row quarters, and be 
 a baby no longer." 
 
 " But how will you 
 get out of that hollow 
 case ? " inquired the 
 other. 
 
 " Oh, I have some small, sharp spines on my 
 body, and I can use them in creeping towards the 
 mouth of the case ; then I will crawl clear out of 
 it and leave it forever. 
 
 The Clothes Moth. 
 
6; 
 
 " It will be of no further use to me, for when I 
 come forth I shall flit about on four tiny, buff- 
 colored wings. I shall look very pretty then, for 
 on my forehead there will be a thick, silken tuft of 
 orange yellow. 
 
 " At nightfall I will dart about, here and there, 
 into dark closets where I can find some thick, 
 winter dresses hanging up, or some soft, woolen 
 blankets packed away ; and maybe I shall get a 
 chance to creep in among some nice -warm furs or 
 feathers ; and when I find as good a place for my 
 eggs as my mother found for hers, I shall lay 
 hundreds of them." 
 
 With that, she bit off some bright, fuzzy threads 
 of the woolen rug, and went on with her mending. 
 
 And the June beetle flew round and round, and 
 made a loud whizzing noise, as much as to say, 
 " I do wonder ! " 
 
 A CRUSTY FELLOW. 
 
 I KNOW where a clear crystal stream flows through 
 a deep gorge in the mountains. Sometimes it 
 passes over high rocks, and then dashes down like 
 white sea foam to its stony bed below. 
 
 At other places, where the rocks are not so high, 
 it falls in thin sheets, or in shining, silvery threads. 
 
68 
 
 It is a pretty stream, and I often wander along 
 its banks; for I am acquainted with some queer 
 little people that dwell there, and they live right 
 in the water, too. 
 
 There is one strange fellow, in particular, that I 
 want to tell you about. But he hides himself in 
 
 The Crayfish. 
 
 deep holes and under stones during the day; so 
 one must understand this sly trick of his in order 
 to find him at home. 
 
 Let me tell you how he looks. His body is long, 
 and somewhat flattened, and he is clad in a stiff, 
 horny coat that is very hard and strong. 
 
69 
 
 But his coat never becomes very ragged ; for he 
 grows so fast that he has to put on a new one every 
 year. 
 
 And very often he has a hard time in pulling the 
 old coat off ; for the new, thin garment is already 
 there, fitted closely to his body. Its color is of a 
 light, yellowish brown, at first, but after a time it 
 grows darker. 
 
 And now I hope you will believe me, when I tell 
 you that this fellow has no less than five pairs of 
 walking legs and six pairs of swimming legs. 
 
 And, what is more, should he chance to lose one 
 of his legs, he would have another in its place, in 
 the course of a year. 
 
 But he needs them all, every one of them, as I 
 can plainly prove to you. 
 
 His swimming legs are generally called swim- 
 ming feet, and sometimes they are called "swim- 
 merets." The word " swimmeret" means "a little 
 
 swimmer." 
 
 The swimming feet, when not in use, are almost 
 entirely hidden under his large abdomen, which is 
 made up of many plates that end in a wide fin at 
 the tail. 
 
 His mate has small, leaflike plates at the end of 
 her swimming feet, and these are edged with a fine, 
 hairy fringe. 
 
She lays a large number of eggs which she car- 
 ries about attached to this fringe. 
 
 It seems a little odd that this creature should 
 have ten walking legs besides his ten swimmerets ; 
 but he is not built like a fish, and he would soon 
 become tired of swimming about all the time. 
 
 His first two legs are the largest, and each one 
 of them ends in a long claw that is divided like a 
 pair of nippers. 
 
 And what a tight pinch he can give with those 
 nippers ! The tiny fishes in the stream know all 
 about it ; and they dart away in terror, the moment 
 they get a glimpse of him. 
 
 But this is not all, for he has five pairs of jaw 
 feet besides; so he is well armed to seize upon the 
 weaker animals in the water, and he seldom goes 
 without a good dinner. 
 
 He likes to make a meal of small fishes, water 
 snails, larval babies, and the like. 
 
 He also has two pairs of antennae, and the out- 
 side pair is very long ; he can move them up and 
 down, and turn or curve them at his will. This long 
 pair he uses to feel with ; and the small antennas 
 are used to hear with. 
 
 But his compound eyes are the queerest of all ; 
 for they are set on two pegs, and he can push them 
 out or pull them in, as he pleases. 
 
Now this curious fellow is called the crayfish, or 
 crawfish, though he is really a crab fish; for he is 
 own cousin to the common crabs that are found 
 along the seashore. 
 
 Have you ever seen a soft-shelled crab? 
 
 When the salt-water crabs first shed their coats 
 they are called " soft-shelled crabs " and are gathered 
 in large numbers for food. 
 
 But they do not all shed their coats every year, 
 as has been proved ; for a full-grown crab of this 
 sort was once found covered with oyster shells of 
 five years' growth. So it is plain that he must have 
 worn the same coat for five years, at least. 
 
 The salt-water crab of this kind has one of the 
 hands much larger and stronger than the other. 
 He uses either or both of them for feeding himself, 
 but with the larger one he digs in the sand. 
 
 Now within the body of a crab there are found, 
 at certain times of the year, two hard balls, that 
 are of the nature of lime; they are often called 
 "crab's stones," and sometimes, "crab's eyes." 
 
 But in some strange manner the substance of 
 these balls is changed, so as to form the hard, out- 
 side covering of the animal's body. 
 
 And it is just in this way that the small crusty 
 fellow in the mountain streams gets a new coat for 
 himself every year of his life. 
 
WAS IT A SHADOW? 
 
 ONE sunny afternoon in summer 
 time, a water boatman and a skater 1 
 chanced to meet on the surface of a small 
 pond. Now both of these insects belong 
 to the water bug family, and that is why 
 
 J . . } The Water 
 
 they happened to be traveling by water, Boatman. 
 instead of going about by land. 
 
 " Halloa, friend Skipjack ! " shouted the boatman, 
 " would you like to take a trip with me to the bot- 
 tom of this pond ? " 
 
 " Thank you, I am not a swimmer," replied the 
 other, "so I do not care to go tcx the bottom, so 
 long as I can stay on top." 
 
 " Oh, I see," answered the boatman ; " my long, hind 
 legs were made for j swimming, and your sprawl- 
 
 ers, for skating ; so it 
 is just as well for 
 each one to stick to 
 his trade." 
 
 He had hardly 
 spoken the last word 
 when he made a dive 
 forthebot-/' torn and was out of sight in an instant. 
 
 1 One of the Hy-drom'e-tra, a water bug. 
 
73 
 
 As soon as he was gone, the skater began to 
 move backward and forward with great speed ; and 
 as he darted about in the bright sunshine, he looked 
 like a long shadow made up of slender legs ! 
 
 The under part of his body was covered with a 
 soft, plush coating, so that the water could not 
 touch him at all ; and he could skip about every- 
 where for hours at a time, without so much as 
 wetting his feet. 
 
 There were plenty of tiny insects all about him 
 that he could seize and devour at his leisure ; so 
 what good reason had he for running the risk of 
 going down to the bottom of the deep? 
 
 It was not very long before a whole swarm of 
 whirligigs came dashing by; these insects belong 
 to the water beetle family. 
 
 Their bodies are of an oval form, 
 and of a bluish black color; and they 
 are well named "whirligigs"; for they are 
 hardly ever quiet and still for a moment 
 
 . The Whirligig. 
 
 m their lives. 
 
 So they went gliding and circling about over 
 the surface of the pond, and finally each one of 
 them gathered a bubble of air in the tip of his 
 abdomen, and plunged to the bottom. 
 
 " Well, well," said the skater, " so I am left alone 
 again, and I am glad of it." 
 
74 
 
 And he had very good cause for being glad, 
 too ; for if he had touched those creatures with so 
 much as a single toe of his foot, they would have 
 thrown out all about them a very disagreeable 
 milky fluid. 
 
 The Water Beetle and Larva, and the "Water Tiger." 
 
 Pretty soon there was a slight ripple on the 
 
 water, and in a moment more, up came a large 
 diving beetle to the surface. 
 
 His body was also oval in shape, and so flat, 
 
75 
 
 above and below, that he looked like a little boat 
 as he sped along over the waves. 
 
 The skater watched him a few moments, and 
 then said, " Pray, Mr. Diver, have you seen any- 
 thing of my friend, the water boatman, in your 
 travels ? " 
 
 "Yes," replied the other. "I saw some young 
 water tigers running about after him, only a short 
 time before I came to the top." 
 
 "Water tigers?" said the other. "What are 
 they ? " 
 
 " They are very hungry larval infants, with 
 strong, sharp jaws, and they live at the bottom of 
 the pond, where they can find plenty to eat. And 
 a fine time they have of it, too. I was once a baby 
 tiger myself, so I ought to know all about that kind 
 of life. 
 
 " Many and many a time have I snipped off 
 the tails of the little tadpoles, and of the young 
 fishes ; and I would not mind even now to get 
 hold of" 
 
 The skater gave a sudden jerk backwards, and 
 when the diver looked around, he was nowhere to 
 be seen. 
 
 "Well, that seems a little strange," said he. 
 " Can it be possible that all this time I was talking 
 with a shadow ? " 
 
ALMOST A BIRD. 
 
 Do you see that large, green worm creeping 
 upon the tomato vines ? Its thick, stout body 
 is fully three inches in length. 
 
 It is an ugly thing 
 to look at, but it will 
 not hurt you ; that 
 sharp horn upon its 
 tail can not harm 
 you in the least. 
 
 See those whitish, 
 slanting stripes along 
 the sides of its body. 
 They make quite a 
 pretty trimming for 
 
 V its green coat, do 
 
 they not? 
 
 The Tomato Worm. J 
 
 Take it home with 
 
 you, and put it into a panful of earth. Cover it over 
 with tomato leaves or the leaves of the potato; it is 
 quite as fond of one kind as of the other. 
 
 But you must look after it once in a while ; for 
 as soon as it has eaten enough of the leaves it will 
 bury itself at the bottom of the pan. 
 
 There it will build an earthen cocoon and be- 
 
77 
 
 come a pupa; and its pupa case will be of a 
 reddish-brown color. 
 
 It will have a long, slender tongue case, bent 
 down from the body so as to touch the breast and 
 shaped somewhat like the handle of a pitcher. 
 
 Think of a little creature having 
 so long a tongue that it has to be in-- 
 closed in a separate case, even in its 
 babyhood ! 
 
 When the long winter is over, it will 
 waken from its sleep. Then a poor, 
 weak moth, with feeble, crumpled 
 wings, will make its way up from the 
 soil in the pan. 
 
 Push a stick down into the soil, so 
 as to lend it a helping hand. It is the 
 most that you can do for it, and that 
 is quite enough. It will soon creep Pupa Case of the 
 
 . . IT- Tomato Worm. 
 
 to the top of the stick, and when its 
 
 wings become dry and strong, it will need no 
 
 farther aid from you. 
 
 Have you ever seen a humming bird ? Well, 
 your little moth will look very much like one. In 
 fact, it is often called a " humming-bird moth." 
 
 This insect has a stout body ; and on each side 
 of the body are five round, orange-colored spots en- 
 circled with black. 
 
Its wings are narrow and pointed, of a gray 
 color, and marked with dark lines; but the fore 
 wings are longer and broader than the hind ones. 
 
 The Humming-Bird Moth. 
 
 Its tongue is a good deal longer than its body; 
 and when not in use, it is coiled up like the spring 
 of a watch. No wonder that it needed a separate 
 case for itself ! 
 
79 
 
 This tongue is for sucking up the sweets of 
 flowers ; and as the insect flits around among the 
 pretty blossoms, it makes a low, humming noise. 
 
 It chooses the early morning hour, or the even- 
 ing twilight to go in search of its food; and then, 
 if you watch it very closely, you may see its long- 
 tongue, as it darts it quickly into the sweet blos- 
 soms of the honeysuckle, the morning-glory, and 
 other flowers having deep, tubelike throats. 
 
 "Almost a bird," you will say to yourself, as you 
 watch its movements; and you will wonder more 
 and more that so beautiful a creature could ever 
 have lain hidden away under the ugly larval skin 
 of a "green tomato worm." 
 
 "IF." 
 
 TABBY, the house cat, lay on a soft rug by the 
 open door, looking wistfully toward the top of a 
 small cherry tree that stood close at hand. 
 
 " There is a robin's nest in that tree," said she 
 to herself, " and there are some young birds in it. 
 What a tender morsel one of them would make 
 for my breakfast, if " 
 
 Just then the housemaid chanced to spy the 
 keen eyes of the cat directed toward the tree, and 
 
8o 
 
 The Robin's Nest. 
 
 she gave her a sound box on the ear that sent hei 
 flying into the back yard. 
 
 But Tabby was not to be cheated out of a good 
 meal by such treatment as this ; 
 and she stole softly back toward 
 the foot of the tree and crouched 
 low down in the grass, so that she 
 was almost hiddeafrom sight. 
 
 "I will wait," she said, "till one 
 of the old birds flies down from 
 its perch, then I will pounce upon 
 it, and begin my breakfast on that, 
 and if " 
 
 All at once a large, heavy stone came whizzing 
 through the air and barely missed hitting her on 
 the head. 
 
 With a loud " m-e-ow " she bounded away, and 
 
 hid herself 
 in one cor- 
 ner of the 
 fence. 
 
 Now this 
 nest on the 
 bough was 
 Tabby - well built 
 
 of mosses, straws, and dried stems, plastered to- 
 gether with mud, and was lined with soft grass. 
 
8i 
 
 And when it was all complete the mother bird laid 
 within it four small eggs of a greenish-blue tint. 
 
 By and by, the eggs hatched out, and then there 
 was a nest full of little children, and oh, such appe- 
 tites as they had ! 
 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Robin were early risers ; for 
 they knew that the fat cutworm and his family were 
 in the habit of coming up out of the ground during 
 the night, in order to feed on the tender stalks of 
 the cabbage, the beet, and other garden plants. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Robin. 
 
 So away they would sail on soft wings, the father 
 bird saluting the sky, as he skimmed the air, with 
 a song of the sweetest melody. 
 
 The heads and wings, as well as the tail feathers 
 of these birds were of a dark brown, but their plump, 
 glossy breasts were of a pale, yellowish red. 
 
 Everybody that saw them stopped to admire them, 
 and to listen to the sweet notes of their morning hymn. 
 
 Pretty soon they would come flying back to their 
 leafy home, bearing in their yellow bills some choice 
 tidbit for the little ones in the nest. 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 6 
 
82 
 
 Beetles, grubs, moths, caterpillars, and cutworms, 
 by the hundred, were carried to that young family 
 every day ; and yet four tiny hungry bills were 
 always open, calling for more. 
 
 So they grew and grew, and pretty soon the little 
 nest was too small to hold all of them together; 
 and one day, as \orie of them was crowded to the 
 very edge of the nest,\he tumbled out and fell to 
 the ground. 
 
 Alas, alas ! Tabby's watchful eyes beheld the 
 mishap. " Now is my chance," she said, and in a 
 moment she was on the spot. 
 
 As she moved her tail from side to side, she 
 looked very fierce indeed, almost as fierce as her 
 wild cousins, the tigers and the lions, that roam the 
 forests in search of their prey. 
 
 Suddenly she made a spring to seize the helpless 
 baby bird with her sharp claws. 
 
 This was more than the terror-stricken parents 
 could endure, and sweeping down from the bough, 
 they hovered above her form and dealt her several 
 hard blows with their wings. 
 
 Then they pecked her body with their sharp 
 bills, and pulled tufts of hair out of her head. 
 
 It was hard, very hard, for her to yield up her 
 prize ; but the birds fought her so furiously that 
 she was glad to escape ; and with a cry of rage 
 
83 
 
 and pain she leaped away, leaving many tufts of 
 her soft fur behind her. 
 
 The housemaid, hearing the clamor made by 
 the old birds, came to the door, and saw the 
 helpless infant lying on the ground. She took it 
 up tenderly and replaced it in the nest, where it 
 soon cuddled down as happy and contented as if 
 nothing had happened to it. 
 
 When the parent birds found that their darling 
 was unharmed, they flitted about from bough to 
 bough, and chirped their gratitude and delight ; 
 but it was a long time before they would leave 
 their little home unguarded. 
 
 When one of them went away in search of food, 
 the other would remain on the bough to watch 
 their treasures. 
 
 It was not many days, however, before the young 
 birds began to try their wings; and one morning 
 the whole family flew away from their leafy home, 
 and did not come back. 
 
 As for the cat, she had learned a useful lesson ; 
 for when the parent birds returned the next 
 spring, and took possession of their old quarters, 
 Tabby never so much as cast a glance toward the 
 tree. 
 
 " I will not go near them, 5 ' she m-e-owed to 
 herself ; " for if I do " here she stopped, licked 
 
8 4 
 
 her paws, and rubbed very tenderly a bare place 
 on the side of her head. 
 
 Ah, Tabby, it will take you many a day to 
 comb and smooth your fur, before that bald spot 
 will be covered ; and even then, you will never 
 look as sleek and fine as you did before the battle! 
 
 WITH AUGER AND SAW. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 " WHY do you speed along in such haste ? " said 
 a stout-bodied sawfly to her cousin, the horntail 
 fly, as they both chanced to be going in the same 
 
 direction. 
 
 " Pray do not ask me to 
 travel at your sluggish pace," 
 replied the other. " I am 
 on my way to that tall elm 
 yonder; for I want to bore 
 into its trunk, and hide my 
 
 The Horntail Fly. . . 
 
 eggs there, and this bright 
 July morning is just the time for it." 
 
 " I am going to that very tree myself," said the 
 sawfly ; " but I shall make a slit in one of the leaves 
 for my eggs, which I am sure will be much easier 
 to do than to bore into the hard trunk of a tree." 
 
"That is as you like," answered the other. "I 
 work with an auger, and you with a saw ; and it ' 
 is a good thing that each of us prefers his own 
 tools." And with this short answer she sped on, 
 out of sight. 
 
 And now let us 
 watch her, as she 
 busies herself on the 
 trunk of the tree yon- 
 der. Her head is 
 large, her body is 
 round and long, and 
 she has long, narrow 
 wings. 
 
 At the end of her 
 body she has. a sharp 
 needle or auger, with 
 which she can bore through both the bark and 
 the wood of a tree. 
 
 It does not take her very long to do her work 
 either, for she has already made several holes, and 
 into each hole she has pushed a small egg. 
 
 Now, Mrs. Horntail's infants will be ugly, white 
 grubs, with small, round, horny heads, and pointed, 
 horny tails. They will each have six legs, and such 
 sharp jaws that they can gnaw their way anywhere 
 through the tree. 
 
 Larva of the Horntail Fly. 
 
86 
 
 They will feed on its sweet sapwood ; and when 
 they have eaten so much that they can eat no 
 more, they will make for themselves, each, a silken 
 cocoon, ancKlnto that they will weave some of 
 the small chips that they have chewed. Then they 
 will go to sleep. 
 
 And when at last they have finished their nap, 
 they will cast off their pupa skins, break open their 
 cocoons, and crawl up to the very end of their 
 
 burrows. 
 
 Then they will 
 soon gnaw away 
 the bark, and 
 come out with 
 four smoky-brown 
 wings. 
 
 And what is 
 strangest of all, 
 insects of this 
 kind have been 
 known to remain so long in the pupa state that 
 after a tree was cut down and the wood was planed 
 and polished, and made into furniture, they gnawed 
 their way out of it. 
 
 But the horntail fly is not the only insect that 
 works with an auger ; and although her sharp borer 
 is a full inch in length, she has a sly enemy that 
 
 The Ichneumon Fly. 
 
carries one from three to four inches long. 1 And 
 what do you suppose she does with this long tool ? 
 She hunts around for a time till at last she finds 
 the tree in which Mrs. Horntail's larval children 
 are hidden. Then she thrusts in her auger, here 
 and there, and slyly pushes an egg into each 
 hole. 
 
 And when her babies hatch out, they creep about 
 through the body of the tree till they find a fat 
 young horntail. 
 
