Of True Bugs in General. 87 



" Yes, ma'am." 

 ' And will you ever? ' 



Yes, ma'am no, ma'am, no, ma'am, no, ma'am. I 

 won't. I won't ever do so again, if you don't lick me this 

 time." 



You'd better not. Now mind. I know just how 

 many eggs there are, and if I find one gone there'll be 

 trouble, do you understand ? ' 



Yes, ma'am." 



With the exception of the actual wording of this dia- 

 logue it is a true and faithful account of the event. I 

 have condensed the struggle, but it sometimes lasts for 

 hours before the male surrenders. After this Appo- 

 mattox he watches his chance to scrape off the constitu- 

 tional amendments (with his own and not his grand- 

 father's claws), and, failing in this, he sulks and mopes. 

 A very lively bug naturally, when disgrace and shame are 

 thus put upon him openly, he seems to say, ; Welcome 

 death ! ' If some other bug comes up to him and steps 

 on his foot or slaps him down, he doesn't take it up. All 

 the pluck is clean gone out' of him. What a lesson ! What 

 a lesson to the wives of America ! Ah, ladies, you little 

 think what irreparable mischief you are at when you make 

 your poor husbands crawl out of a warm bed on a cold 

 morning to light the kitchen fire, or when you interrupt 

 them, when they are reading the paper, with unreasonable 

 requests for a bucket of coal or but I forbear to put new 

 devilment into your head by suggesting other chores that 

 perhaps you hadn't thought of. It were a poor exchange 

 that gained a few paltry armfuls of kindling and lost the 

 aggressive, dominating manhood of the race ! 



o 



As I was saying before you interrupted me, the bed- 

 But suppose we begin another chapter. 



