BUGS. 93 



sonny, keep on eating them — our doctor, the black- 

 smith, says they are good for fever." 



Considered as a whole, the Insects of this order are 

 not as injurious as are Caterpillars and many grubs, 

 but some of them are quite destructive, as, for in- 

 stance, the Plant-lice, which absorb so much of the 

 juices of vegetables as to cause their decay. The 

 Cochineal is the only Insect of this Order from which 

 we derive great benefit, and that is of vast importance 

 as a colouring substance. I say the only one — I ought, 

 perhaps, to include the much-despised Bed-bug, for 

 which I always had a great aversion until I accident- 

 ally learnt its utility. Some few years ago I fell in 

 with an industrious mechanic, who had a wife and four 

 half-grown children, living in Avenue B, New York, 

 — all healthy, industrious, and in thriving circum- 

 stances. He told me that they all worked every day 

 from three o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock 

 at night ; and when I expressed my astonishment at 

 their being able to work so hard with only four hours' 

 sleep at night, he answered that they could not do 

 otherwise, for they could not go to bed until from the 

 want of sleep they were sufficiently benumbed to be in- 

 sensible to the stings of the Bed-bugs, who after about 

 four hours would overcome their insensibility and 

 oblige them to leave their beds. Here behold the 

 utility of Bed-bugs ! they make industrious and wealthy. 