 Then they have no farther to look for their 
 dinner. It is all ready for them ; and you may 
 be sure that they do not wait to be invited, but 
 seize upon it at once. 
 
 They soon make themselves fast to the skin of 
 the helpless infant and feast on him to their hearts' 
 content ; and no matter how much he may wriggle 
 and squirm, they do not loosen their hold till the 
 meal is finished. 
 
 Ah, Mrs. Horntail, you would not have sailed so 
 proudly away, could you have seen what the end 
 might be ! 
 
 Possibly your family may live to flit about in the 
 warm sunshine of a pleasant July day ; but your 
 enemy has marked the tree, and she is on your 
 track. 
 
 1 The ich-neu'mon fly. 
 
88 
 
 WITH AUGER AND SAW. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 AH, here comes the other wise little carpenter, 
 bringing two sharp saws along with her. She has 
 taken her own time ; but she is here at last. And 
 
 what a pretty little busy- 
 body she is ! 
 
 Look at her closely, 
 and you will see that 
 both her head and her 
 
 The Sawfly. . . , 
 
 thorax are ot a glossy 
 
 black ; but the other parts of her body are of a 
 steel blue, spotted with yellow. 
 
 Her four thin wings are of a smoky brown ; her 
 legs are stout, and of a blue-black color, and her 
 feet are of a pale yellow. 
 
 Does she not resemble a hornet ? Well, she 
 belongs to the same great family 1 as the hornet ; 
 so it is no wonder that we can trace a family 
 likeness. 
 
 But the hornet has, at the end of her body, a 
 very sharp sting; while the sawfly carries a pair 
 of keen-edged saws instead. 
 
 See, she is using them now to make a slit in 
 
 1 Hy-men-op'te-ra, membrane wing, or thin wing. 
 
8 9 
 
 
 that leaf; and when it is done, she wnTxirop an 
 egg into it. 
 
 And because she has made a hole in the leaf, 
 the sap will not flow smoothly along as it did 
 before, but it will gather there. And after a time 
 there will be a hard lump, like a knob, in that 
 place ; and wherever she places an egg, there will 
 be just such a swelling or knob. 
 
 Inside of each lump there will be a squirming, 
 larval baby, clad in pale, greenish yellow, with a 
 black stripe running all along its back. 
 
 And what active little creatures they will be ! 
 Each one of them will have no less than twenty- 
 two strong legs, so it 
 will not take them long 
 to strip the leaves from 
 that tree. 
 
 And what is more, 
 should you chance to 
 touch one of them ever so lightly, he will spirt 
 from the sides of his body a jet of fluid right into 
 your face. 
 
 Now when these hungry creatures have feasted 
 for a long time, they will crawl down from the 
 tree and bury themselves under the dry, fallen 
 leaves. 
 
 And there, in a thick brown cocoon, each small 
 
 Sawfly Larvae. 
 
90 
 
 infant will stay, snug and safe till spring. Then 
 it will break open its pupa case and push hard 
 against one end of its cocoon, till it opens like a 
 little lid, and^out it will come, a four-winged saw- 
 fly, having a body nearly an inch in length. 
 
 The body of the male is longer and narrower 
 than that of the female ; and there is no saw at the 
 end of it. The males of bees, hornets, ants, horn- 
 tails, and all other insects of this kind have neither 
 sting nor borer at the end of the body. 
 
 But both males and females have two pairs of 
 jaws, one for biting and cutting the leaves and 
 twigs of plants, and the other for sucking the 
 sweet juices. 
 
 There are many curious insects that belong to 
 this large family, and among them is one that is 
 named the gallfly. It is a very small insect, having 
 a body not over a quarter of an inch in length. 
 
 Have you ever seen a little brown ball fastened 
 to a twig, or to the leaf of a plant ? I hope you 
 did not try to bite it, thinking it was a nut. Let 
 me tell you how these little balls happen to be 
 found in such places. 
 
 A mother gallfly lays her eggs in a leaf or stem, 
 something after the manner of the sawfly, and these 
 nutgalls are the homes of her larval infants. 
 
 As soon as these larvae are hatched from the 
 
egg, they begin to feed on the soft pulp within 
 the ball; and as they increase in size they cast 
 their skins till they reach the pupa state. 
 
 Finally they escape from this pupa case and 
 gnaw a little hole through the shell of the nut ; 
 then they come forth with wings into the great 
 world outside. 
 
 And now that you 
 know how these lit- 
 tle brown nuts are 
 formed, I am quite 
 sure that you will 
 examine them very 
 carefully should you 
 chance to come up- 
 on them in your 
 walks. 
 
 If you will look 
 at some of them 
 closely, you will find the open door through which 
 the winged insect came. 
 
 So you see, these little mothers that we find fly- 
 ing about everywhere are really very wise, and they 
 are worth our careful study. 
 
 The fields and forests are alive with them, for 
 they are ever on the wing, and we have only to keep 
 our eyes open in order to learn all their secrets. 
 
 V 
 
 Gallnut on Oak Leaves. 
 
FOUR PINK BABIES. 
 
 THERE was a great stir in the cottage of Dame 
 Dutton ; for it was the first day of April, and the 
 good dame never allowed that day to pass (unless 
 it chanced to fall on Sunday) without a general 
 upheaving and overturning of everything that was 
 movable under her roof. 
 
 " I will begin at the pantry first," said Mistress 
 Dutton ; " for if my sense of smell does not deceive 
 me, there is a mouse hidden away in that cake cup- 
 board." 
 
 So, with sleeves rolled to the elbow, and with her 
 longest bib apron tied snugly about her, she pro- 
 ceeded to attack the cake cupboard, without farther 
 delay. 
 
 " Bless me ! " cried the dame, as the first whisk of 
 her broom brought down a large, black spider, and 
 with it the fine gossamer web that had been woven 
 with so much care. 
 
 " Bless me ! who would have believed it, and I so 
 particular about cobwebs, too." 
 
 But after the cobwebs (together with all the vic- 
 tims that had been snared by them) were lying 
 in loose tufts on the pantry floor, Mrs. Dutton felt 
 that she had a still greater work to do. 
 
93 
 
 For now there was 
 no possibility of a mis- 
 take ; she certainly did 
 sniff the strong odor of 
 a mouse, and she felt 
 quite sure that the lit- 
 tle thief was not far off. 
 
 Nor was she mis- 
 taken ; for while she 
 stood there, prying and 
 peeping into this corner 
 and that, up jumped a 
 mouse, almost into her 
 very face, and scam- 
 pered away to an oppo- 
 site corner of the room. 
 
 Mrs. Button gave a little scream, and for a 
 moment it was hard to tell which was the more 
 frightened, she or the mouse. 
 
 Then she gained courage to make a search along 
 the wooden cleat of the pantry shelf and could 
 she believe her own eyes there, in a snug, cozy 
 corner, were four, wee baby mice. 
 
 Poor little things ! they were so young that they 
 had, as yet, no furry coat like their mother's; and 
 the color of their naked bodies was almost as pink 
 as the gay ribbon on Dame Dutton's Sunday cap. 
 
 Up jumped a Mouse." 
 
94 
 
 And their eyes, well, they had no eyes, so far 
 as she could make out. 
 
 There were^wo mites of eyelids that looked like 
 little warts, but the whole family seemed to be as 
 blind as a nest of young kittens ; and everybody 
 knows that young kittens do not get their eyes 
 fairly open till they are nine days old, at least. 
 What funny-looking little creatures they were! 
 
 They were both 
 sightless and hair- 
 less ugh ! 
 
 But these ugly- 
 looking babies 
 were very precious 
 in the sight of the 
 mother mouse, as 
 you will present- 
 
 j y 
 
 The Four Wee Baby Mice. 
 
 must not suppose that she ran away like a coward 
 to return to them no more. 
 
 Ah, no indeed, she could not do that ; she simply 
 hid herself away for a moment, as if planning what 
 it was best to do next. It was most pitiful to see 
 her trembling there in the corner. 
 
 There was a quiver in her pretty, silky ears, in 
 the short, stiff hairs about her pointed snout, and 
 even her long, smooth tail shook with terror. 
 
95 
 
 Oh, how her poor heart did flutter lest some 
 harm should come to the helpless infants that she 
 loved so well. 
 
 She had felt so secure in that dark cake cup- 
 board, and she had worked so very hard to get inside. 
 
 Why, she had gnawed and gnawed for more than a 
 week, before she had been able to make a hole large 
 enough for her own little body to pass in and out. 
 
 Now that small opening was her own private 
 door the little door of her bedroom; and it was 
 so very small that she had never dreamed that any 
 eye but hers could find it. 
 
 She had used her front teeth for a chisel, in cut- 
 ting the doorway, and very sharp teeth they were 
 too, I assure you. 
 
 There were four of them in all two on the 
 upper, and two on the under jaw ; and the more she 
 used them, the stronger and sharper they grew. 
 
 Many and many a night when she had been 
 gnawing at the doorway, she had heard the foot- 
 steps of Dame Dutton approaching the pantry. 
 
 Then she had sped away in terror, not 'daring to 
 return to her work till almost morning. Poor soul ! 
 Do you not feel sorry for her ? I do. 
 
 I think Dame Dutton must have felt a little 
 sorry, too ; for she just stood stock still and looked 
 at her. 
 
\ 
 
 After awhile the timid, trembling creature seemed 
 to gain a little courage ; and so, very cautiously she 
 crept towards the nest, that little home that held 
 her treasures. 
 
 Then she stopped, and fixed her bright little eyes 
 on the tall giant standing so very near her. 
 
 But suddenly she made a dash toward the nest, 
 and seizing one of the babies by the nape of the 
 neck, just as a cat catches up her kittens, she held 
 
 it firmly be- 
 tween her teeth, 
 and scampered 
 away with it as 
 fast as her legs 
 could carry her. 
 
 The Mother and her Baby Mouse. J 
 
 Could you 
 
 have looked closely at her soft, tiny feet, you would 
 not wonder that she sped away so nimbly. 
 
 She had four finger toes, and a bit of a thumb 
 besides, on each of her fore feet ; while each of her 
 hind feet had five toes ; and each toe was armed 
 with a sharp nail. 
 
 Ah, such feet as hers were not made to stumble ; 
 they were almost as swift as wings ! 
 
 She was gone but a moment, and then her 
 pointed snout appeared at the open door again. 
 
 In a twinkling she sprang to the shelf, and rush- 
 
97 
 
 ing to the nest, the second baby mouse was rescued 
 in the same manner as the first. 
 
 A third time she came back, and growing a little 
 bolder each time, she made directly for the nest, 
 and disappeared, in a flash, with the third infant. 
 
 " Now I will test your brav- 
 ery, Mrs. Mouse," said Dame 
 Button ; so she slipped a stiff 
 piece of cardboard under the 
 ne"st, and held it tightly in 
 her hand. 
 
 The mother mouse returned, 
 flitted a few paces forward, 
 saw that the nest had been re- 
 moved, and then stopped quite 
 still, but shaking and panting 
 with fright. 
 
 " Help, help ! " peeped the 
 small pink baby, in plain 
 
 , -, i Feet of the Mouse. 
 
 mouse language ; and this 
 
 was more than the mother love could bear. 
 
 The poor frightened heart beat so loud and so 
 fast that it shook her whole body. 
 
 Very slowly she crept along the shelf, and finally 
 she flattened herself out in a sort of humble way, 
 as if begging the huge giant to spare her little one. 
 
 Then with one bold effort, she gathered herself 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 7 
 
9 8 
 
 up, gave a quick jump, caught her peeping treasure 
 from the nest, and was out of sight in an instant. 
 " Well," said Mistress Button, as soon as she 
 had recovered from her astonishment, "well I 
 never! And I always so particular about mice, 
 too." 
 
 THE SLUG FLY AND THE GRASSHOPPER. 
 
 A MOTHER slug fly that had been darting about 
 in the sunshine all day, finally settled down among 
 the green leaves of a pear tree. 
 
 Like the horntail fly, she 
 was armed with a sharp- 
 pointed auger ; and with 
 this auger she cut several 
 slits in the under part of 
 the leaf. 
 
 The Slug Fly. . 
 
 I hese slits were in the 
 
 form of a half circle, and in each one of them she 
 placed an egg. After that, she flew away and gave 
 no further heed to it. 
 
 She was a very small insect, so small, indeed, 
 that her body was not more than a quarter of an 
 inch in length. 
 
 But she was really quite pretty ; for she was of 
 a glossy-black color, and her four thin wings were 
 
99 
 
 very clear, and were veined with brown; while 
 across the middle of the first pair there was a 
 wide band of a somewhat smoky hue. 
 
 It was a warm day in June; and as she darted 
 about in the sunlight, her wings looked as if they 
 had caught some of the bright tints of the rainbow. 
 
 " What a beautiful creature you are ! " said a 
 large green grasshop- 
 per. " I think I must 
 get a little nearer to 
 you, where I can see 
 you better." 
 
 , The Grasshopper. 
 
 And she gave such 
 
 a long leap that she went clear over the head of 
 the slug fly and landed on the other side of her. 
 
 " Bless me ! " said the fly ; " what very long legs 
 you have, my friend." 
 
 " Yes, my hind legs are very long ; they are made 
 for leaping about, as you can plainly see." 
 
 " And what very, very long antennae," said the 
 other. " They must be nearly twice as long as 
 your body, I am sure." 
 
 At this the grasshopper turned her antennae 
 back, till they extended way beyond her long hind 
 legs. 
 
 " Wonderful ! " said the slug fly. " What a pity 
 that you have not wings like me." 
 
IOO 
 
 "Wings?" $aid the other; "you had better use 
 your eyes." 
 
 And with that she displayed two long, straight 
 wing covers, and two thin hind wings that were 
 hidden under them. 
 
 " Who would have thought it ? " said the slug 
 fly. " But tell me, my friend, what were you 
 digging into the ground for, just before you came 
 here?" 
 
 " I was hiding my eggs there," replied the other. 
 " You did not see my wings, and you may not 
 have seen the sword at the end of my body ; but 
 I always carry one with me wherever I go. 
 
 " It was with this sharp sword that I made a hole 
 in the earth, and put my eggs into it. Then I 
 smeared them all over with a thick glue ; for as 
 soon as the glue hardens, it will form a strong 
 case for them. 
 
 " And now I have covered up the hole in the 
 ground carefully, and have left them there ; for I 
 know they will be safe and warm through all the 
 long winter." 
 
 " Now what will your babies be like ? " inquired 
 the other. 
 
 " They will be like me, only their wings, at first, 
 will look like little scales. But they will feed on all 
 the green things that come in their way till they 
 
lot 
 
 have shed their skins six times ; then their wings 
 will be as large as mine." 
 
 " What a fine time they will have eating those 
 skins!" said the slug fly. 
 
 " Eating their skins ? " replied the grasshopper. 
 " Whoever heard of such a thing ! My family 
 never eat their skins. Why should they do such 
 a thing as that, with plenty of green leaves all 
 about them?" 
 
 Now the grasshopper belongs to the same great 
 family l as the cricket, the locust, the katydid, and 
 other insects having straight wing covers ; the 
 mother straight wing lays the eggs, and the father 
 straight wing makes all the music. 
 
 And this class of insects do not have a wormlike 
 form, even when they are first hatched from the egg. 
 
 " Well," said the slug fly, " my family do eat their 
 skins, and they are very fond of them, too. They 
 shed their coat five times before they are full- 
 grown ; and they always feast on every one of 
 their cast-off skins excepting the last." 
 
 " What must the children of your kind be like ? " 
 said the grasshopper, and as she spoke, she let fall 
 a dark-brown fluid from her jaws. 
 
 " Oh, they are beautiful creatures," replied the 
 other. 
 
 1 Or-thop'te-ra, straight wing. 
 
102 
 
 \ 
 
 " They are covered, at first, with a soft, sticky 
 slime, of a pretty olive shade ; but when they get 
 
 their fifth coat, it is 
 very dry and of a 
 yellow tint, and as 
 Larva of the slug Fly. there is no slime 
 
 upon that, they do not care to eat it. 
 
 "And such*' nimble little creatures you never 
 saw ; for although they are not quite half an inch 
 in length, they have no less than twenty short legs 
 apiece. 
 
 " So they creep about upon the green leaves of 
 the pear and of the cherry tree, and with their 
 sharp jaws they cut out all the soft parts of the 
 leaf. But they are so dainty that they will touch 
 neither the veins nor the skin of a leaf, no matter 
 how tender it may be." 
 
 " Dainty ! " said the grasshopper. " A creature 
 that will eat 
 its own skin 
 ugh ! " 
 
 The slug fly 
 paid no heed to 
 this remark, but 
 
 r^. Pear Leaf with the Slug Fly Eggs and Larvae. 
 
 went on : " The 
 
 larval babies of my kind are called slugs'; and they 
 
 are very shy little creatures, with small brown heads. 
 
103 
 
 Should you ever meet them, you will know them 
 by this : They have a way of swelling out the 
 fore part of the body, so as to hide their modest 
 heads completely. 
 
 " But you will have to look for them pretty soon ; 
 for my eggs will hatch out before long. And after 
 the babies have eaten all they need, they will leave 
 the pear tree and creep down into the ground. 
 
 " There each one will make for itself an earthen 
 cocoon ; and when it awakens from its long winter's 
 sleep, it will come up into the air and sunshine. 
 
 " Then it will have four handsome wings like 
 mine ; and it will be even more beautiful than 
 when it was a slimy larval infant." 
 
 " More beautiful ! I should hope so," said the 
 grasshopper ; and she let fall a whole mouthful of 
 brown fluid, and gave a leap that sent her clear out 
 of sight. 
 
 THE TRUTH OF IT. 
 
 " A silly young cricket, accustomed to sing 
 Through the long, sunny months of gay summer and spring, 
 Began to complain when he found that at home 
 His cupboard was empty and winter had come." 
 
 WE have all heard the sorrowful tale ; how the 
 poor, starved cricket went to a very stingy old ant, 
 and begged for food and shelter; and how the 
 
104 
 
 ant met him with harsh words, and finally turned 
 him out of doors. 
 
 It is a very interesting story, indeed ; but I am 
 afraid that it is not true, for it does not agree 
 with the history of the cricket family. 
 
 The fact is that most all crickets die on the 
 approach of winter. There are only a very few 
 among them that live till spring ; and these either 
 hide themselves under stones, or else they creep 
 into some hole in the ground that is warm and 
 dry. 
 
 It is true that some of them do sing through 
 the long sunny months of summer, and even until 
 quite late in the fall. 
 
 But it is the father cricket that makes the music; 
 and he delights in it. 
 
 He rubs the inner edges of his outside wings 
 together with great glee ; and he will keep up his 
 shrill music for hours and hours at a time. 
 
 It is a way that he has of talking to his wife; 
 and she never seems to grow weary of it. But 
 she takes no part in his tune ; for her wings are 
 not formed like his, to make music. 
 
 Many "of these insects are clothed in black; and 
 it does seem a little strange that so cheerful a 
 chirper as the father cricket should be clad in 
 mourning array. 
 
105 
 
 But he had no choice in the matter; so he may 
 as well be merry and make the best of- it. 
 
 The mother cricket has at the end of her small 
 body a fine-pointed piercer, as sharp as a needle ; 
 and late in the autumn she makes holes in the 
 ground and places her eggs in them. 
 
 Sometimes there are as many as three hundred 
 eggs in one mass ; but she takes no farther care of 
 them, for she knows that she has left them in a 
 safe place to hatch 
 out. 
 
 There is another 
 kind of cricket that 
 is clad in ivory white, 
 with a few yellow 
 
 , til The Cricket. 
 
 tints about the body. 
 
 This cricket makes music, too, and it is often of a 
 
 very harsh and noisy kind. 
 
 But his wife does not always dress in pure white; 
 for sometimes she wears white on a part of her 
 body, while the other portions are tinged with 
 green or with yellow. 
 
 She pierces holes in the twigs and steins of 
 plants and pushes her eggs into them, even to the 
 very pith. Then, like the ground cricket, her work 
 is done ; for very soon after these insects have laid 
 their eggs, both the males and females die. 
 
