88 THREE KINGDOMS. 



with my collection. But one of my caterpillars does act so 

 funny. It is the caterpillar of that moth the Polyphemus, 

 is it ? I found him two days ago, and put him in my box. He 

 seemed very sluggish. If I turned him over, he would very 

 slowly turn himself over back again ; but I thought perhaps he 

 was going to change his skin, or something like that. The next 

 afternoon I looked at him, and there were hundreds of little 

 worms coming out of holes in his skin (horrid things!). I was 

 going to burn him up, but decided to wait and see what would 

 come of it. The next morning nearly all of them had changed 

 into little grayish-brown cocoons, and tumbled off, leaving tiny 

 holes in his skin, and now he is twisting about like a good fellow. 



ANNIE BOSWORTH. 



The sequel to this tragedy was told in a subsequent 

 letter from the same writer. 



' My poor worm died the day after I wrote you, and a day or 

 two after the little rice-houses began to open, and hundreds of 

 tiny flies came out from them, but I threw them away in disgust." 



