"What does Mamma Lace-Wing do with her eggs?" inquired Mrs. Reece.
"Each egg which she lays has a tiny stem, and the stems are fastened to a leaf or twig. When the babies hatch out they crawl down onto the leaf and hunt around for something to eat. Perhaps if they knew more they would crawl up the little egg stems and eat their own brothers and sisters."
"Oh, what cannibals!" cried Betty.
"Yes, it is not pleasant, this Fiji Island of the insects, but it is their nature."
"They do seek their meat from G.o.d," murmured Mrs. Reece.
"Yes, it is a mystery," answered the old man. "But, dear me, I have forgotten my story. Well, in about ten days they find a nicely sheltered spot and spin a little silken coc.o.o.n about themselves. In this they stay for a couple of weeks, while they are changing into grown-up lace-wings.
When they are finished they cut a round door in their silken house, spread their gauzy wings, stretch their delicate green bodies, rub their eyes in wonder at the sunny world, and fly away to lay some little eggs on slender stems just like those which their mothers laid and from which they came."
"See," said Jimmie, "what a place for camping!"
"But it is too near home," objected Peter. "We could get here in two hours."
"So we could," admitted Jimmie.
"Tell us something about the cousins, sir," said Jack.
"We can"t have much more now," replied the guide, "for we shall have to stop for luncheon soon. But I"ll tell you about a little fellow called the ant-lion. Along the side of almost any country path or road, if you keep your eyes open, you may notice some day little pits of sand with sloping sides, and down at the bottom of this is a hole. The hole is very dark, and unless you look sharply you will think it just a hole.
But if you examine it you will see a little head and two little sharp, curved jaws. These are the jaws of the ant-lion, lying in wait to gobble up the first pa.s.ser-by. The rest of the body is in a little tunnel burrowed out in the sand. They get their name, I suppose, because they think an ant an excellent dinner. They lie there knowing very well that Mr. and Mrs. Ant will surely slip on the steep-sloping sides. And if by any chance they don"t, these ant-lions have been seen to throw up sand with their heads in order to hit a helpless little ant and knock it down into the pit."
The children exclaimed at this cleverness.
"After it has eaten its fill, this cruel, greedy fellow makes a little room for itself of fine grains of sand firmly held together with silky fibres. In this room it lies quietly, sometimes all winter, until it changes into a grown-up ant-lion with four long, narrow wings. Then Mrs.
Ant-Lion lays her eggs in the sand, and when the young ones hatch out they build the "pits of destruction" which I told you about. What book is it, children, that uses the "pit of destruction" so often as a figure?"
"The Bible!" shouted Peter, who was the minister"s son in Rangeley Village.
"Good! Now, no more for the present, and here we are at a splendid place for luncheon--clear spring, dry ground, handy wood, and all."
The canoe beached noiselessly on the river"s edge, the boys jumped out with a whoop, and soon luncheon and frying-pans were out of the canoes, and there was the sound of the axe chopping the dry wood, the good smell of smoke, and the sizzling of bacon. Betty and Hope went for water. The boys fetched wood. Mrs. Reece and the guide took care of the luncheon, Mrs. Reece spreading the table on the ground, and the guide frying the potatoes and bacon.
"Oh, mother," said Jimmie, "what does make things taste so good out-of-doors?"
"I"m sure I don"t know."
"And, mother," asked Betty, "what does make everything so pretty?"
"You ask mother a hard question."
"And oh, Mrs. Reece," exclaimed Jack, his thin, eager face shining with excitement, "everything in the world is so wonderful!"
"It"s all so different in the winter," said Peter, in between bites of bread-and-b.u.t.ter. "It isn"t half so nice, but I suppose it would be lovely if we could have you and Mr. Gile--"
"You dear child!"
"It is about three miles above here," the guide spoke, "on the last of the Dead River Ponds, where we shall find our first camping ground. I want you to look at it."
"And we"ll be gone days and days."
"Goody! goody!" called Betty, clapping her hands. "And we"ll sleep out-of-doors, cook out-of-doors, and do everything out-of-doors."
Every one smiled with her, for there was not a person there who was not looking forward with happiness to this trip.
"Before we start on I"ll smoke my pipe," said the old man.
"Then, please, sir, won"t you tell us something else?" asked Betty.
"Why, I have nothing left in my head, you child."
"Oh, please, sir, you said there was another cousin called the caddis-worm."
"So I did," said the old man. "Fetch me that stone, Jack." He pointed to a stone lying in the water. Jack brought it to him, and he broke something off from it. "What"s that?"
"That"s a stick," answered Betty.
"No, that"s not a stick, that"s a caddis-worm. This little fellow, unlike some spoiled children I know, has to find its own dinner, change its own clothes, tuck itself into bed, and build its own house. And it is brighter than some children I know," said the old man, looking kindly at Peter. "The caddis-worm builds itself different kinds of houses. Some of the houses are shaped like the horns you blow on the Fourth of July, and one kind of house is made of the finest sand, fastened together with bands of finest silk, which the caddis spins. Our caddis-worm has patience," said the old man, shaking his head and looking at Jimmie--"patience, plenty of patience." He puffed away at his pipe for a few seconds. "Some build rougher houses, choosing small pebbles instead of sand. Of these it builds a long tube. Others make a little green summer cottage with twigs, gra.s.ses, and pine-needles, from which they build an attractive bungalow by laying down four pieces and crossing the ends like this: # These cottages are built about an inch long, and in them the young caddis-worms have a cool and cosey summer home. Often these little houses have silken hangings inside. The little owners fasten the hooks at the ends of their bodies to these and moor themselves securely."
"What do you call it a worm for?" asked Mrs. Reece.
"Well, it looks a little like a worm. It has a long, slender body, but it has six jointed legs, which real worms don"t have. See this fellow!"
Ben Gile pulled the worm out of its case.
"Oh, see! part of the body is so pale and soft!"
"That, child, is because it is always covered by the little house. The front end and the legs, however, are darker. That"s sunburn, I suppose."
"When young Master Caddis-Worm goes out for a swim or a walk it pushes its six legs out-of-doors, and walks along, carrying its house with it.
Very convenient, you see! No doors to lock! And if it gets tired it does not have to walk home; it just walks in and goes to sleep under a nice, smooth stone. Some roam about and some stay at home. These creatures are pretty much like human beings in their ways.
"One of the young caddis-worms prefers fishing to walking, like some other young fellows I know. On a stone near its house it spins a fine web, turned up-stream, so that any tender little insects floating down-stream get lodged in it. An easy way to get your dinner--just to go to a net and eat."
The guide paused for a long time, clouds of smoke circling about his white beard and white hair. The children thought he would never go on.
"I"ve had something on my mind for days," he said, "and I"ll speak of it now. The boy or girl who learns most about the ants before September 15th shall win a prize. This prize is to be a magnifying-gla.s.s, a book of colored plates of the insects, very beautiful and very big, and a five-dollar gold piece."
"A prize, a prize!" shouted the children, jumping madly about, while Mrs. Reece and the guide smiled at each other.
"Now we"ve had our dinner, our rest, our pipe of peace, a plan for a prize, and we must push on for the camping-ground. Get the canoes ready."
And, with laughter and talking, the canoes were off up the river again.
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