IOO 
 
 It is true that there will be a large family of 
 baby crickets in the spring ; but such babies are, 
 in no way, helpless. They all know just what to do. 
 
 They will not be wormlike larval babies, either; 
 they will look just like their parents, only that 
 the wings of young crickets are at first nothing 
 but tiny scales. 
 
 Young Crickets feeding on Squash. 
 
 As soon as they come out of the shell they will 
 begin to eat. They will feast on the juicy roots 
 of the melon, the squash, che potato, grass, and 
 other green things that come in their way. 
 
 As these insects become larger and larger, they 
 cast off their baby clothes till they get their seventh 
 suit. 
 
 Then they are full-grown crickets, with a pair of 
 long, slender antennas and four straight wings. But 
 
to; 
 
 the two outside wings are not used for flying; 
 they are used as covers both for the under wings 
 and for the sides of the body. 
 
 There are some kinds of crickets that, if they 
 chance to get into a room where they find a woolen 
 carpet or a woolen garment of any kind, will soon 
 destroy it. 
 
 They have even been known to gnaw holes in 
 boots and in shoes that were made of thick, heavy 
 leather. 
 
 A gentleman who was very fond of the cricket's 
 clear, sharp notes, opened his window, one evening, 
 so that he might go to sleep with the sound of their 
 music in his ears. 
 
 But when he awoke in the morning, he found 
 that quite a number of them had entered his room 
 during the night, and had eaten several large holes 
 in a new suit of clothes that was hanging upon the 
 back of a chair near the window. 
 
 The shrill creak of the cricket late in the 
 autumn does sometimes sound a little sad; but 
 there is no good reason for supposing that it is a 
 song of complaint. 
 
 He generally finds enough to eat as long as he 
 needs it; and crickets are not above devouring 
 other insects, in case they fall short of the green, 
 juicy stems and leaves of plants. 
 
io8 
 
 So I think you will agree with me that if a bold, 
 hungry cricket should chance to call at the door 
 of a well-to-do ant, she had much better divide her 
 store with him, than to run the risk of being eaten 
 herself. 
 
 "RAIN FROGS." 
 
 WILLIE and James were on their way to school. 
 It had rained very hard during the night, and there 
 were little pools of water standing all along the 
 roadside. 
 
 Suddenly James called out, " Oh, brother, come 
 here, and look at these queer little frogs that have 
 just rained down. Some of them have quite long 
 tails, and others have no tails at all. I wonder if 
 there are any more like them in the clouds," and he 
 looked upward toward the sky. 
 
 " Let's take a few of them to school," said Willie. 
 
 So they gathered quite a number of the little 
 animals and put them into one of their dinner pails, 
 which they had emptied for that purpose. 
 
 When the teacher saw what the boys had brought 
 to school, she was greatly pleased, and promised 
 them a little talk upon the subject ; and this is what 
 they learned that day about "rain frogs," as they 
 are often called : 
 
109 
 
 Some of these animals were young toads that 
 had been hatched from eggs that the mother toad 
 had laid in a small stream of water not far away. 
 
 Toads never go near the water except to lay their 
 eggs, and these are deposited in long chains. From 
 each egg, a very small, jet- 
 black tadpole is hatched ; 
 for toads have to pass 
 through the tadpole stage 
 the same as their cousins, 
 the frogs, and when they 
 finally leave the water, 
 
 ,, , . . Toad's Eggs. 
 
 their skin is so very ten- 
 der that they can not endure the heat of the sun. 
 
 So they go down into the moist earth, and re- 
 main there during the hottest part of the day ; but 
 if they hear heavy raindrops falling upon the 
 ground, they come up at once to enjoy the cool- 
 ing shower; and that is why Willie and James 
 found so many of them along the roadside that 
 morning. 
 
 As they grow larger, they shed their warty skins, 
 and a very queer figure they cut, too, as they pull 
 their loose brown coats off, over their heads. Just 
 before this coat is cast off, it becomes quite dry, 
 and its color looks faded and dull. 
 
 Presently it begins to split down the back, and 
 
110 
 
 soon after that, small rents appear upon the under 
 side of it. 
 
 At about this stage, the poor toad looks ragged 
 enough ; but he pays no heed to that, for he well 
 knows that he has a fine, new garment hidden 
 away, underneath. So he proceeds to get rid of 
 the old one as soon as possible. 
 
 He twists and turns 
 
 his body, and uses 
 first a hind leg, and 
 then a fore leg, till at 
 last he is entirely free 
 from his old worn- 
 out suit; but he seems 
 to be very tired after 
 the struggle that he 
 has made. 
 
 And what is queerest of all, he rolls the old 
 garment up into a small bundle and swallows it, 
 without so much as a drink of water to rinse it 
 down. 
 
 He does not even chew the hard, dry morsel, for 
 he has not a tooth in either jaw. 
 
 Toads can dart out their tongues very quickly 
 to catch an insect on the wing; and they are 
 quite as fond of small worms and caterpillars as 
 of the winged dainties that come in their way. 
 
 The Common Toad. 
 
Ill 
 
 One day a toad chanced to see a large number 
 of small insects flying about a panful of sour dough 
 that had been set out near the chicken coop. 
 
 So he hopped along till he came to the pan, and 
 then he hopped into that, and rolled himself over 
 and over in the wet dough. 
 
 The Newt (Male and Young in the Water, Female on the Bank). 
 
 When he was well covered with it he jumped 
 out, and sat very still for awhile; it was not 
 long before the insects began to swarm about 
 him, and behold ! his plan was a success ; for all 
 he had to do was to dart out his tongue and 
 gulp them down as fast as they came along. 
 
112 
 
 But what about the other little " rain frogs " that 
 the boys had collected that morning ? 
 
 Behold ! they were not frogs at all ; they were 
 small red newts, or efts ; and they are sometimes 
 called " land salamanders." 
 
 These creatures have a body about two inches 
 in length, and the tail is nearly as long as the 
 body. 
 
 They are very shy, harmless little things, and 
 they live near the water in cool, damp places. So 
 when the ground becomes hot and dry they bury 
 themselves in the same manner as the toads; but 
 after a shower they come to the surface in large 
 numbers. 
 
 In winter they coil themselves up in the earth, 
 and remain there till spring returns. 
 
 They are playful creatures, and will run, and 
 chase one another about, as lively as kittens. 
 
 Some of them are of a dull, red color, and others 
 are of a bright, orange red, sprinkled with black 
 dots. 
 
 They feed on insects, worms, and snails, and are 
 far more helpful than harmful in the world. 
 
 Most of them are born in the water, and when 
 first hatched they have the tadpole form. 
 
 They are cousins to the water salamanders, so 
 often seen in creeks and small ponds. 
 
H3 
 
 But the water salamanders have the back of a 
 deep-olive shade, and the under parts of a rich, 
 orange yellow studded with black dots ; while along 
 the sides are small shining spots of flame. Some of 
 them are very beautiful. 
 
 These harmless creatures are often found in 
 small streams in Ireland ; and many of the peas- 
 ants believe that if you venture to look down too 
 closely into the water at them, they will leap into 
 your throat and 
 raise a large fam- 
 ily of young ones 
 in your stomach. 
 
 And they claim 
 that the only rem- The Water Salamander - 
 
 edy for this evil is to find a stream of water run- 
 ning directly toward the south, and to lean over 
 it with the mouth wide open, till the animal jumps 
 out into the stream. 
 
 Now we shall not believe such foolish stories as 
 these ; neither shall we believe that frogs, newts, or 
 any other living creatures " rain down " from the sky. 
 
 For if we use our eyes and study the habits of 
 these shy neighbors of ours, we shall find that 
 each particular kind has its own work to do, and 
 that every living thing about us was created to 
 act its part in the world. 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 8 
 
H4 
 
 MOVING DAY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 " DEAR me ! " said a very old worker ant, as she 
 bit off a piece of soft earth, and rolled and smoothed 
 it with her feet. " Dear me ! my teeth are nearly 
 worn out now, and this roadway is not half done yet." 
 
 " Just look at me ! " said a 
 nimble young ant, as she stood 
 up on her hind feet and bit off 
 a mite of hard sand above her 
 head. 
 
 " And just look at me ! " said 
 a large drone, as he spread four 
 thin wings, and flew out at the 
 
 Drone. 
 
 open door of the ant-hill. 
 
 " Yes, you have a fine time of it, Mr. Drone," 
 said the old ant; "but any of us could do that, if 
 we had wings." 
 
 As she said this, a long line of little ants ran 
 across the roadway, and each one held in her jaws 
 a small, white roll. 
 
 Little girl, little boy, you and I have often seen 
 small ants running about in this way, but we did 
 not dream that these tiny white rolls were wee 
 larval babies, did we ? 
 
Neither did we know that the nimble little ants 
 that were carrying them about were the nurses of 
 the family. And what faithful little 
 nurses they are ! 
 
 When the weather is fine, they 
 carry the infants up into the sun- 
 light ; but if the sky grows dark, or 
 if a few drops of rain fall, they seize 
 them at once, and take them down 
 into the little bedrooms below. 
 
 They pet them, too, and lick them with their 
 little rough tongues, and feed them, from their own 
 mouths, with food which they make ready for them. 
 Now the queen and the drones are the only ants 
 that have wings ; and that is why the old ant said 
 to the drone, " We could any of us do that, if we 
 
 had wings." 
 
 The upper two wings 
 are hooked fast to the 
 lower pair ; they are 
 much larger than the 
 lower two, and com- 
 pletely hide them when the insect is at rest. 
 
 But the queen has no use for her wings after she 
 goes down into the earth ; so she unhooks them 
 from her body, and lays them aside; and sometimes 
 the worker ants take them off for her. 
 
'Then she goes about laying eggs ; and as fast as 
 she drops them, the workers follow her and take 
 care of them. These mites of eggs are of a yel- 
 lowish white, and are somewhat oval in form. 
 
 It takes but a month for the eggs of some 
 kinds of ants to hatch out ; but there are other 
 kinds that require a much longer period. For 
 sometimes the eggs are laid in the fall, and they do 
 not hatch out until the next spring ; and even after 
 the insect enters the pupa state, it often remains 
 inclosed in its pupa case for six or seven weeks. 
 Now there were a good many larval babies in 
 this ant-hill. The eggs were laid late in the fall 
 before ; and now that spring had come, 
 and they were all hatched out, it made 
 a large family for one house. 
 
 So it happened, one day, that the same 
 wise old ant who had spoken first, said : 
 " There are too many of us here." 
 
 " What is to be done about it ? " asked 
 another. 
 
 " We must look for new quarters," said 
 
 Ant's Leg. she. 
 
 As she spoke, she drew one of her fore feet 
 through her jaws, two or three times. 
 
 Now old as she was, she was a very neat creature, 
 in all her habits, She carried a small hairy brush 
 
H7 
 
 on each fore leg, and as soon as she found a mite of 
 dirt upon her body, she brushed it off; and when 
 she wanted to clean the brush, she drew it through 
 her mouth in the way that I have told you. 
 
 That was a good example to set for the others, 
 too ; for some of the younger ants, who were watch- 
 ing her, began to brush themselves, without delay. 
 
 The Ants' Moving Day. 
 
 Now it was not many days after this, that a long 
 line of ants marched out of the door at the top of 
 the hill, and went away to live in a new nest. 
 
 Busy workers went down under the ground to 
 make new rooms and roadways ; a double line of 
 nurses hurried along after them. Some of these 
 nurses carried in their jaws a small, white, legless 
 larval infant, while others carried the pupa cases ; 
 and it was not long before there was plenty of room 
 in the old nest that they had left behind. 
 
 Many new lines were formed as they went to and 
 fro, and each active little ant seemed to have its 
 own particular work to do. 
 
 In fact, they did just as all people do who are 
 
11$ 
 
 moving; some of them carried a load of valuables 
 to the new home, while others returned, empty- 
 handed for more. 
 
 MOVING DAY. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 " WE have left our good little cows behind us," 
 said the wise old ant. " Who will go after them ? " 
 Just at that moment there came 
 a large number of workers running 
 with all speed towards the new 
 home, each with a tiny green in- 
 
 A Plant Louse. . . .. . ^i 
 
 sect in its jaws. 1 nese green insects 
 are the ants' cows. 
 
 The ants had built their new quarters near the 
 roots of a tree ; there the fine, tender rootlets ran 
 down into their nests ; and here the workers 
 stopped, and let fall their light burdens. 
 
 Now these "good little cows " were nothing more 
 nor less than a family of small green plant lice. 
 
 These insects belong to the bug family ; 1 and al- 
 though they are such tiny things themselves, they 
 have some relations that are of large size, and that 
 make quite a noise in the world. 
 
 1 He-mip'te-ra : this w^rd means half wing; the upper wings of 
 these insects are thick at the base. 
 
Some of them do a great deal of harm, too, as 
 you will learn when you read the story about the 
 squash bug. 
 
 At a certain time of the year there are some 
 plant lice that have wings ; but these tiny " green 
 cows " have none. 
 
 Their bodies are small ; but they have very long 
 antennae, long, slender legs, and a beak that is 
 three-jointed. 
 
 With this strong, horny beak they are able to 
 suck the juice from every part of a plant, even from 
 the topmost leaf, to the very roots. And sometimes 
 they will cling to a twig or a root with their beaks, 
 and throw up their legs, as if they were having a real 
 frolic among themselves; and if they are touched 
 or disturbed in any way, they will resent it with a 
 speedy kick. 
 
 Now the juice that they suck from the plants 
 soon turns to honey within their small bodies ; but 
 they do not store it up, as the honeybees do. 
 
 At the end of their bodies there is a small opening 
 from which this sweet honeylike fluid is continually 
 dropping. 
 
 Ants are very fond of this sweet fluid, and when 
 it does not fall fast enough to please them, they will 
 pat the lice with their antennae and coax them to 
 give out more. This is their way of milking the cows. 
 
120 
 
 They take very good care of their cows too ; 
 they stroke them, and keep them clean, and will 
 not allow any harm to befall them. 
 
 They carry them down into their nests, and 
 place them near the sweet, juicy roots of the 
 plants, where they will be sure to have plenty to 
 eat. In fact, they look upon these plant lice as 
 their own property. 
 
 Is it any wonder, then, that the old ant was un- 
 easy because they were left behind ? 
 
 We often read in books of travel about different 
 kinds of ants that do very wonderful things. 
 
 Some of them wage war on their neighbors and 
 make prisoners of them ; they will even carry off 
 the larval babies of their weaker neighbors and 
 bring them up as slaves. 
 
 And there is another kind that builds large 
 mounds, and makes smooth pavements around 
 them. And there are still others, so very wise 
 that they know how to plant seeds and to harvest 
 their crops. 
 
 In Africa there is a kind called the driver ants, 
 and they are well named ; for they march in great 
 armies, and drive everything before them. 
 
 But we need not go to foreign countries in order 
 to study the knowing ways of these little insects ; 
 for we may find them here, all about us. We 
 
121 
 
 may look for them in trees, in decayed stumps, 
 and under stones ; while we can see their small 
 hillocks thrown up all along the wayside. 
 
 A gentleman who wanted to see these insects 
 at work in their underground homes, once visited 
 
 An Ant Nest, with Underground Passages. 
 
 an ant-hill, and carried with him a large pane of 
 glass. 
 
 He pressed a sharp edge of the pane down 
 through the center of the hill ; and then, with a 
 spade, he scraped away one half of the hill and 
 went away and left it tor a short time. 
 
122 
 
 
 The ants seemed to be greatly distressed at first ; 
 but after awhile they all gathered into that part of 
 the nest that was left unharmed, 
 
 Then the gentleman went close to the hill, and 
 looked through the glass. 
 
 There he saw roadways, halls, and rooms, both 
 large and small ; and through these, there were 
 hundreds of busy worker ants, running about in 
 all directions, each one performing its own task 
 in its own way. 
 
 Now why may not you and I surprise these 
 knowing little creatures on some moving day ? 
 And when they become quietly settled down in 
 their new quarters, we, too, can put a pane of 
 glass into the front door of their underground 
 home, and see for ourselves how they manage 
 their household affairs ; for it is always better to 
 use our own eyes, so far as we are able, than to 
 depend upon the stories that are told to us by 
 others. 
 
 GROWLER'S PRIZE. 
 
 Two large falcons lived in the top of a tall pine 
 tree. Their home was built in the fork of the tree, 
 and was securely made; but, to say the least, it was 
 a very rough and homely abode. 
 
123 
 
 It was built of coarse sticks and leaves, and was 
 lined with dry, loose bark. 
 
 Within the nest were five quite large eggs of 
 a dirty bluish color, blotched with brown. The 
 female bird guarded these eggs with so much care 
 that she would scarcely leave them, even for a few 
 moments at a time. 
 
 So her mate had to provide food for her, as well 
 as for himself, and it kept him constantly on the 
 wing; for the mistress of the house had an excel- 
 lent appetite, and she wanted the very best thing 
 that could be found in the market. 
 
 Mr. Falcon was a strong, fine-looking fellow, with 
 a bold, dashing air about him, upon which he really 
 seemed to pride himself. 
 
 In fact, it may as well be told first as last, 
 Mr. Falcon's common, everyday name was "chicken 
 hawk " ; and you have no doubt heard of him many 
 a time; for he was a fierce highway robber by 
 trade, and he understood his business well. 
 
 He was dressed in a thick, heavy suit of bluish 
 gray, with a dark head covering. He wore white 
 about his throat ; but his breast and his sides were 
 handsomely flecked with light, yellowish red. 
 
 His rounded tail was marked above, with four, 
 very dark, brown bands ; while the under part and 
 the tips of the tail feathers were white. 
 
clad in about 
 sharp, curved 
 they both went 
 
 His mate 
 was even 
 
 Chicken Hawks larger than 
 with their Prize, he, and was 
 
 the same attire, and oh, what 
 claws they had ! So when 
 proudly soaring through 
 forest and field, it is no wonder that the smaller 
 and weaker birds about them quaked with fear. 
 
 Mr. Falcon sat on a bough near the nest, dress- 
 ing his plumage with great care. At length, he 
 said to his mate, " I am going out, my dear ; what 
 would you like for your dinner?" 
 
 " I have been thinking," she replied, " that a nice 
 
125 
 
 chicken pie would not come amiss." And as she 
 spoke she snapped her curved, horny bill several 
 times, as if she could already taste the flavor of 
 the fine treat in store for her. 
 
 " I am getting very tired," she added, " of frogs 
 and squirrels and field mice, and as for a grass- 
 hopper or a cricket, I fairly loathe the sight of 
 one." 
 
 " Very well/' answered Mr. Falcon, with an assur- 
 ing tone, "very well; have what you like," and he 
 stretched his long, narrow wings, and was off in 
 a jiffy. 
 
 Now it so happened that a mother hen and her 
 brood of half-grown chickens were also ranging the 
 fields that day in search of a good dinner. 
 
 There had been a little shower the night before, 
 just enough to moisten the earth; and it had 
 brought to the surface of the ground many a fat 
 prize in the shape of a grub or a worm. 
 
 So there was a rich repast spread out for that hun- 
 gry family, and what was best of all, they did not 
 even have to scratch for it ! 
 
 Grasshoppers, crickets, angleworms, and grubs, 
 all on one bill of fare, that was a luxury indeed ! 
 
 Now who could expect the watchful mother hen 
 to turn away from such a feast as that, in order 
 to gaze upwards at the clouds. But it might have 
 
126 
 
 saved her a vast amount of trouble and of fright 
 if she had done so. 
 
 For see ! there is a dark form swooping down 
 with noiseless wings just above her head. Sud- 
 denly she becomes aware of the danger, and her 
 feathers are so ruffled that she looks twice her 
 natural size. 
 
 " Cluck ! cluck ! " she calls in her very sharpest 
 tones of command ; and her frightened family 
 understand, too well, that signal of alarm, for they 
 have heard it before. 
 
 Not less than three of their number have already 
 been seized and borne away by the terrible claws 
 that are now reaching down after another. 
 
