AN UNWELCOME VISITANT. 397 



she repeated ; " I see his horns" and sure enough, by the 

 nicker of the dull fire-light there appeared protruding from 

 the cranny a long pair of waving antennae. Dolly, eager to be 

 assured that it was the cricket's self, caught a candle from the 

 mantel-shelf, lighted, and held it under the grate opposite the 

 cavity. Its occupant was not dislodged, because probably it 

 was afraid to advance, and had no retreating passage in its 

 rear ; so motionless it sat, staring at the light or its examiner, 

 who screamed with at least equal terror on discovery of what 

 it was. It was no cricket after all, but a dark brother of the 

 same order one of those broad, flat-bodied, night -loving, all- 

 devouring, all- polluting, ill-scented creatures, the objects, as we 

 have seen, of Mrs. Dove's especial hate and horror. 



" It's only a cockroach," said I. " Only ! dear/' returned 

 Dolly. " You may call it a cockroast ; but I knows it well ; 

 'tis a black beadle one of the very same I saw when I was 

 a girl at Mortiplurne's, and never since. There they came by 

 hundreds, and that was bad enough ; but here, in this poor 

 old house, it has come ly one, and that's worse, for it's sure for 

 certain to be the forerunner of a death, here, in the family, or 

 not far off." ' ' Nonsense, Dolly," said I ; " it's not come to 

 foretell death, but to pick up its own living, the crumbs, 

 perhaps, at our tea-time ; for it's as fond, every bit, of bread 

 and butter as your own cricket ; but I'll read to you after 

 tea all about it, and show you its picture, or Lucy shall, in 

 one of Uncle's books. I'll go and fetch it before it's quite 