 Hither and thither they run, in all directions, 
 not knowing, in their fright, which way to go ; 
 and there seems to be no means of escape for 
 them. 
 
 The terror-stricken mother clucks and calls, and 
 seeks for a hiding place, in vain. 
 
 Alas, has she discovered the danger too late ? 
 For now the fierce talons of the robber are about 
 to fasten upon another of her luckless brood. 
 
 " Bang! bang! " what a cloud of smoke ! But it 
 clears away, and there stands a hunter with a gun 
 in his hand. 
 
 But he did not bring down the bold robber, after 
 
127 
 
 all; for do you not hear that shrill screech of de- 
 fiance as he disappears from view ? 
 
 With all possible speed, the old hen and her 
 chickens hasten back to the barnyard, well content 
 to dine on the simplest fare, rather than to risk 
 their lives for the more choice tidbits of the field. 
 
 On the top of an old stump, in the middle of a 
 quiet stream, sits the falcon, perfectly composed, 
 with not so much as one feather of his fine plumage 
 out of place. 
 
 A mother duck and her young ones are moving 
 quietly about on the surface of the water, entirely 
 unconscious of danger. Their webbed feet are 
 made for swimming, and they enjoy it. All at 
 once the mother discovers her enemy, sitting there 
 so still, on the old stump. 
 
 She gives the alarm, dives to the bottom, and in 
 a twinkling, every little duckling disappears with 
 her. She swims away from her family, quite a 
 little distance, and then comes to the top, hoping 
 the falcon will make a dash at her, instead of at the 
 little ones. 
 
 But he is too wise a bird for that ; he has watched 
 these swimmers, many a time, and he understands 
 their ways. 
 
 He knows that the ducklings can not swim very 
 far under the water, and that they will soon come 
 
128 
 
 to the surface for air, very near the place where 
 they went down ; so he keeps his eye on the spot. 
 
 For he says to himself, " Since Mrs. Falcon has 
 been cheated out of her chicken pie, nothing less 
 than a nice plump duckling can fill its place." And 
 he patiently watches his chance. 
 
 Pretty soon up comes a small, downy head ; then 
 another, and another. 
 
 The mother duck tries, but all in vain, to attract 
 his attention to herself; for he suddenly leaves 
 his perch and sweeps down till he almost touches 
 the water with his wings. Then he stretches out 
 his long claws. But again is heard the " bang ! 
 bang ! " of a gun. 
 
 And when the smoke clears away this time, there 
 lies the wounded falcon, struggb'n^ to rise from the 
 water; but he finds himself helpless, with a broken 
 wing. 
 
 Just at this point comes a loud "quack, quack," 
 that sounds exactly like a mocking laugh, and the 
 old duck and her brood make swiftly for the shore. 
 
 " Here, Growler," calls the hunter, and with a 
 glad bound the dog springs into the stream and 
 brings his prize to land. 
 
 The hunter carries it home and carefully removes 
 the skin in order to prepare it for his cabinet, for 
 he is a collector of birds. 
 
I2 9 
 
 And there sits Mr. Falcon now, mounted on his 
 perch, with outstretched wings, and as I glance up 
 at him, he stares fiercely at me, with two immovable 
 glass eyes. 
 
 As for his body, that was thrown to the dogs; 
 and when Growler seized upon his share of it, 
 there was a low, husky chuckle in his voice as 
 he said to himself, " Ah, this is a chicken pie worth 
 having." 
 
 A Groundbird's Nest. 
 
 THE REAL CULPRIT. 
 
 IN a low, grassy meadow, one morning I found 
 
 Such a soft, little, snug, mossy nest; 
 And within it, four eggs of the shade of the 
 ground, 
 
 Ah, but wait till I tell you the rest. 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 9 
 
130 
 
 First, a nimble red squirrel ran down from a tree, 
 
 But he did not peep in at the nest ; 
 He just cracked a few nuts and winked slyly at 
 me, 
 
 Ah, but wait till I tell you the rest. 
 
 Next, a shining, green snake crept so near, that 
 
 alas, 
 
 I had fears for that snug little nest ; 
 But he glided away through the tall meadow 
 
 grass, 
 And, but wait till I tell you the rest ! 
 
 Then I heard the soft tread of a shy meadow 
 
 mouse, 
 
 But she swiftly sped on, past the nest, 
 In her search of sweet nuts for her winter store- 
 house, 
 And, but wait till I tell you the rest. 
 
 For at last, a young truant from school passed that 
 way, 
 
 And his quick eye discovered the nest; 
 And now a poor mother bird cries all the day, 
 
 Shall I leave her to tell you the rest ? 
 
HISTORY OF A BUG. 
 
 Do you know the difference between a bug and 
 a beetle? Some people do not; and they call every 
 insect that chances to come in their way a bug. 
 
 Now a bug has a slender, horny beak that is 
 made for sucking fluids; sometimes it is used for 
 sucking up the juice of a plant, and sometimes for 
 drawing out the blood of an animal. 
 
 Bugs are very troublesome creatures ; and most 
 of them give out a bad odor. All the lice that are 
 found, either upon animals or upon plants, belong 
 to the bug family. 
 
 There are a few kinds of bugs that have no wings 
 at all ; but the greater part of them have two wing 
 covers; and underneath these are two very thin 
 wings that are used in flying. 
 
 The hind part of each wing cover is quite thin 
 and clear ; while the fore part is so thick that the 
 light can not shine through it. 
 
 The larval babies that hatch from the eggs of a 
 bug are very much like the full-grown insects, 
 excepting that their small wing pads look like little 
 scales upon the top of their backs ; but they eat and 
 grow, and cast off their skins from time to time, 
 till they soon become as large as their parents, 
 
132 
 
 Here is a bug that I found upon the leaf of a 
 squash vine in the garden. The leaf was wrinkled 
 and withered ; and when I looked at it closely, I 
 discovered that it was full of fine holes. 
 What was the cause of it ? 
 
 Ah, Mr. Squash Bug could answer that question, 
 if he could only speak through that sharp, horny, 
 sucking tube that now lies bent 
 backward beneath his breast. 
 
 It is well that I caught him this 
 bright autumn day, for to-morrow 
 he might have hidden himself away 
 in a wall or fence, and there he 
 would have taken a long winter 
 nap. 
 
 Let us look at him. His body 
 is rather more than half an inch in 
 length, of a rusty, black color above, and of a dirty, 
 yellow shade beneath. 
 
 Surely, he has no good reason for being proud of 
 his coat, and what an odor ! 
 
 On each side of the head there is a large com- 
 pound eye, and on the back part of his head there 
 are two small, single eyes that shine like glass. His 
 two-jointed antennae are quite long, as you can see, 
 and there is a knob at the end of each of them. 
 Now look at his wing covers. They are placed 
 
 7he Squash Bug. 
 
'33 
 
 crosswise upon his back, so as to overlap each other 
 at the tips ; and the soft, thin wings that lie under- 
 neath them are placed crosswise in the same way. 
 
 Do they not remind you of the flaps of an enve- 
 lope ? I think they look something like the under 
 side of an envelope after it is sealed. 
 
 This bug has six legs, with a sharp claw at the 
 end of each ; and if you handle him roughly, you 
 will soon find that he can give you a good nip with 
 those claws ; but you need have no fear, it can not 
 harm you. 
 
 The upper part of the abdomen is black, and has 
 a soft, velvety look; and see, it is marked quite 
 prettily along each side with dots of yellow. 
 
 And now let us find out how this insect happened 
 to be feasting upon the leaves of the squash vine in 
 our garden. 
 
 Here is its family history: Quite late in the 
 season, last fall, a number of the squash bug family 
 left the vines, and hid themselves away in a safe 
 place, where they seemed to go to sleep ; and there 
 they stayed, without any food to eat, all winter. 
 
 But when spring returned, and the vines put 
 forth their tender leaves again, these bugs came 
 out of their hiding places and began to feast upon 
 the leaves. 
 
 Their appetites were very keen, as you may sup- 
 
 R 
 
 THK 
 
'34 
 
 pose, and they greedily sucked the juice of every 
 leaf as they went along. 
 
 After they had feasted about a month, the mother 
 squash bugs began to lay their eggs. These little 
 eggs were round in shape, and quite flat ; and they 
 were laid in patches, here and there, upon the under 
 side of the leaves, at night. 
 
 In order to make them secure, these careful moth- 
 ers glued them fast, with a gummy fluid from their 
 own bodies. It was not many days before the 
 young bugs were hatched out, and what homely 
 little things they were ! 
 
 They had short, round bodies that were of a pale- 
 ash color; and the joints of their large antennae 
 were quite flat. 
 
 They ate and ate, and grew very fast ; and after 
 casting off their skins a few times, they became as 
 large as their parents. 
 
 For a few days, they lived together in little 
 families; but they soon left the leaves on which 
 they were hatched, and went from vine to vine, in 
 search of more juicy food, while all the leaves 
 that they left behind them became withered and 
 brown. 
 
 Now, as you can well understand, these insects 
 are among the most harmful of all the bug family ; 
 but since we have learned so much concerning their 
 
135 
 
 habits, there is no good reason why we should not 
 get rid of them. 
 
 If we are careful to watch our vines as soon 
 as the young leaves put forth, we shall find the 
 bugs before they have begun their feast ; and if 
 we closely examine the under parts of the leaves 
 every morning, we shall find the bunches of eggs 
 that the mother squash bugs so carefully glued to 
 them the night before ; and in this way, it will not 
 take us very long to clear our vines of these unwel- 
 come visitors. 
 
 HISTORY OF A BEETLE. 
 
 Now that we have taken a look at a bug, let us 
 also take a look at a beetle ; then we shall know 
 whether bugs and beetles are as nearly alike as 
 many people suppose them to be. 
 
 Here we have a " May bug," as it is generally 
 called ; but if we examine it, we shall find that it 
 is not a bug at all. 
 
 This insect is nearly an inch in length. 
 
 It has no sucking beak, for it needs none ; it has 
 two sets of strong, horny jaws, instead. These jaws 
 are for cutting and biting the roots, stems, and 
 leaves of plants ; for there are only a few beetles 
 
136 
 
 that live upon animal food, and such beetles usually 
 prey upon other insects. 
 
 Look at it closely, and you will see that its jaws 
 are made to move sidewise, and not up and down, 
 like your own. 
 
 Its body is oval in form, and of a chestnut-brown 
 color; but all beetles do not have this oval form. 
 Some kinds of beetles have the body quite flat, and 
 some of them have very beautiful col- 
 ors, as well. 
 
 Its stiff, hard, wing covers meet in 
 a straight line upon its back ; they 
 do not lap over at the tips, like the 
 wing covers of a bug. 
 
 Do you see that little wedge, where 
 
 The Beetle. . . . . . . ,. 
 
 they are joined together at the base ? 
 It looks like a small gore set in there to hold the 
 wings in place. 
 
 You can easily see that these wing cases are well 
 sprinkled over with little dots, as if they had been 
 pricked, here and there, with a fine needle ; and 
 there are three rough lines, running the whole 
 length of each cover. 
 
 Underneath these wing covers are two, thin, 
 silky wings, folded crosswise, and what a pretty 
 shade of brown ! 
 
 When these light wings are spread, then away 
 
137 
 
 goes the beetle, darting about here and there in the 
 twilight, and making a loud, buzzing sound with 
 its wings, that is not at all pleasant to hear. 
 
 Have you noticed its pretty vest? See, it is 
 clothed with a yellowish down. 
 
 Well, well, so our noisy May beetle comes out in 
 quite a fine spring suit, after all ! 
 
 Its antennae are many-jointed, and there is a 
 knob at the end of each one of them ; and you can 
 plainly see that each knob is made up of three 
 leaflike joints, as well. 
 
 Notice its two large, compound eyes. On the 
 back of its head there are two simple eyes; but 
 these are so small that you will have to look closely 
 to find them. 
 
 Now look at its six long legs; they are well 
 clothed with hairs, and each leg has a strong, 
 double claw at the end of it. 
 
 When beetles of this kind light upon a tree, they 
 cling to the leaves with their sharp claws. They 
 belong to a class known as the tree beetles ; and it 
 does not take a swarm of them very long to strip 
 both the twigs and the branches of trees entirely 
 bare of their foliage. 
 
 Did you notice three, jagged, toothlike points on 
 the fore legs of this insect? Let me tell you what 
 they are used for. 
 
138 
 
 The mother beetle makes a hole in the earth, 
 and sometimes this hole is six inches in depth ; and 
 she uses her strong, jagged fore legs for digging. 
 
 In this hole she places her eggs, and very often 
 there are as many as fifty or more of them ; then 
 she flies away and leaves them, for she knows they 
 will be safe. 
 
 Soon after the eggs are laid, both the father and 
 mother beetle die ; they do not hide away and sleep 
 through the winter as some other in- 
 sects do. 
 
 Now let us see what becomes of the 
 eggs that the mother beetle has placed 
 Larva of the in the ground with so much care. In 
 about fourteen days, there comes forth 
 from each egg a little, soft grub, having a round, 
 white body and a small, brown head ; and when 
 this grub is at rest, it lies curled up, in the form 
 of a half circle. 
 
 These larval babies are provided with six legs, 
 and with a mouth that is armed with strong jaws, 
 and oh, how greedy they are for something to eat ! 
 
 During the warm, summer months they remain 
 very near the surface of the ground, and gnaw the 
 roots of every green thing that they can find ; but 
 as cold weather comes on, they go down deeper 
 into the earth. 
 
139 
 
 There they remain till the warm springtime re- 
 turns ; then they cast off their skins, and come up 
 to the surface of the ground again for food. 
 
 These hungry creatures spend as many as three 
 summers under the soil, in this way, before they 
 have eaten all they want. 
 
 And then they go down still farther into the 
 earth, as if they could not bury themselves deep 
 enough ; and there they enter the pupa state. 
 
 And when the springtime again rolls round, they 
 creep up, for the last time, from the cold, damp 
 earth ; and casting aside their pupa skins, they come 
 forth, active, brown-winged, buzzing May beetles, 
 like their parents before them. 
 
 Many of these insects are often seen flying about 
 in the month of June ; and then they are commonly 
 called " June bugs." 
 
 But they all belong to the same family, and every 
 one of them is a destroyer of plant life. 
 
 DR. LEECH. 
 
 ONE half holiday, three school boys went to a 
 small pond to catch some fish. 
 
 After they had fished awhile without getting 
 so much as one nibble at the hook, they threw 
 
146 
 
 Sucking Plate 
 of Leech. 
 
 off their clothing and plunged into the water for 
 a bath. 
 
 Finally one of the lads swam out to an old 
 stump that stood near the middle of the pond 
 and climbed up on the top. 
 
 He had not been there very 
 long, when his back, arms, and 
 legs began to tingle, as if he 
 had been stung by some small 
 insect ; and he soon found that 
 his body was covered in places 
 with tiny little things that 
 looked like flat worms. 
 
 He was terror-stricken, and 
 so were his mates, and they 
 all ran towards home as fast 
 as their legs would carry them. 
 -Now the fact is, this old 
 stump was the headquarters of 
 
 Dr. Leech and his large family of young ones ; and a 
 more bloodthirsty set of creatures was never known. 
 Indeed, they are often called bloodsuckers, and 
 that is a good name for them. 
 
 The leech is an ugly, thick-skinned worm, having 
 a very flat body that tapers at each end. Its color 
 is generally dark, thickly mottled with light-brown 
 dots. 
 
 Jaw of Leech. 
 
 The Leech. 
 
This creature has a sucking plate at each end oi 
 its body; and when it fastens itself upon the skin 
 of any other animal, it is very hard to make it 
 loosen its hold. 
 
 Its mouth is in the center of the forward plate, 
 and is armed with three small teeth that are 
 notched like the sharp edge of a saw. 
 
 So when the sucking plate has stretched the skin 
 smooth and tight, the fine, sawlike teeth press down 
 hard upon it, 
 until three deep 
 cuts are made, 
 in the form of 
 a triangle. 1 
 
 Then the 
 leech draws the 
 blood into its 
 
 stomach, and holds right on, till it has filled it- 
 self full. It is said that one of these creatures can 
 eat enough at one meal to last a year. 
 
 With such a savage animal as that in the pond, 
 it is no wonder that the lads caught no fish ; for 
 these hungry worms fairly drain both the frogs and 
 the fishes of their very lifeblood ; and when they 
 can not find anything better, they will devour one 
 another. 
 
 1 A figure bounded by three lines and having three angles. 
 
 Cocoons of the Leech. 
 
I 4 2 
 
 This leech worm lays about a dozen eggs in a 
 gluey band that encircles the upper half of its body. 
 
 When all the eggs are laid, the worm withdraws 
 itself from the band, which then closes up, forming 
 a strong sac. This sac is the cocoon ; it is oval in 
 shape, about a quarter of an inch in length, and 
 contains from six to sixteen eggs. 
 
 The egg cases of the leech may of f en be found 
 in mud banks, and also in old Jogs and stumps that 
 are in the water. 
 
 The baby bloodsuckers stay in their slimy cradles 
 nearly a month ; and then they begin to push hard, 
 with their heads, against the walls of their cocoons, 
 till some weak point gives way, and lets them out. 
 
 They are very thin little things at first, not a 
 tenth of an inch in length, and no thicker than a 
 fine thread. But they know well how to use their 
 teeth, as the poor lad that visited the old stump 
 that day could testify. 
 
 In winter, they are not seen ; for they bury them- 
 selves under water, deep in the mud, till spring re- 
 turns ; then they come up more bloodthirsty than 
 ever. 
 
 But we must give these ugly worms the credit of 
 doing some good in the world ; for they were for- 
 merly much used to draw out the impure blood of 
 people who were sick, 
 
A DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 WHAT a noisy din and bustle there is in the 
 domain of the queen honeybee to-day ! I wonder 
 what it all means. We will wait a little while and 
 maybe we shall be able to learn more about it. 
 
 Ah, now I understand it; the bees are getting 
 ready to swarm. Let me explain. 
 
 When honeybees swarm, a large number of them 
 fly away from the hive, and the queen bee goes 
 with them. 
 
 Now this queen and her subjects have a nice, 
 large hive under that old apple tree in the garden ; 
 and one would suppose that they might all dwell 
 together there in peace and harmony. But not so ; 
 for this morning there came a thin, piping sound 
 from one of the cells, and there is just where the 
 trouble began. 
 
144 
 
 The moment the queen bee heard the sound, she 
 said, " Ha, that is the voice of a young queen, I 
 know it well, and I will not stay in this 
 hive any longer ; for one queen in a 
 hive is enough." 
 
 As she spoke, she darted a sharp 
 piercer out of the end of her body, two 
 or three times. 
 
 Now, strange to say, a queen bee will 
 sting another queen to death, through 
 jealousy and spite; but she never puts 
 A Bee's sting. f ort h h er s ti n g to harm anything else. 
 
 Do you want to know how the queen bee looks ? 
 Like all insects, her body is made up of rings ; her 
 abdomen is long and slender and her wings are short. 
 
 Besides her two, great, compound eyes, she has 
 three single eyes, and a long, slen- 
 der tongue for lapping up sweets. 
 But she never stores up the 
 sweets that she gathers ; for she 
 does no work. She is mistress of 
 the hive, and she lays all the eggs. 
 
 She is a born queen ; for when 
 she was an infant she lived on 
 better fare than the other larval 
 babies in the swarm. Is she to be blamed, then, 
 that she will not divide her realm with another ? 
 
 Head of a Bee, show- 
 ing Compound Eyes, 
 Simple Eyes, and 
 Antennae. 
 
145 
 
 Ah, she will forsake the hive before she will do 
 that; and when she goes away, more than half of 
 her subjects will follow her. But what if she 
 should die ? 
 
 If there were more royal babies in the cells, a 
 young queen would take her place. But should 
 there chance to be none, then the bees would take 
 a common larva and feed it with royal fare, and it 
 would grow up to be a queen ; for a household of 
 
 Queen. Drone. Worker. 
 
 this kind can not exist without a queen to lay 
 its eggs. 
 
 The rich, sweet food that is fed to the queen 
 larvae is called " royal jelly." 
 
 " Come, come," says a busy little wax worker, " we 
 must make all the haste that we can, for there will 
 be plenty of new comb to build up." 
 
 She has her wax baskets already filled ; they are 
 on the under part of her abdomen. 
 
 Every time she eats a morsel of food, a portion 
 of it is changed into oil ; this oil soon hardens and 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 10 
 
146 
 
 forms thin scales of wax upon the rings of her 
 abdomen and on the under side of her body. 
 
 These rings are her wax baskets. 
 
 How strange that the oil upon the inside of her 
 body should find its way to the outside and harden 
 into wax! 
 
 But it is still more strange that after she has 
 changed other portions of her food into clear, sweet 
 honey, she should be able to draw it up from her 
 stomach, back into her mouth again, so as to store 
 it away in the white cups of the comb. 
 
 Now when the baskets of the little wax maker 
 are full, what does she do? 
 
 On her hind legs there is a small, hairy brush or 
 scraper, and with this she scrapes the wax from her 
 baskets and passes it forward to her jaws with her 
 fore feet. 
 
 Then she chews it, and makes it very soft, and 
 when she draws it through her mouth, it comes out 
 like a white satin ribbon; then it is all ready to be 
 worked into honeycomb. 
 
 If you examine a piece of the comb, you will see 
 that it is made up of a double row of cells, placed 
 back to back, in such a way that it forms quite a 
 thick middle wall of wax between the two rows. 
 
 This wall is the base of the cells ; and here the 
 little bee first begins to work with the fine strip of 
 
147 
 
 Honeycomb, 
 showing dif- 
 ferent cells. 
 
 white, ribbon- 
 like wax that she 
 has chewed and softened 
 so carefully in her small 
 jaws. 
 
 The cells are quite deep, and are 
 six-sided in form ; they are set very 
 closely together, and they look some- 
 thing like long, waxen boxes laid 
 down upon their sides. 
 
 Do you suppose that you could 
 ever learn to make a set of boxes like 
 that ? And yet, the little brown bee 
 makes them very easily with her 
 sharp jaws, without any one to teach 
 her how. 
 
 In every hive there are more busy 
 little wax makers than you can count. 
 Their bodies are not so large as those 
 of the queen; but their wings are 
 larger and stronger than hers. 
 
148 
 
 And they need just such strong wings as they 
 have ; for they must fly, far and wide, in search of 
 sweets to make their clear honey, and to furnish 
 wax for the comb. 
 
 These busy little creatures are well named the 
 " workers " in the hive, since they both make the 
 cells and fill them with honey for their winter store. 
 
 But the cells are not all of the same size ; neither 
 are they all used for the same purpose. 
 
 Some of them are made for holding honey; others 
 are for the queen bee to lay her eggs in ; and 
 others, still, are for storing a kind of food called 
 beebread. 
 
 This beebread is a sticky mass that the bees 
 make of a fine dust, called pollen, which they gather 
 from flowers ; the bread is of a dark-brown color, 
 and is not sweet to the taste. 
 
 The queen bee lays her eggs in three separate 
 sets of cells, placing one egg in each cell. 
 
 She first lays some eggs in the small cells that 
 are used for hatching out workers ; then she lays 
 some more eggs in a set of larger cells that are 
 built for hatching out thick, stout-bodied bees called 
 " drones." 
 
 These drones have no stings, and they do not 
 gather honey. They are the father bees in the hive; 
 while the queen bee is the mother. 
 
149 
 
 Finally she lays a few eggs in some large, flask- 
 shaped cells that are built on the edge of the comb. 
 When the comb becomes old, these cells are dark- 
 colored, and they look like large peanuts hanging 
 there. 
 
 These are queen cells, and there are not very 
 many of them ; but all of the other cells are smaller 
 than these, and are made six-sided, as I have told 
 you. 
 
 A DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 So the little wax worker was right. There will 
 be a good deal of new comb to be made ; but she 
 will have thousands of helpers all around her. 
 
 And there will be thou- 
 sands of others, carrying 
 baskets of pollen for bee- 
 bread, on which the lar- 
 val babies are reared. 
 
 -^ . . r Leg of Worker. 
 
 Between the joints of 
 
 each hind leg there is a small space, hidden by 
 short, stiff hairs ; and these are the little baskets 
 that hold the pollen. 
 
 When a busy worker comes out of a deep flower, 
 she looks like a dusty miller, only the dust that 
 
clings to her body is often quite yellow; but she 
 has a little tuft of hairs on one of her legs, and 
 with this she brushes the pollen from her body and 
 stores it in her baskets, where it belongs. 
 
 Oh, she starts out for her day's work well pre- 
 pared, as you can see, and she never loses her 
 baskets on the way, either. 
 
 Now in every hive or colony of bees there are 
 more worker cells than any other kind. For it is 
 the busy workers that make up the col- 
 ony; and among these there are a great 
 many that act as nurses in the hive ; 
 and it is these nurse bees that take 
 charge of the larval babies, and feed 
 them when they are hungry. 
 
 As these baby bees lie curled up in 
 their cells, they look like little white 
 
 Larva of Bee. / ... 
 
 worms ; and when they are in need of 
 food the nurses chew some beebread very fine and 
 soft, and feed it to them from their own jaws. 
 
 But when they have eaten all they want, they no 
 longer lie curled up in the cell; so when the. nurses 
 see that these larval babies have straightened out 
 their small bodies, they put a thin cap of wax over 
 each cell, and then each baby spins a silken cocoon 
 about itself, and goes to sleep, in its pretty waxen 
 cradle. 
 
It takes about twenty-one days for a worker bee 
 to hatch from the egg; and then it casts aside its_ 
 silken wrap, gnaws open the waxen cover, and 
 comes out with four thin wings. 
 
 It takes only sixteen days for the young queens 
 to hatch out ; but the drone bees are about twenty- 
 four days in hatching. 
 
 Sometimes the worker babies have to struggle 
 very hard to come forth ; but the nurse bees always 
 help the royal infants out. 
 
 When a young bee first comes out of its cell, 
 both its body and its wings are of a very pale- 
 brown shade, and it seems to be rather weak in 
 its legs ; but it begins at once to creep about over 
 the comb, and when it comes to a cell that con- 
 tains honey, it stops and takes its first meal of the 
 sweet food. 
 
 Many of the honey cells are left open a week or 
 more after they are filled ; for the bees will not cap 
 them over with wax until they know that the honey 
 in them is " ripe," or ready to be sealed up. So it 
 is always easy for the young bee to find an open 
 cell where it can eat all it wants. 
 
 But it does not feed upon the stored honey very 
 long; for in a day or two it has the full use of its 
 wings, and then away it goes to gather sweets from 
 the flowers, just like the older bees. 
 
I 5 2 
 
 And it is well that it begins its work at once; 
 for the length of a worker's life is but a few 
 months at most, and some of them live only a few 
 weeks. . But a queen bee has been known to live 
 four or five years. 
 
 As for the drones, the greater number of them 
 are driven out of the hive by the workers ; and 
 as they can not gather honey, they are left to 
 starve ; and if they attempt to return to the hive, 
 the workers often fall upon them, and sting them 
 to death. 
 
 Do you not pity these poor father bees ? I do. 
 But the busy workers are very eager to store up 
 a good supply of honey for their winter use ; and 
 they will not share this precious store with the 
 drones. 
 
 A great many bees in the hive die during the 
 winter; but the queen bee begins to lay her eggs 
 very early in the spring, and these eggs hatch out 
 so fast that the number in the hive is soon as large 
 as ever. 
 
 She wanders about over the comb in search of 
 cells that the workers have prepared for her eggs; 
 for she does not lay eggs in every empty cell that 
 comes in her way. 
 
 She knows at once which are the egg cells, and 
 when she comes to one of them, she lowers the tip 
 
153 
 
 of her abdomen into it, and drops an egg; and 
 she goes from cell to cell, laying about three thou- 
 sand eggs a day. 
 
 And so the hive is always full ; for a large num- 
 ber of young bees come out of the cells every day 
 during the hatching season, which lasts through the 
 warm summer months. 
 
 But as soon as a young queen is hatched out, the 
 old queen leaves the hive, and a large number of 
 subjects follow her, 
 as we find them doing < 
 now ; and should a 
 number of young 
 queens be hatched 
 out at the same time, 
 only one would be 
 permitted to remain 
 with the colony. 
 
 The others would be taken out, and put into 
 other hives that had lost their queen, or into a 
 newly-formed colony made from a swarm that was 
 too large for one hive. 
 
 For new swarms may be hived very easily, if they 
 can have a queen among them to lay the eggs. 
 
 But we have already learned that one queen is 
 enough ; and if the new queens are not removed 
 as soon as they come out of their cells, the ruling 
 
 A Bee Hive. 
 
154 
 
 queen will seek them out, and sting them to death. 
 And on this account, the owner of a beehive keeps 
 a very close watch over the royal cells, in the hatch- 
 ing season, and examines them every few hours of 
 the day. 
 
 But see ! our queen has gathered her subjects 
 around her in a black, buzzing mass, on the limb 
 of an old apple tree. 
 
 They are planning now which way they will go. 
 And perhaps they will fly away to the woods, and 
 make their home in a hollow tree or stump ; then 
 they will become " wild bees." 
 
 So we will spread a white cloth under the apple 
 trees. Bees have a very keen sense of sight, and 
 they will notice the cloth at once ; then we will 
 put some honeycomb in an empty hive, and set 
 the hive down on two small blocks upon the white 
 cloth. 
 
 This will give the bees a chance to go in at the 
 bottom of the box; they will be glad enough to 
 move into a new house where there is some nice 
 honeycomb to begin with. 
 
 But if they are too long about it, we will saw off 
 the limb on which they rest, and let it go to the 
 ground, very gently ; then they can peep in at the 
 open door of the new hive. 
 
 But these insects have such a strong sense of 
 
155 
 
 smell that they do not need to see the honeycomb, 
 for they can smell it afar off. 
 
 So the old queen and the new one will be 
 neighbors, after all ; but each one will control her 
 own household, and there will be no more cause 
 for war. 
 
 BORN IN A DITCH. 
 
 Do you see that elegant dragon fly winging her 
 way through the air? How she loves the light of 
 the sun ! 
 
 Her head is very large, and she has two enor- 
 mous compound eyes, as 
 you can plainly see. 
 
 But she does not move 
 them ; for insects are not 
 able to roll their eyes about 
 as you do. 
 
 TT . .- . . The Dragon Fly. 
 
 Her beautiful wings are 
 
 so finely veined that they look as if they were made 
 of clear, thin gauze ; while all four of them are 
 barred across the center with a rich, golden brown. 
 
 Now she stops and lights on the top of a tall reed 
 that grows by the border of the ditch. 
 
 See, she pushes the end of her body down into 
 the water, and glues a bunch of little, yellow eggs to 
 
1 5 6 
 
 the root of the reed. Now her work is done, and 
 away she flies. 
 
 A few weeks later, these eggs will hatch out. 
 What will her infants be like ? They will not look 
 like her, I can assure you ; for the larval babies of 
 the dragon fly are ugly things to behold. 
 
 It is true, each baby has a very large head, two 
 
 large compound eyes, and 
 a pair of single eyes, be- 
 sides ; but it has six, 
 sprawling, spiderlike legs, 
 and no wings at all. 
 
 Moreover, the lower 
 part of the face is covered 
 with a mask; under this 
 mask is hidden a fierce 
 pair of jaws that resemble 
 two sharp hooks. 
 
 These greedy creatures 
 creep about the pond or the ditch in which they 
 live, and feed upon other larval babies. 
 
 They look so innocent and so harmless under 
 this mask, that their poor victims seem to have no 
 fear of them whatever. 
 
 But woe betide the young tadpole, or the tiny 
 baby fish that crosses their path ; for it will be 
 snatched up in an instant. 
 
 Larva and Eggs of the Dragon 
 Fly. 
 
157 
 
 So they eat and eat, and become so stout that 
 they have to shed their coats many times. 
 
 At last, some small wing pads appear; then the 
 larvae change to the pupal form ; and after a time, 
 they crawl up to the top of a reed, or of a stem, and 
 burst open the pupa skin. 
 
 Then they are all ready for a life in the sunshine 
 and in the open air ; and, oh, how swiftly and grace- 
 fully they go sailing about on their rainbow-tinted 
 wings ! J" 
 
 The dragon fly has some cousins whose small 
 wings are still more beautiful than her own. These 
 insects belong to the same great family. 1 
 
 They are called lacewings ; but they give out 
 such a disagreeable odor, when disturbed, that no 
 one cares to go very near them. They are not fond 
 of the sunshine ; they like better to dart about in 
 the twilight or even in the light of the moon. 
 
 The dragon fly is sometimes called the devil's 
 darning needle ; and some foolish people are really 
 afraid of her, lest she may " sew up " their ears. 
 
 But you need not fear to take her in your hand. 
 She has no sting at the end of her body ; and if she 
 should chance to give you a sharp nip with her 
 jaws, it would not harm you in the least. 
 
 It will be only a quick, little pinch, that you will 
 
 1 Neu-rop'te-ra, nerve wing. 
 
I 5 8 
 
 hardly feel at all ; but you must handle her very 
 carefully, or she may bite off the end of her own 
 body in trying to escape. 
 
 It is generally better to place such an insect as 
 this under a glass dish, and look at it carefully from 
 the outside. Then no harm can come to it; for 
 you may regard it as your friend ; and when you 
 see it flying about in the hot sunshine, you may 
 know that it is in search of other insects that de- 
 stroy your plants and flowers. 
 
 Therefore we will all look upon this handsome 
 creature with a feeling of real friendship, even if 
 she was born in the bottom of a slimy ditch. 
 
 "I TOLD YOU SO." 
 
 A PAIR of handsome bluebirds were hopping 
 briskly about, side by side, along the furrows of a 
 newly plowed garden. 
 
 They had been so busily engaged in picking up 
 choice tidbits from the freshly turned soil that 
 neither of them had spoken a word for several 
 minutes. 
 
 Both of these birds were showily clad in bright, 
 azure blue, and both of them wore white on the 
 under parts. 
 
159 
 
 But the glossy plumage of the male was a trifle 
 darker than that of his mate; and the reddish- 
 brown tint of his fore neck and sides was a little 
 brighter than hers ; the feet, as well as the bills of 
 both birds, were black. 
 
 At last Mrs. Bluebird broke the silence. 
 
 "I can not see," said she, "why you object to 
 
 Bluebirds. 
 
 making the nest in that old, hollow stump; for I 
 am sure it is as cozy a place as we can find." 
 
 Mr. Bluebird swallowed several fat, wriggling lar- 
 vae, before he made any reply. 
 
 Then he cleared his throat a little and said, " But, 
 my dear, have you forgotten the jays and the crows 
 that we saw in that neighborhood yesterday? 
 
 "Then, too, there are the rats and weasels that 
 are prowling about there all the time. No, I am in 
 
i6o 
 
 favor of taking possession of that fine martin box 
 under the bough yonder; it is roomy and safe, and 
 think of the time that will be saved in building 
 the nest." 
 
 "Yes, and be driven out of it by the English 
 sparrows as soon as it is made," answered Mis- 
 tress Bluebird, in a short, querulous tone. 
 
 " I never can be happy a moment in that martin 
 box," she continued; "and if I have to go over there 
 against my will, I am quite sure that not one of my 
 eggs will ever hatch out." 
 
 There was a little more sharp discussion between 
 them, and then both birds rose from the ground 
 
 and flew directly toward 
 the old, mossy stump. 
 
 The mistress of the 
 household had gained 
 the day, and the work 
 of building soon began. 
 The nest was not 
 very tastefully built ; 
 but it was lined with 
 some soft grass, a few feathers, and a bit of wool, 
 and was quite comfortable. 
 
 Not long afterwards, there were five light-blue 
 eggs laid within it, and everything seemed to go 
 well. 
 
 Bluebirds' Nest. 
 
But before the mistress settled down to steady 
 domestic care, the happy couple must needs go 
 forth together for a little outing ; so away they sped 
 to their old luncheon quarters in the garden. 
 
 But who is this that comes peeping into their 
 door while they are away ? Is it some ill-bred 
 country cousin ? 
 
 He is clothed in blue; but his body is nearly 
 twice the length of the bluebird, and is of a light, 
 purplish shade, while his wings are of a still 
 deeper tint, barred with black lines, and tipped, 
 here and there, with white. 
 
 He wears a jaunty tufted cap on his head, a 
 patch of white down at the throat, and a narrow 
 black collar that is quite high in the neck behind. 
 
 The twelve feathers of his rounded tail are 
 barred with black lines, and tipped at the ends 
 with white. 
 
 He is very handsomely dressed, but what 
 manners ! 
 
 For, without waiting for an invitation, he flies 
 straight in at the door! And what can he be 
 doing there so long, with no one to entertain 
 him ? 
 
 Now he comes out, lights on the top of the stump, 
 and utters a shrill cry, "jay- jay- jay," as much as 
 to say, " Yes, that is my name. I am the thief that 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 1 1 
 
162 
 
 sucked those little blue eggs, and left nothing but 
 empty shells behind ! " and away he goes to break 
 up some other home. 
 
 By and by, the owners of the nest return. The 
 mother bird enters the house at once, while her 
 
 mate alights on the 
 stump, and warbles a 
 low, soft tune. 
 
 But what is all this 
 bustle about ? Mis- 
 tress Bluebird flies 
 swiftly out at the 
 door, and in an agi- 
 tated tone calls her 
 mate to "just come 
 and look here ! " 
 
 Then she goes back, 
 and he darts in after 
 her, and then they both come out again, and cast 
 quick, searching looks all around them ; and pretty 
 soon they return to the nest, to make themselves 
 sure that there is no mistake about it. 
 
 But it is too sadly true. Some winged robber has 
 stolen into their quiet home and left nothing be- 
 hind him but empty shells. It is hard to believe 
 it, but there is no chance for doubt ; so they must 
 seek new quarters and begin all over again. 
 
 The Blue Jay. 
 
Now they fly to the open door of the martin 
 house, and this time Mistress Bluebird raises no 
 objections ; for she is so mute with grief and 
 disappointment that she is willing to go any- 
 where. 
 
 They soon build another cozy nest, and again 
 five light-blue eggs are laid within it; and the 
 little housekeeper at once settles down to her 
 duties. 
 
 Her mate goes forth on glad wings and brings 
 her all the rare morsels that he can find, and gives 
 her, now and then, a kiss in the bargain. 
 
 Finally there comes a faint "peep, peep" from 
 fiv* tiny bills, and then who can be happier than 
 the joint owners of that household ? 
 
 Mistress Bluebird seems to have almost entirely 
 forgotten her sorrow ; and as for the master of the 
 house, he warbles a song so full of melody that it 
 does seem as if he must have a real Swiss music 
 box hidden away under his glossy breast. 
 
 His wife responds with a low, happy chirrup, and 
 says, " How glad I am that we chose this martin 
 box; it is just the place for us, so roomy and so 
 safe, withal." 
 
 And he tries to keep down a sly, liquid chuckle, 
 as he replies, " I told you so, my dear; I told you 
 so!" 
 
164 
 
 ALWAYS AT HOME. 
 
 ONE morning, a noisy drone honeybee was buzz- 
 ing about among some sweet clover blossoms, when 
 
 all at once he came upon 
 a slow-plodding snail. 
 
 " You poor thing," said 
 he; "how I do pity you!" 
 " Pray why do you pity 
 me ? " answered the snail, 
 " I have no need of your 
 pity." 
 
 " Because I never see you 
 without that heavy burden 
 on your shoulders; and I am 
 sure it must take you at least 
 a whole week to get across 
 this small patch of clover, 
 while I go over and over it 
 many times a day. 
 
 " Just look at my four 
 light wings now ! Is it any 
 wonder that I know all about this field of clover ? " 
 
 At this the snail stretched out two long horns. 
 In the end of each horn was an eye ; and she 
 wanted to see for herself the drone's gauzy wings. 
 
 The Honeybee. 
 
i6 5 
 
 " Your wings are very good," she said, " but I am 
 better off without them ; for I can travel as fast as 
 I care to with one foot." 
 
 " Only one foot, and no wings at all ? " said the 
 drone. " Really I pity you now more than ever. 
 But tell me, how long have you carried that heavy 
 shell on your back ? " 
 
 " Longer than I can well remember," answered 
 the snail, "for I was born in it." 
 
 " Born in it ? " said the drone, in a tone of great 
 surprise. " You do 
 not mean to tell 
 me that you went 
 about with a house 
 on your back when 
 you were a mere 
 
 The Snail. 
 
 infant ? " 
 
 " It was not so large then as it is now," replied 
 the other, " for at first it had but one small room at 
 the top. But as I grew larger, I built more rooms, 
 till now my little house is large enough ; for it is 
 five stories high. 
 
 " I do not find it heavy to carry about either, for 
 I am used to it ; and when I am tired, I have only 
 to creep backwards into my house and rest myself." 
 
 " But how can you gather honey and other sweets 
 from the flowers ? " asked the drone. 
 
1 66 
 
 " I do not live upon honey, as you do," replied the 
 snail. " Both my tongue and my upper lip are 
 covered with fine, sharp teeth ; and with these I 
 scrape up and eat the soft part of green leaves and 
 other juicy plants that come in my way." 
 
 The drone was silent for a little time, and then 
 he said: " But I do not see how you happened to be 
 born in the very top of that house of yours." 
 
 " I will tell you," said the snail. " My mother 
 laid a number of small, white eggs in the earth ; and 
 when the babies hatched out, they each had a little 
 home of their own, like the top of this house of 
 mine ; and as they grew older, they made it larger, 
 as I have done." 
 
 " Well, well," said the other, " so the top of your 
 house was built first ; and you have never been 
 away from home in your life, how stupid that 
 must be ! For my part, I love a life on the wing, 
 and I never grow tired of it never. But what 
 will you do with yourself when winter sets in ? " 
 
 " I can pour out from my body a sticky fluid that 
 will dry and make a thick, strong door for my 
 house ; and I will stay inside of it, snug and safe, 
 all through the cold winter, and when I want to 
 come out I can push the door open with my foot." 
 
 The drone went buzzing about for a long time; 
 then he came back with another question. 
 
i6 7 
 
 " Now what would you do," said he, " if an enemy 
 should come to your door? " 
 
 " My enemies can not harm me," said she ; " for I 
 can dodge quickly back into my house, and close 
 the door with a soft, pink curtain that I have." 
 
 " I wish I had a house to hide in," said the 
 other ; " for I have no sting at all in the end of my 
 body, such as the worker bees have in' theirs, and if 
 they choose, they can fall upon me at any time and 
 sting me to death." 
 
 " Why should they do such a cruel thing as 
 that ? " asked the snail. 
 
 " Because they are too stingy to share their honey 
 with me," said the other. 
 
 " But why do you not gather honey for yourself? " 
 
 " Oh, that is not my trade. I was not made to 
 gather honey, and I do not know how ; so I like to 
 fly about in the sunshine, and " 
 
 The poor drone did hot have time to finish his 
 sentence ; for at that moment, two small worker 
 bees chanced to spy him. 
 
 The snail quickly drew in her horns, and when 
 she looked out again, the drone lay dead and 
 helpless on the ground. 
 
 "So much for being always on the wing," said 
 she. " For my part, I would rather stay at home 
 all the days of my life." 
 
1 68 
 
 The Garden Spider. 
 
 A SKILLFUL SPINNER. 
 
 HAVE you ever watched the cunning spider as she 
 makes the strong silken nest for her eggs and spins 
 her pretty lace snares in the corner of your room or 
 across the windowpane ? 
 
 As you see her at work, you may wonder what 
 use she can possibly have for so many legs ; for 
 there are eight of them in all, and if you look 
 at them closely, you will see that they are many- 
 jointed, and covered with stiff hairs. 
 
 Ah, the poor fly that is caught in her snare would 
 explain it to you, if he could only speak ; for, as 
 she glares at him with her eight beadlike eyes, she 
 
i6 9 
 
 weaves him a shroud, at the same time, with her 
 eight busy feet. 
 
 Her third pair of legs are the shortest, and with 
 these she holds the helpless insect and turns him 
 over and over, upon his face and upon his back, 
 just whichever pleases her best; in fact, she seems 
 to use these short legs in the place of hands. 
 
 The silken thread with which she shrouds the 
 fly is drawn from some small tubes upon the under 
 side of her abdomen, very near the 
 end. 
 
 These tubes are the spinnerets, 
 or spools, out of which flows a 
 clear, sticky fluid. She draws out 
 
 - . Spinnerets. 
 
 this fluid in a very fine stream and 
 guides it with her hind pair of feet. The air dries 
 and hardens it at once, and it then becomes a fine, 
 silken thread. 
 
 When the spinning tubes are kept apart, many 
 single threads may be formed ; but when they are 
 held close together, they are all blended into one 
 band. 
 
 As she pulls it out, not "hand over hand" 
 exactly, but " foot over foot," she winds it round 
 and round the body of the poor fly, till it can not 
 help itself at all. 
 
 Then she hangs it up in her web, to suck its 
 
juices whenever she gets hungry. If anything 
 touches her web, she knows it at once ; and 
 draws in all her feet towards her body, so as 
 to tighten the threads of her snare. 
 
 So you see she does have use for every one of 
 those eight bristly legs of hers, after all. 
 
 You have already learned that the body of an 
 insect is divided into three parts ; but if you look 
 closely at a spider, you will see that the head is 
 joined to the thorax, without any neck between 
 them. 
 
 So we may not speak of the spider as an insect. 
 There are a few insects that have not a very long 
 neck, but their heads are not set closely to the 
 thorax like that of the spider. 
 
 The eyes of a spider are usually eight in number; 
 and they are placed on the top of the head in two 
 rows, with four eyes in each row. Spiders can not 
 move their eyes ; but they have so many of them 
 that they can look in all directions at once. 
 
 The mouth parts of a spider consist of an upper 
 and a lower lip, and two pairs of strong jaws. The 
 two upper jaws are placed side by side ; and the 
 two lower jaws are set close together in the same 
 way. 
 
 The upper jaws are curved, and are quite stiff 
 and horny. These jaws are the spider's fangs; and. 
 
I/I 
 
 at the base of each fang there is a small sac that is 
 filled with poison. 
 
 The lower pair of jaws is smaller than the upper 
 pair, and not quite as strong. 
 
 On each side of the lower pair of 
 jaws there is a five-jointed member 
 that looks something like a spider's 
 leg, only it is very much shorter ; these 
 are its feelers, and with these short 
 
 . . . A Spider's Jaws. 
 
 feelers it seizes its prey. 
 
 At the end of each bristly leg, there is a claw, 
 well covered with stiff hairs ; and with these hair- 
 covered claws the spider can creep up a very 
 smooth wall. 
 
 But if it wants to get down from a high wall, or 
 from the branch of a tree, it fastens one end of a 
 thread there, and then lets itself down to the 
 ground. 
 
 Nearly all spiders build snares; 
 but the mother spider makes a 
 much better net than that of her 
 lH\ u ' r UT|||/////j mate. Once in awhile a father 
 and a mother spider may be found 
 
 A Spider's Foot. ,. . ,-, it ,-,- 
 
 living in the same web ; but this 
 does not often happen. 
 
 Young spiders spin very small webs, but their 
 work is perfect. 
 
Many of the webs that we see are round in 
 form ; and the spiders that make them are called 
 orb weavers, because the word " orb " means " circle." 
 
 And now let us learn something about the work 
 of the little orb weaver. 
 
 When this spider finds a good place for her orb, 
 she first spins some strong lines to make a frame- 
 work; this framework often has four sides, and 
 sometimes it has even more, and the lines of 
 which it is spun are made up of five or six silken 
 threads. 
 
 Then across this framework, she spins a few 
 strong lines, from corner to corner. Now her 
 foundation is laid ; and from its center, she spins 
 a number of fine threads, and fastens the end of 
 each thread to the sides of her framework. 
 
 These fine threads stretch out from the center 
 of the web, somewhat as the spokes of a wheel 
 reach toward the hub; but they are not always 
 the same" distance apart from one another. These 
 threads are called the rays of the web. 
 
 Now she begins at the center again, and spins a 
 thread across the rays ; and as she goes round and 
 round toward the outside lines of her framework, 
 she glues her threads to each fine ray. These 
 threads are called spiral lines, because they wind 
 round and round. 
 
173 
 
 But her web is not yet complete ; for she must 
 now spin some more spiral lines in the spaces be- 
 tween those that are already done, and these last 
 threads that she spins are covered with small gluey 
 specks that look like little beads. 
 
 Ah, it is these small, sticky beads that hold the 
 poor insects fast when they chance to light upon 
 the snare. 
 
 And now Mistress Spider is ready to take her 
 place on the web, where, with head downward, she 
 awaits her prey. It will not be very long before a 
 fly or a moth will venture to step upon one of the 
 silken threads. 
 
 Then it will struggle to free itself, and the gluey 
 beads of the fine spiral lines will melt upon its 
 wings or upon its legs, and Mistress Spider will 
 see to the rest. 
 
 She has already woven her egg case ; it is a 
 round silken cocoon, and she guards it with great 
 care. Sometimes it is made fast to the corner of 
 a window near where she spins her web. 
 
 Some spiders carry the, cocoon about with them; 
 and when the young spiders are hatched out, they 
 ride about upon their mother's back. 
 
 Spiders molt, or cast off their skins, six times 
 before they become full-grown ; so when they get 
 their seventh suit, that is the last. 
 
174 
 
 Many spiders hide themselves away during the 
 winter months ; and that is why they are so often 
 seen spinning their webs so early in the spring. 
 Although most spiders do not live more than 
 
 a year, yet some 
 kinds have been 
 known to live 
 much longer. 
 
 The spiders that 
 we see about us, in 
 outhouses, in gar- 
 den, and fields, are 
 harmless creatures; 
 they will not bite 
 us ; and even if 
 they should nip us 
 with their small 
 jaws, it would do 
 us no harm. 
 
 And they can 
 build rafts and 
 sail upon the water; and they can throw out 
 threads upon the air and make little balloons that 
 will carry them up as high as the top of a tall tree. 
 
 They can even build silken bridges across 
 streams ; and do many wonderful things, as we 
 shall find out if we watch them. 
 
 Spider Balloons, 
 
175 
 
 A DEVOTED 
 MOTHER. 
 
 AND now let me tell 
 you about a very large 
 spider named the ta-ran'- 
 tu-la. 
 
 She lived in a wooden 
 box, having a glass cover ; 
 but she did not stay there 
 from choice, for she was a 
 prisoner. 
 
 When she was at home, she 
 led a wandering life and ran 
 about over rocks and stones in 
 the woods and fields in search of her 
 prey. 
 
 She has some relations that live in 
 holes in the ground, and that line the walls of 
 their underground homes with silken curtains 
 of their own spinning. And there are others 
 
 Tarantulas. 
 
among them that close the top of their holes with 
 a round trapdoor that is both lined and hinged 
 with strong silk. 
 
 Both the body and the legs of this tarantula 
 were covered with short, stiff hairs of a dark-brown 
 color; and the joints of her legs were so clear that 
 they looked like thin scales of mica. 
 
 Like all other spiders, she was an ugly hunch- 
 back ; for the head and body were joined together 
 without any neck between them. 
 
 On the top of her head were eight, beadlike eyes, 
 arranged in double rows ; and she had strong, 
 sharp jaws, with a poison fang at the base ; and 
 hidden within her head was a small poison gland. 
 
 She knew well how to use her ugly jaws; for 
 when a living insect was thrown into her cage she 
 would pounce upon it fiercely. Then she would 
 tear its wings from its body, and crush it between 
 her jaws without farther delay. 
 
 One day a dead and withered locust was given 
 her; and when she saw that it was hard and dry, 
 she carried it to her dish of water and soaked it 
 well before she tried to eat it. How could she 
 know that dry crusts are made softer by being 
 soaked in water? 
 
 Very soon after this, Mrs. Tarantula began to 
 spin some soft white threads across the inside 
 
177 
 
 cover of her box. These threads she fastened, 
 here and there, with a little tuft of silk, so that 
 the whole thing looked very much like a patch of 
 thin, dotted muslin, only that it was finer and 
 more glossy. 
 
 This was the foundation of her cocoon ; and 
 when it was well laid, she deposited her eggs 
 there, and inclosed them with a closely-spun cov- 
 ering. 
 
 The cocoon was nearly round in form, and as 
 white and glossy as a white satin cushion. 
 
 When it was completed, she placed her body 
 over it, and stretched out her eight long legs, so 
 that her feet pressed closely against the founda- 
 tion lines of her egg case. 
 
 From that time, she would neither eat nor drink, 
 and if she ever slept at all, it ' must have been 
 with one eye closed, and the other seven eyes 
 wide open. 
 
 It was in vain to try to tempt her with large juicy 
 insects, or with any other rare dainties of the kind ; 
 for her motherly heart was -dead to everything in 
 the world excepting the care of that precious egg 
 basket. 
 
 Every day the cocoon increased in size ; and 
 every day the faithful sentinel that guarded it 
 grew weaker. 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 12 
 
And finally, after she had fasted for two whole 
 months, she was no longer able to hold herself 
 upon the nest ; and one day she fell to the bottom 
 of the box, too weak and helpless to move a limb ; 
 and in a few hours more this devoted mother spider 
 was dead. 
 
 I am sorry to tell you that the eggs did not 
 hatch out ; the young spiders within the cocoon 
 must have died through the lack of warmth that 
 their mother's body would have furnished them, if 
 she had remained alive. 
 
 But had they lived, there doubtless would have 
 been a very large family of them ; for the tarantula 
 spider lays as many as one hundred eggs at one 
 time. 
 
 And had this mother spider been permitted to 
 hatch her brood in her own nest, instead of in a 
 close wooden box, it is very likely that she would 
 not have died ; for some spiders of this kind 
 have been known* to reach the age of seven or 
 eight years. 
 
 The home of this tarantula was in the southern 
 part of the United States ; but such spiders are 
 often brought into northern markets, concealed 
 among clusters of fruit, and so they may some- 
 times be seen and studied far away from their 
 native haunts. 
 
179 
 
 LINES TO A SPIDER. 
 
 PRAY, busy, hunchback friend, where did you learn 
 
 To spin that pretty web ? One 
 To copy such fine lace, so 
 //#;z^- woven, I might say, but 
 
 need not spurn 
 rare, complete, 
 that your feet 
 
 Spun out, instead, the wondrous warp and woof; 
 And with what cunning /J% , skill behold 
 
 the proof 
 In these strong silken ^v* threads, that 
 
 stretch across, 
 From side to center, bright as shining floss. 
 
i8o 
 
 How innocent you seem, how modest, shy; 
 I'm sure I should be caught were I a fly ; 
 For when with luring tone you whispered low, 
 " Please walk into my parlor," I should go. 
 
 Weave on, weave on, my patient, hunchback friend ; 
 For soon your work, like mine, will have an end. 
 But in your cunning craft I claim no share ; 
 For I but spin a tale you spin a snare. 
 
 DO YOU BELIEVE IT? 
 
 ONE day in summer time, I saw some boys very 
 busily at work on the edge of a little stream. 
 
 As I came upon them, I noticed that they were 
 putting some long, white horsehairs in the water, 
 and were trying to keep them down with a large 
 stone. 
 
 When I asked them why they did this, one of 
 the lads promptly replied, " Why, don't you see ? 
 We are going to raise some hair snakes." 
 
 " Do you believe that you can do it ? " said I. 
 
 " I know it," he answered, and went on with his 
 work. 
 
 Now it is plain that some ignorant person had 
 told these boys that hair snakes were produced in 
 
that manner ; for say what I might to the contrary, 
 the lads would not listen to me. 
 
 The truth of the whole thing is this: The hair 
 worm for it is not a snake lives mostly in the 
 bodies of certain insects, such as the water beetle, 
 the grasshopper, and the cricket; 
 because the eggs of the worm 
 are taken, by accident, into the 
 stomach of the insect with its 
 
 .... -The Hair Worm. 
 
 food and drink. 
 
 But both the eggs and the worm have been 
 known to pass through water pipes into the faucets 
 of dwelling houses ; and although such worms will 
 not live in the human stomach, yet it is far better 
 that drinking water should be carefully filtered 
 before it is used. 
 
 I once saw a large grasshopper give a sudden 
 leap, and then fall helplessly over upon his back. I 
 picked him up by the head ; when, lo, his head sep- 
 arated from his body ! 
 
 As I held it up in my hand, there hung from it a 
 very slender hair worm, several times the length of 
 the insect. The worm had lain coiled up within 
 his body, and had gnawed at his vitals until he died. 
 
 When these worms become full-grown, they leave 
 the body of the insect and go to the water, where 
 they lay their eggs in a long chain. 
 
182 
 
 And it is at such times that we often see them 
 in the water, looking like real hairs from the tail 
 of a horse. 
 
 A strange thing about them is that they may be 
 left in the hot sunshine till they are completely 
 dried up, and until they appear to be dead ; but if 
 placed in water for a short time, they will come to 
 life, and be as active as ever. 
 
 I have walked along the borders of that little 
 stream many a time since that day, and have always 
 found the heavy stone on duty, holding the horse- 
 hairs down. 
 
 But alas! if those simple-hearted lads live long 
 enough, they will find that their labors were in 
 vain ; for those hairs were never so much alive as 
 when they were actively employed in brushing off 
 flies and other insects from the poor horse's back 
 and sides. 
 
 WINTER FRIENDS. 
 
 I. THE CHICKADEE. 
 
 Do you know the little titmouse 
 
 In his brownish-ashen coat, 
 With a cap so black and jaunty, 
 
 And a black patch at his throat ? 
 
 WHY yes, of course, we all know him ; for he is 
 the brave little chickadee that always has a word of 
 
183 
 
 cheer for us, even in the coldest winter weather; 
 and he is no more afraid of the ice and snow than 
 we are. 
 
 His body measures about five and a half inches 
 
 The Chickadee. 
 
 in length, from the point of his short, black bill to 
 the tip of his tail. 
 
 He wears a black, jaunty cap upon his head ; but 
 from the base of his bill there is a narrow white 
 band that runs all along the sides of his neck. His 
 pretty wings are also edged with white, while his 
 slender legs are of a light-blue color. 
 
1 84 
 
 And what an active, noisy little creature he is ! 
 His loud twitter is full of sharp notes, but it can 
 not well be called a song. 
 
 His mate wears a suit very much like his own, 
 and she is quite as lively as he. 
 
 In summer time, she builds a nest of soft grasses 
 and wool, and within it she lays six small, white 
 eggs, marked with specks of red. 
 
 This nest is usu- 
 ally made in a 'knot 
 hole on the limb or 
 trunk of a tree ; some- 
 times it is a hole that 
 a squirrel or some 
 other animal has dug 
 out and left. 
 
 But if the little 
 chickadees can not find a hole of this kind, they will 
 cut one in the tree, with their strong, sharp bills. 
 
 These birds like to flit about among the ever- 
 green trees in winter, where they can pick up seeds, 
 or draw forth a larval insect from its hiding place 
 under the loose bark of the trunk. 
 
 So you see, these small winter visitors are our 
 friends ; for they feed upon the hungry larvae that 
 destroy the fruit and foliage of our gardens and 
 fields. 
 
 The Chickadee's Nest. 
 
185 
 
 And now, in return for this good service of theirs, 
 let us scatter a few crumbs here and there, upon 
 the snow-covered ground. They will not be long in 
 finding out where the feast is spread, and their 
 little hearts will be gladdened at the sight; and 
 I am sure that our hearts will be gladdened too, 
 when we hear their sharp twitter of joy and surprise 
 at such unexpected good luck. 
 
 II. THE NUTHATCH. 
 
 Do you know the pretty nuthatch in his suit of ashen blue, 
 
 With his dainty bib of white, and his hose of modest brown ? 
 You may hear him sing, sometimes, though his notes are harsh 
 
 and few ; 
 
 But you'll know him when you see him, by the black upon his 
 crown. 
 
 This bird is a boon companion of the little chick- 
 adee ; and they are often seen hopping about, side 
 by side, trying to pick up an honest living wherever 
 they find it. 
 
 The nuthatch is fond of rooming upstairs ; so, in 
 springtime, he finds a hole in the top of a tree, and 
 there he helps his little mate build her nest. 
 
 Then she lays from four to eight white, rose- 
 tinted eggs, specked with brown. 
 
 Under the bark of the tree, and among the 
 cracks, he finds many a rare tidbit, such as the 
 
i86 
 
 V 
 
 eggs and the larvae of different insects ; so he 
 often comes creeping down the tree, head foremost, 
 in his search for them. 
 
 Sometimes he finds a small, broken acorn that 
 
 has a plump grub 
 inside of it; this he 
 will crowd tightly 
 into a deep crack of 
 the bark, so that it 
 will stay secure ; and 
 then he can easily 
 pick out the choice 
 morsel that he loves 
 so well, when he 
 wants it. 
 
 But if his mate is 
 confined to her nest, 
 he will carry the rich 
 prize to her, instead 
 of eating it himself. 
 Is he not generous ? 
 He is a cheerful 
 little fellow, and sings quite as merrily among the 
 branches of the leafless woods in winter time, as 
 when he is sitting in some leafy bower on a bright 
 summer day. 
 
 But when the trunk of the tree becomes smooth 
 
 The Nuthatch on a Tree Trunk, 
 
1*7 
 
 and slippery, from frozen rain, then our little nut- 
 hatch has quite a hard time of it ; for he can not 
 very well make his way along the smooth, icy surface 
 of the trunk, neither can he get at the fat larvae that 
 are so safely shut in beneath their icy covering. 
 
 Then it is, that you may see him flying about the 
 door, the barn or other outhouses, in search of a 
 crumb to satisfy his hungry craving for food. 
 
 If he happens to find a fallen nut, he will soon 
 break it open by means of the quick, hard strokes 
 of his bill. But it is not the nut inside of the shell 
 that he cares so much about ; he knows when there 
 is a fat maggot within it, and wants to get at that ! 
 
 It is because of this habit of hammering, or 
 hatching, the shells of some kinds of nuts, that he 
 has received the name of " nuthatch." 
 
 III. THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 
 
 Do you know that stylish fellow that stands rapping at the door 
 
 Of the helpless larval infants in that tree ? 
 Now he turns his head and listens, then raps louder than before, 
 
 Just as if to say, " Why don't you answer me ? " 
 
 That is the handsome red-headed woodpecker. 
 He is clad in a suit of bluish black, trimmed with 
 bands of white. 
 
i88 
 
 He wears a white vest, also, but his head and 
 neck are clothed in crimson red. Is he not a 
 beautiful bird ? 
 
 With his strong bill he raps loudly upon the 
 trunk of the tree ; and as soon as he hears the 
 
 larval insects within be- 
 gin to move, he says to 
 himself, "Ah, yes, I 
 knew I was at the right 
 door, glad to find you 
 all at home." 
 
 Then he forces an 
 entrance with his bill, 
 and darts in his long, 
 barbed tongue. 
 
 He brings out a fat 
 morsel every time; and 
 the thievish jays that 
 are searching about in 
 vain for something to 
 satisfy their hungry 
 , , crops, look upon him 
 
 Red-headed Woodpeckers. 
 
 with envy. If he were 
 
 a smaller bird, they would pounce upon him, and 
 rob him on the spot. But they are afraid of him, 
 so they leave him alone. 
 
 His mate wears quite as fine a suit as his own ; 
 
1 89 
 
 in fact, these red-headed woodpeckers are very 
 handsome birds, clad in a three-colored plumage 
 of red, white, and black, glossed over with a rich 
 shade of steel blue. 
 
 They make their nests either in the body or in 
 the limbs of a tree, and they do not line it with hair 
 and moss, as most birds do ; but they make it very 
 smooth. In this nest, the mother bird lays six pure 
 white eggs. 
 
 In winter time, they may be seen flying from tree 
 to tree, and they are always very careful indeed not 
 to chill their feet by lighting upon the snow-covered 
 ground. 
 
 They are fond of making a dinner of larval 
 insects; but they often seem to be quite as well 
 pleased when they come upon a ripe, sweet apple, 
 or a fine, juicy pear. They are easily contented, 
 you see, and take whatever they can get. 
 
 They know, too, how to open the husks of the 
 ripening corn with their sharp, wedge-shaped bills ; 
 for they like the rich milk that they find within its 
 kernels. 
 
 But as these birds feed largely upon the insect 
 world, we must look upon them as our friends ; and 
 so we will permit them to share with the chicka- 
 dee and the nuthatch the scattered crumbs that 
 fall from our table. 
 
i go 
 
 IV. THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 
 
 Do you know another bird with a black and golden crest, 
 And a suit of olive green that is edged with brownish gray ? 
 
 There is white upon his forehead, and there's white upon his breast. 
 For he loves the gayest colors, and he wears them every day. 
 
 This beautiful golden- 
 crested wren is often found 
 in winter upon 
 evergreen trees, 
 such as the spruce, 
 the cedar, and the 
 pine. 
 
 He is generally in 
 search of the larval in- 
 sects that lie hidden 
 away under the scales 
 of the evergreen 
 cones ; and he may always 
 be known by his fine, golden 
 crest. 
 
 The body of the golden- 
 crested wren is fully four 
 inches in length, and his 
 mate is very nearly the same size. 
 
 She likes to build her nest upon the leafy branch 
 
 Golden-crested Wrens and Nest. 
 
of an oak; but sometimes it may be found upon 
 the bough of a fir tree. 
 
 The little, round nest of this wren is very neatly 
 made. It is covered entirely over with moss ; but 
 there is a small hole at the side of the nest for an 
 entrance. It is lined with soft down, and within it 
 the mother wren lays from six to eight pure white 
 eggs, specked with red. 
 
 V. THE BROWN CREEPER. 
 
 Do you know the little creeper, in his 
 
 garb of reddish brown, 
 Having narrow bands of white upon his 
 
 earlaps and his crown? 
 With the feathers of his tail finely edged 
 
 with brownish yellow, 
 And a vest of silky white, do you 
 
 know this dapper fellow? 
 
 He is another boon compan- 
 ion of the chickadee ; and he is 
 well named, as you would say, 
 could you see him creeping 
 round and round a tree, in his 
 journey toward the top. The Brown Cree P er - 
 
 The truth is, he finds so many good places on the 
 way to lunch at, that he can not well pass them by; 
 for the bark of the tree is filled with choice dainties. 
 
1 92 
 
 And very often this bird will build a nest 
 between a piece of loose bark and the body of the 
 tree, where he can have a well-spread table always 
 at hand. 
 
 His mate lays six small, grayish eggs, spotted 
 with light brown ; and the baby creepers that are 
 hatched from them very quickly learn the ways of 
 their parents, and travel up and down the tree as 
 soon as they can leave the nest. 
 
 VI. THE DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
 
 Do you know a little bird that in mourning shades is dressed, 
 Black and white upon his wings, black and white upon his head 
 
 Underneath, a bib of white on his pretty throat and breast ; 
 While above, upon his nape, gleams a shining bow of red ? 
 
 This is the suit that the downy woodpecker 
 wears, and his mate is clad in about the same style, 
 except that she does not wear the flaming red 
 ribbon on her neck. 
 
 These birds are fit companions for the others 
 that I have told you about, for they do not seem to 
 mind the cold weather in the least. 
 
 Both the male and the female are carpenters by 
 trade ; so they will not content themselves with 
 a deserted nest. They build a snug little home of 
 their own. 
 
193 
 
 They generally select a fruit tree of some sort, 
 and they seem to like a cherry tree as well as any. 
 
 The male begins the work by cutting a round 
 hole in the body of the tree with his strong bill ; 
 and when his 
 good little 
 mate sees that 
 he is getting 
 tired, she turns 
 in and helps 
 him. 
 
 They build 
 a roomy nest, 
 sometimes a 
 foot or more 
 in depth, and 
 leave the door 
 of the house 
 just wide 
 enough for 
 each of them 
 to pass in. 
 
 Like all car- Down y woodpeckers. 
 
 penters, they make a good many chips ; and these 
 they carry away, and then scatter them at quite a 
 distance from the tree so that no one will find out 
 where their nest is hidden. 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 13 
 
194 
 
 The bottom of the hole is made very smooth, 
 and upon this, six pure white eggs are laid. This 
 curious house is very neat and comfortable, but the 
 dear little builders are not always permitted to 
 enjoy it, as you will see. 
 
 For now I am obliged to tell you something 
 very bad about the house wrens. 
 
 These birds will often watch the little wood- 
 peckers till they have made quite a large hole in 
 the body of a tree ; and then they will drive them 
 away from it, and take possession themselves. 
 
 The poor little birds fight for it as long as they 
 are able, but they are finally forced to give it up. 
 
 I am very sure that their little friends, the chick- 
 adees, would help them defend it if they could ; for 
 they are not mere " summer friends," as you have 
 already learned. 
 
 Do you know the house wren and his mate ? 
 
 They are small birds, having a body not over 
 five inches in length from the point of the beak 
 to the tip of the tail. 
 
 * You would hardly believe that such little crea- 
 tures could rob other birds of their nests, would you ? 
 
 But the house wren does not belong to our list 
 of winter friends, although he has a cousin, called 
 the winter wren, that remains with us through all 
 the long, cold winter. 
 
195 
 
 The body of this little bird is hardly four inches 
 in length. He is dressed in a plain, dark-brown suit, 
 having a few black lines across the back; and these 
 lines are touched here and there with dull white. 
 Besides this, there are a few other small spots of 
 white upon his body. 
 In his tail, which is 
 short and erect, there 
 are twelve feathers. 
 
 These birds may 
 often be seen about 
 the dooryard, or fly- 
 ing about the barn 
 and outhouses, in 
 search of crumbs, lar- 
 vae, or anything that 
 will keep them alive 
 through the cold 
 months of the winter ; 
 and however hungry 
 they may be, they keep up a cheerful twitter 
 through it all. 
 
 Now I have made you acquainted with only a 
 very few of the little birds that stay with us dur- 
 ing the winter months. But all of these are our 
 friends; for they help us destroy the worms and 
 insects that infest our gardens and orchards. 
 
 The Winter Wren. 
 
196 
 
 And should they come hopping about your door 
 when the boughs are withered and bare, and the 
 fields are covered with snow, I am very sure that 
 you will not drive them away. 
 
 SNOW TRACKS. 
 
 I. THE RUFFED GROUSE. 
 
 Ir is midwinter, and the earth is covered all over 
 with a counterpane of snow. 
 
 The silvery rills and 
 streamlets glide along be- 
 tween their flowery banks 
 no more ; for they are 
 locked up in 
 strong, icy fet- 
 ters, and Jack 
 Frost carries the 
 key. 
 
 Here and there 
 a clump of weeds 
 or grasses rises above the drifted snow, and a 
 few frozen apples hang from the leafless boughs. 
 But the birds with their keen eyes have spied the 
 tops of the weeds, and they are going to make the 
 most of them. 
 
 The Ruffed Grouse. 
 
Here is a hungry fellow, clad in modest brown, 
 with flecks of a lighter shade upon his raiment. 
 In his broad tail there are eighteen reddish-brown 
 feathers, tipped with gray. 
 
 He combs his hair straight back from his fore- 
 head, and wears a dark-colored ruff of broad feathers 
 around his neck. 
 
 When he has plenty to eat he is a large, fine- 
 looking fellow ; but what a lean and bony creature 
 he is now ! He can find no insects, no ripe leaves, 
 and no rich, oily seeds such as he feeds upon in 
 summer time. 
 
 So he picks up whatever he can find, with a 
 thankful heart, and only wishes he could get 
 more. 
 
 When spring returns, he will sit upon the trunk 
 of a fallen tree, and drum loudly with his wings ; 
 while his mate will find a close thicket of bushes 
 and there she will make her nest. 
 
 This nest will be built of loose leaves, and within 
 it she will lay from eight to twelve large, yellowish- 
 white eggs. When her young ones are hatched out, 
 she will lead them from place to place, where they 
 can find plenty of berries and tender buds to eat ; 
 and if she fears any danger, she will give a loud 
 cluck, in the same way that a mother hen calls to 
 her chickens. 
 
198 
 
 Then every one of the brood will hide from 
 sight, in an instant, and it will be impossible to 
 find them. 
 
 The name of this bird is the ruffed grouse, 
 although it is often called a " partridge." 
 
 What do you suppose happened to some birds 
 of this kind a few days ago ? There came a 
 dreary, stormy night, and the poor things had 
 nowhere to sleep, so they made their bed in a 
 deep snowdrift, thinking that it would keep them 
 warm. 
 
 And so it might have done ; but it rained during 
 the night, and froze to a sheet of ice, and there 
 were the helpless creatures locked within their 
 bedrooms behind a strong, icy door! Was not 
 that pitiful? 
 
 Now the very next time that you wish yourself 
 a bird, with nothing to do but to fly from tree to 
 tree, remember how much your feathered friends 
 often suffer with cold and hunger outside, while 
 you have comfort and warmth within. 
 
 II. THE WOOD MOUSE. 
 
 Here are some tiny tracks that wind in and out 
 among the forest trees, making little zigzag lines 
 upon the surface of the snow. 
 
199 
 
 At the foot of some of these 
 trees, and sometimes higher up in 
 the trunk, there are deep holes ; 
 and here the wood mice have 
 stored away nuts and other choice 
 tidbits for winter use. 
 
 How much wiser of you, little 
 white foot, had you put your goodies 
 all in one place ; for see, there are large tracks 
 mixed up with yours, and I greatly fear that you 
 will find some of your storehouses empty. 
 
 It is a very easy thing to select the nuts that 
 you have tried to crack, because you make such 
 bad work of getting at the kernel. 
 
 If you were sharp, you would not gnaw a hole 
 at both ends of the hard shell ; there is no use in 
 doing that. You had better watch the squirrel 
 and for more reasons than one. 
 
 He knows enough to gnaw a hole at the large 
 end, then he can turn the shell up- 
 side down and let the kernel 
 drop out. 
 
 But it will soon make very 
 little difference to you ; for 
 there is a mottled owl in that 
 tree yonder, and nothing can 
 The Wood Mouse and the Owl. please him better than an 
 
2OO 
 
 early breakfast of field mice. He can wait, for he 
 wears his thick, tufted ear muffs, and he does not 
 mind the cold weather at all. 
 
 III. THE CHIPMUNK. 
 
 The chipmunk leaves his tracks on this snowy 
 counterpane, too ; but there are not very many of 
 
 them, for his bar- 
 rels and bins are 
 pretty full, and he 
 has no need to 
 " browse " around 
 in the winter for 
 something to eat. 
 He is too good a 
 
 The Chipmunk. 
 
 provider for that. 
 
 His home is built down deep in the ground, with 
 a strong stone wall at his door, so that no robber 
 can get in and molest him. 
 
 But whenever there comes a warm springlike day, 
 he seems to find it out at once, and up he comes to 
 see what is going on above ground. 
 
 Here he is now, whisking his round, narrow tail, 
 and scampering lightly about upon the crusted 
 snow, as happy as a boy on skates. 
 
 His eyes are large and bright ; his small ears 
 stand up erect; and he has a very pointed snout. 
 
201 
 
 He is clad in a rust-colored suit, striped with 
 black and yellowish-white lines. He wears thin 
 black whiskers, and there is a small black spot 
 
 
 
 upon his nose. 
 
 He is lively enough now ; but when he first came 
 up out of his burrow he seemed to be very glad 
 indeed to sit still and sun himself upon that old 
 maple stump. 
 
 But you should see the chipmunk family during 
 the early fall ; then they are all busily at work 
 gathering nuts and other winter stores. 
 
 They have a small pouch inside of each cheek ; 
 and the nuts that they gather are carried inside of 
 this pouch ; and when the pouch can hold no more, 
 they will take still another nut between their strong 
 front teeth. In this way they are able to carry as 
 many as four nuts at a time. 
 
 Once in awhile the young ones will dart off and 
 chase one another along the fences and stone walls ; 
 but the careful mother soon calls them back with a 
 sharp, quick chirp. This means that they must stay 
 with her and finish their work. 
 
 Late in the fall the whole family disappear and 
 go down into the safe burrow which they have 
 made in the ground. They have food enough to 
 last them till spring ; and then they will come forth 
 again, as full of fun and frolic as ever. 
 
202 
 
 IV. THE RED SQUIRREL. 
 
 Ah, here are some tracks that look a good deal 
 like those of our little chipmunk. 
 
 They were made by the chickaree, or red squirrel. 
 He has received the name of " chickaree," because 
 he makes such a loud chattering noise as he runs 
 
 briskly about from tree 
 to tree. 
 
 Both his head and 
 his body are quite 
 as large as the chip- 
 munk's, but his nose is 
 less pointed. His round, 
 broad ears are covered 
 with short hairs, and he 
 wears thin, black whiskers that are a trifle longer 
 than his head. 
 
 His long, flat tail, as well as the upper part of his 
 body, is of a deep, reddish brown ; but his throat, 
 his chin, the inside of his legs, and all the under 
 part of his body are white. 
 
 This red squirrel lays up large stores for his win- 
 ter use ; and as he has no cheek pouch like the 
 chipmunk, he carries the nuts between his front teeth. 
 Both he and his mate may be seen in autumn 
 getting nuts, seeds, the bark of trees, and food of 
 
 The Red Squirrel. 
 
203 
 
 that kind, which they carefully hide away either in 
 hollow stumps or under logs and brush heaps. 
 
 They are not very timid animals ; and sometimes 
 they will steal into storehouses, where there is plenty 
 of grain, and make a nest there for their winter 
 quarters. 
 
 These little squirrels are more brave than the 
 chipmunk family, and they do not hide themselves 
 so closely away in winter time. 
 
 But the two animals are very nearly related, as 
 you can see by their form and by .their style of 
 dress ; in fact, they have been called half-brothers. 
 
 V. REYNARD, THE FOX, AND RANGER, THE DOG. 
 
 Here are the footprints of two cousins ; but 
 they are not very much alike either in their dress 
 or in their habits. 
 
 One of them is named Reynard, the fox. 
 
 He wears a coat of reddish yellow; his nose and 
 his ears are pointed, and he has a bushy tail that he 
 may well be proud of. 
 
 His cousin is Ranger, the dog, and these snow 
 tracks show that they have been running a swift 
 race. 
 
 The dog's master is not far off; for listen, there 
 is the crack of his rifle, and now poor Rey- 
 
2O4 
 
 nard leaps, limping away, with the dog following 
 close upon his heels. 
 
 If he can only get back to his den in the rocks, 
 he will be happy ; for home is the best place, after 
 all, for anybody that is in trouble. 
 
 Reynard and Ranger. 
 
 As he speeds on, he leaves a bloody trail all the 
 way behind him ; but the dog has the best of it, and 
 Master Reynard's handsome fur coat will soon be 
 in the .market, and it will fetch a good price, too. 
 
 As for his worthless carcass, the crows will be 
 glad to pick that ; for their hungry " caw caw " is 
 already sounding in the distance. 
 
205 
 
 Ah, Master Reynard, we might feel just a little 
 sorry for you, if you had ever shown any pity for 
 others ; but you have not. 
 
 You are fond of stealing chickens, and of killing 
 birds and mice ; but like all other robbers, you do 
 not like to be hurt yourself. 
 
 But then it is your nature to hunt for game ; and 
 you have no other way of getting a living. So, 
 when we come to think it all over, we do pity your 
 sad fate, after all. 
 
 VI. THE WEASEL. 
 
 But Reynard is not the only sly thief that leaves 
 his footprints upon the snow ; for the nimble-footed 
 weasel has been abroad too. There is no mistaking 
 the marks of those short feet. 
 
 And if these tracks were to be followed up, they 
 would no doubt lead to some poultry yard not far 
 away; for he is very fond both of eggs and of 
 young chickens and birds. 
 
 He wears a white coat in the winter, with a tip 
 of deep black at the tail ; but when summer comes, 
 he will put on a fine suit of reddish brown, with a 
 yellowish-white vest to set it off. 
 
 In other words, the white hairs that make up his 
 winter coat fall out; and as fast as they fall, the 
 
206 
 
 reddish-brown hairs grow in to take their places ; 
 and when winter comes again, the dark hair falls 
 out, and the white hair grows in. 
 
 Animals that shed their coats in this way can 
 easily hide away from their enemies. In winter 
 
 The Weasel and the Bird. 
 
 their white fur can not well be seen among the 
 snowdrifts ; and in summer their brown coats are 
 readily hidden by the low brushwood of the forest. 
 
 But as I have said before, the weasel is very 
 nimble of foot, and is not easily caught at any sea- 
 son of the year. 
 
 He has a very long, slim body, a small head, and 
 
207 
 
 a pointed snout; and when he. is peering about, in 
 search of prey, he curves his neck, in a snakelike 
 manner that makes him look very ugly indeed. 
 
 This animal has many accomplishments. He is 
 a swift runner and climber, a good swimmer, and I 
 once saw a tame weasel that could dance. 
 
 VII. THE NORTHERN HARE. 
 
 Here are the tracks of the soft-footed creature, 
 the hare, and she also changes her garments to suit 
 the season ; for now she is clothed in white. 
 
 And this color, like the weasel's, often helps her 
 to hide herself away from her enemies ; for she can 
 conceal herself in a bank of snow very easily. 
 
 Her summer coat of brown hair shields her in 
 the same way ; for when she hears an enemy on her 
 track, she leaps into a thicket of low bushes, and 
 then it is not an easy thing to find her. 
 
 This timid, innocent creature makes her home in 
 hollow stumps, in brushwood, and in holes in the 
 earth, where she always prepares a nice, warm bed 
 for herself and her babies to lie upon. 
 
 Hares are harmless creatures ; and as they turn 
 back their long, soft ears, and look at you with their 
 great eyes, it almost seems as if they were trying to 
 ask you to befriend them. 
 
208 
 
 It is true that our garden plants sometimes bear 
 the marks of their sharp, chisel-like teeth ; but they 
 will not stray far from the shelter of the forest if 
 they can find any juicy thing to feed upon there. 
 
 They wander about at night, in search of food, 
 and their long hind legs, and broad, furry feet 
 enable them to pass very swiftly over the snow- 
 
 ^ ^ . _^ ; ^ covered earth ; 
 
 sometimes they 
 hunt under the 
 snow, to find 
 the leaves and 
 the berries that 
 are hidden there. 
 When they 
 hear a noise, 
 they stamp upon 
 the ground with 
 their hind feet, 
 and then leap into a thicket of bushes and hide 
 themselves. 
 
 But the hare family have some enemies from 
 which they very seldom escape ; these are the hawk, 
 the owl, and the weasel. 
 
 So when these poor creatures wander about on a 
 cold winter night in search of a bud or a leaf to 
 keep them from starving, they are likely to be 
 
 The Northern Hare. 
 
209 
 
 seized upon at any moment by one of their fierce 
 enemies, and destroyed on the spot. Is it any 
 wonder that they are so timid ? 
 
 VIII. THE MUSKRAT. 
 
 The fur-clad builders of those grass-roofed huts 
 along the creek, yonder, have also left the marks 
 of their feet upon this snowy counterpane. 
 
 These are the hardy muskrats whose front doors 
 open into the water. They have stout, thickset 
 bodies, and are not quite as large as the hares. 
 They have very small eyes and small ears. 
 
 They are homely animals, clad in coats of coarse, 
 dark-brown fur, filled in with shorter, finer hair. 
 Their long, scaly tails are quite flat, and are almost 
 naked. 
 
 They are not afraid of the water, for their feet 
 are webbed and well made for swimming. In fact, 
 they are very fond of diving and swimming ; and a 
 large number of them will often make a quick 
 plunge at once, and play about together in the 
 water for hours at a time. 
 
 When they go to their huts, they swim very near 
 to them, and then dive down under the water and 
 go in at the entrance. 
 
 They go about at night in search of food, and 
 
 KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 14 
 
210 
 
 they generally gnaw the roots and stems of plants 
 that grow along the edge of the stream on which 
 their homes are made. 
 
 But they can not always find what they like best 
 in winter time, and then they must eat such food 
 as falls in their way. 
 
 It is plain that they have made more than one 
 
 The Muskrat. 
 
 visit to that old apple tree that stands on the edge 
 of the forest; for the frozen fruit lying upon the 
 ground bears -the marks of their sharp teeth. 
 
 One might suppose that eating so many hard, 
 frozen apples would give them all the toothache ; 
 but since there are no juicy roots and grasses for 
 them to feed upon, they must take whatever they 
 can find, or starve. 
 
 But these animals are used to hard fare ; their 
 
211 
 
 homes are built of sods and coarse grass, and they 
 have no soft, warm beds inside, such as the birds 
 make up in their nests. 
 
 And yet, they are wise enough to build their huts 
 so high that should the water of the stream rise 
 above their low, mud floors, they can climb up into 
 the loft and nest there. The mother muskrat often 
 has as many as six babies in one nest, and she and 
 her young family generally sleep upstairs. 
 
 IX. THE GRAY SQUIRREL. 
 
 And now we come upon the tracks of a gray 
 squirrel, and what very long leaps he has taken ! 
 But his footprints were all made in the daytime ; 
 for he loves his warm nest too well to go forth into 
 the darkness of a cold winter's night. 
 
 His nut bins are generally not very well filled ; 
 but even if he does run short of stores in the win- 
 ter, he never seems to grow lank and lean like his 
 cousin, the red squirrel. 
 
 It may be that his large, bushy tail gives him a 
 well-fed and thrifty appearance ; for " fine feathers 
 make fine birds," we are told. 
 
 There is a large family of animals called rodents. 
 " Rodent " means " a gnawer," that is, an animal 
 that gnaws the food upon which it feeds, such as 
 
212 
 
 the wood and the bark of trees, the hard shells of 
 nuts, and things of that kind. 
 
 Now our handsome gray squirrel belongs to this 
 family of rodents ; and so do the red squirrel, the 
 chipmunk, the mouse, the hare, and the muskrat. 
 
 These rodents are armed with strong teeth ; and 
 their four front teeth are very sharp. There are 
 two of these teeth in each jaw; and they are 
 shaped like the edge of a chisel. 
 
 The more these chisel-shaped teeth are used, the 
 sharper they become ; and they never wear out, for 
 the growth is always being renewed from the roots. 
 
 No wonder, then, that these animals are so fond 
 of nuts ; for they carry four strong nutcrackers 
 with them wherever they go. 
 
 Do you know the gray squirrel when you see 
 him ? He wears whiskers that are longer than 
 his head, and his nose is somewhat blunt, like 
 that of the red squirrel. 
 
 His cheeks, his nose, and his pretty round ears 
 are of a yellowish-brown color; and there is a 
 stripe of the same shade along his sides. There 
 is also a dull stripe of brown running from the 
 top of his head to his tail. His neck, sides, and 
 hips are of a light gray color, and most of the hairs 
 in his long tail are gray. 
 
 In summer weather, these gray squirrels make 
 
2I 3 
 
 nests for themselves in the forks of a tree ; their 
 nests are made of small twigs and of leaves, and 
 are lined with moss. 
 
 These light, airy nests are their summer homes ; 
 but when winter comes on, they seek a more secure 
 shelter in the deep hollow of some decayed tree. 
 Sometimes as many as five or six baby squirrels 
 may be found in these holes 
 in early springtime, and when 
 caught, they are very easily 
 tamed. 
 
 If they are put into a cage, 
 having a wheel inside of it 
 that will roll round and round 
 whenever they climb upon it, 
 they will keep it moving an 
 hour at a time. 
 
 In fact, they seem to be 
 quite as happy when confined 
 in their wheeled cages as they are when leaping 
 among the leafy branches of the forest trees. 
 
 But they never lose the habit of laying up a store 
 of food for winter use ; and when food is placed in 
 the cage, they eat a portion of it, and hide the rest 
 of it away under the straw matting of the cage. 
 
 Are they not much wiser than some people in 
 thus storing up a morsel for a rainy day? 
 
 The Gray Squirrel. 
 
214 
 
 Now we might go on, and follow these snow 
 tracks for miles and miles, and find in every foot- 
 print an interesting story of the little animal that 
 made it. 
 
 But since I have guided you so far on the way, 
 I am quite sure that you will be able to pursue the 
 rest of the journey by yourselves. 
 
 It will take you a long time to come to the end. 
 In fact, I am afraid that you will never quite 
 reach it. But whether you thread your way 
 through the pathless forest in the long, bright 
 days of summer ; whether you wander beside the 
 margin of some small river or pond ; or whether 
 you follow the curious tracks that are left upon 
 the newly-fallen snow, I do not believe that you 
 will ever grow weary of the journey. For every 
 day will afford you new sights and fresh scenes 
 that will amply repay you for all your toil and 
 trouble. 
 
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 Stories of the East," etc. 
 
 In method and in subject matter, as well as in artistic and me- 
 chanical execution, these new readers will establish an ideal standard 
 equally well adapted for city and country schools. They possess many 
 original and meritorious features which are in accord with the most 
 approved methods of instruction and which it is confidently believed 
 will commend them to the best teachers and the best schools. The 
 illustrations are an important feature of the books, and are the work of 
 the best artists. They are not merely pictures inserted for the purpose 
 of ornament, but are intended to assist in making the reading exercises 
 enjoyable and instructive. 
 
 BALDWIN'S SCHOOL READING BY GRADES 
 
 First Year, 128 pp. 25 cents Fifth Year, 208 pp. . 45 cents 
 
 Second Year, 160 pp. 35 cents Sixth Year, 240 pp. . 50 cents 
 
 Third Year, 208 pp. 45 cents Seventh Year, 240 pp. . 50 cents 
 
 Fourth Year, 208 pp. 45 cents Eighth Year, 240 pp. . 50 cents 
 
 For the convenience of ungraded schools, and for all who may 
 prefer them in such form, an edition corresponding to the ordinary five 
 book series of school readers will be furnished as follows : 
 
 BALDWIN'S SCHOOL READING FIVE BOOK EDITiON 
 
 First Year, 128 pages 25 cents 
 
 Second Year, 160 pages 35 cents 
 
 Third Year, 208 pages 45 cents 
 
 Combined Fourth and Fifth Years. 416 pages . . 70 cents 
 
 Combined Sixth and Seventh Years. 480 pages . . 80 cents 
 
 Copies of either edition of Baldwins School Reading by Grades will be 
 * sent prepaid on receipt of the price by the Publishers : 
 
 American Book Company 
 
 NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO 
 
 /o) 
 
Supplementary Reading 
 
 FOR ELEMENTARY GRADES 
 
 For First Reader Grade 
 
 Lane's Stories for Children . . 
 Easy Steps for Little Feet 
 Johonnot's Book of Cats and Dogs . 
 Johonnot's Grandfather's Stories 
 Rickoff's Supplementary First Reader 
 Wood's Companion First Reader . 
 
 25 cents 
 25 cents 
 
 17 cents 
 27 cents 
 25 cents 
 
 18 cents 
 
 For Second Reader Grade 
 
 Baldwin's Fairy Stories and Fables 
 Baldwin's Fifty Famous Stories Retold . 
 Eggleston's Stories of Great Americans . 
 Golden Book of Choice Reading 
 Johonnot's Stories of Heroic Deeds 
 Johonnot's Friends in Feathers and Fur . 
 
 35 cents 
 35 cents 
 40 cents 
 30 cents 
 30 cents 
 30 cents 
 
 For Third Reader Grade 
 
 Baldwin's Old Greek Stories 
 
 Baldwin's Old Stories of the East . 
 Eggleston's Stories of American Life 
 Kelly's Short Stories of Our Shy Neighbors . 
 Dana's Plants and Their Children . 
 
 Standard Book of Tales 
 
 Johonnot's Stories of Our Country . 
 Johonnot's Stories of Other Lands . 
 Johonnot's Neighbors with Wings and Fins . 
 Johonnot's Curious Flyers, Creepers and Swimmers 
 McGuffey's Familiar Animals . 
 
 45 cents 
 45 cents 
 50 cents 
 50 cents 
 65 cents 
 50 cents 
 40 cents 
 40 cents 
 40 cents 
 40 cents 
 50 cents 
 
 Copies of any of the above books will be sent, prepaid, to any address on 
 receipt of the price by the Publishers : 
 
 American Book Company 
 
 New York 
 
 do) 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Chicago 
 
HISTORICAL READINGS 
 
 FOR THE YOUNG 
 
 Eggleston's Stories of Great Americans for Little 
 Americans 
 
 Cloth, i2mo. 159 pages. Illustrated . 40 cents 
 This book of stories is designed for young pupils of the 
 Second Reader Grade. Its primary aim is to provide 
 reading lessons that will excite attention and give pleasure 
 and thus make the difficult task of learning to read easier. 
 Another purpose is to interest children at an early age in 
 the history of our country by making them familiar with 
 its great characters and leading events. This is most 
 effectively done in this little book by entertaining and 
 instructive stories which every American child ought to 
 know, and by vivid descriptions of scenes and incidents 
 which pertain very largely to the childhood of the great 
 actors represented. 
 
 The numerous illustrations that accompany the text 
 have all been planned with special reference to awakening 
 the child's attention and they add greatly to the lessons 
 and purpose of the book. 
 
 Eggleston's Stories of American Life and Adventure 
 Cloth, i2mo. 214 pages. Illustrated . 50 cents 
 This book, which is intended for the Third Reader 
 Grade, includes reading matter that is intensely attractive 
 and interesting to the young stories of Indian life, of 
 frontier peril and escape, of pioneer adventure and Revolu- 
 tionary daring, of dangerous voyages, explorations, etc. 
 With these are interspersed sketches of the homes and 
 firesides, the dress and manners, the schools and amuse- 
 ments of the early colonial and pioneer periods. The 
 stories of this book represent in a general way every section 
 of our country and every period of its history. 
 
 Copies of the above books will be sent prepaid to any address, on receipt of 
 the price, by the Publishers : 
 
 American Book Company 
 
 New York Cincinnati * Chicago 
 
 (18) 
 
Supplementary Reading 
 
 FOR ELEMENTARY GRADES 
 
 For First Reader Gde 
 
 Crosby's Little Book for Little Folks k . . . $0.30 
 
 Lane's Stories for Children . . , " . . . .25 
 
 Easy Steps for Little Feet . . . . . . .25 
 
 Johonnot's Book of Cats and Dogs .'."'.- . . . .17 
 
 Johonnot's Grandfather's Stories . . . . . .27 
 
 Rickoff's Supplementary First Reader .... .25 
 
 Wood's Companion First Reader . . . . . .18 
 
 For Second Reader Grade 
 
 Baldwin's Fairy Stories and Fables 35 
 
 Baldwin's Fifty Famous Stories Retold 35 
 
 Eggleston's Stories of Great Americans . . . , .40 
 Golden Book of Choice Reading ..... .30 
 
 Johonnot's Stories of Heroic Deeds 30 
 
 Johonnot's Friends in Feathers and Fur . .30 
 
 For Third Reader Grade 
 
 Baldwin's Old Greek Stories 45 
 
 Baldwin's Old Stories of the East 45 
 
 Eggleston's Stories of American Life 50 
 
 Kelly's Short Stories of our Shy Neighbors ... .50 
 
 Standard Book of Tales ....... .50 
 
 Johonnot's Stories of our Country ..... .40 
 
 Johonnot's Stories of Other Lands 40 
 
 Johonnot's Neighbors with Wings and Fins ... .40 
 
 Johonnot's Curious Flyers, Creepers, and Swimmers . . .40 
 McGuffey's Familiar Animals ...... .50 
 
 Holbrook's 'Round the Year in Myth and Song ... .60 
 
 Carpenter's Geographical Reader Asia 60 
 
 Copies of any of the above books will be sent prepaid to any address, on 
 receipt of the price by the Publishers : 
 
 American Book Company 
 
 NEW YORK * CINCINNATI * CHICAGO 
 
 (IQ) 
 
Supplementary Reading 
 
 FOR INTERMEDIATE GRADES 
 
 Defoe's Robinson Crusoe $0.50 
 
 Guerber's Story of the Greeks . .' . . . . '- . .60 
 
 Guerber's Story of the Romans . . . . . ... .60 
 
 Guerber's Story of the Chosen People . . . . . .60 
 
 Clarke's Story of Troy . . . . . ... . .60 
 
 Clarke's Story of Aeneas 
 
 Clarke's Story of Caesar . . 
 
 Clarke's Arabian Nights . . 6C 
 
 Johonnot's Stories of the Olden Time 5* 
 
 Johonnot's Ten Great Events in History . . . . . .54 
 
 Johonnot's Neighbors with Claws and Hoofs .... .54 
 
 McGuffey's Living Creatures of Water, Land, and Air . , .50 
 Dana's Plants and their Children . . . . . . ,65 
 
 Readings in Nature's Book .65 
 
 Geographical Reader and Primer 60 
 
 Monteith's Popular Science Reader . . . . . . .75 
 
 Seven American Classics (Standard Series) .... .50 
 
 Seven British Classics (Standard Series) ..... .50 
 
 Herrick's Chapters on Plant Life 60 
 
 Treat's Home Studies in Nature .90 
 
 Johonnot's Glimpses of the Animate World . . . . 1.00 
 
 Cooper's Animal Life . . . . . . . .1.25 
 
 Johonnot's Geographical Reader . . . ' . . .1.00 
 Van Bergen's History of Japan ...... 1.00 
 
 Shepherd's Historical Readings ...... 1.00 
 
 Skinner's Readings in Folk-Lore 1.00 
 
 Copies of any of these Supplementary Readers will be sent prepaid to any 
 address, on receipt of the price by the Publishers : 
 
 American Book Company 
 
 NEW YORK * CINCINNATI * CHICAGO 
 
Important New School Books 
 
 READING 
 
 Baldwin's School Readings by Grades. 
 
 First Year . $0.25 Sixth Year .... $0.50 
 
 Second Year . .35 Seventh Year .... .50 
 
 Third Year . .45 Eighth Year 50 
 
 Fourth Year f .45 Combined Fourth and Fifth Years . .70 
 
 Fifth Year . . .45 Combined Sixth and Seventh Years .80 
 
 SPELLING 
 
 Patterson's American Word Book ..... .25 
 
 ARITHMETIC 
 
 Baird's Graded Work in Arithmetic Four Books. 
 
 Milne's Mental Arithmetic ....... .35 
 
 GEOGRAPHY 
 
 Natural Elementary Geography . . . . . . .60 
 
 Natural Advanced Geography ...... 
 
 ENGLISH 
 
 Metcalf and Bright' s Language Lessons. Part I. . . .35 
 The Same. Part II. . . . '. . . . .55 
 
 Metcalf s Elementary English 40 
 
 Metcalf s English Grammar for Common Schools . '. .60 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 McMaster's School History of the United States . . 1.00 
 
 PENMANSHIP 
 
 Spencerian Penmanship, Vertical Edition. 
 
 Shorter Course, Nos. i to 7 .... Perdoz., .72 
 Common School Course, Nos. I to 6 . " .96 
 
 Curtiss's Vertical Copy Books, 6 numbers . . .96 
 
 Ward's Graded Lessons in Penmanship and Spelling. 
 
 Small Numbers, I to 6 : . . . Per doz., .72 
 
 Large Numbers, I to 6 . . . .96 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 Natural Advanced Music Reader 1.00 
 
 Betz's Gems of School Songs 70 
 
 Copies of any of the above books will be sent, prepaid, to any address on 
 receipt of the price by the Publishers : 
 
 American Book Company 
 
 NEW YORK * CINCINNATI * CHICAGO 
 
 (49) 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 5O CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 
 JUN 8 1936 
 
 
 JUN 10 193fi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LD 21-100m-7,'33