CAVE-DWELLING INSECTS. ir,7 



"Doctor, Doctor !" called the Mistress, "how dare 

 j^ou ? That 's my vinegar jug !" 



" Pardon, madam," said the Dominie, " I meant no 

 harm ; hut I perceive that it is true, as our old writing- 

 copy affirmed, ' Comparisons are odious.' " 



In the meantime, quite unmolested by the bees, we 

 had followed the underground gallery, which soon 

 widened into what was evidently the burrow of a mole. 

 It led in a zigzag course toward the hot-bed frame. 



"Why, Harry," I said, "your two nests will turn 

 out to be one, I think." 



So it proved. After tracing the burrow for a dis- 

 tance of five feet, Ave came upon the nest. It lay in a 

 cavity seven or eight inches in diameter, the floor of 

 which Avas eighteen inches from the surface. 



As the yellow cells of the bumble-bees showed amid 

 the torn shreds of their gray mattress of curled hay, 

 the boys cried out : 



" Here it is ! Here it is !" 



The Mistress left the shelter of her tree, with head 

 wrapped in a scarf; the Doctor pulled his hat-brims 

 around his ears ; Julia threw up her check apron until 

 it wholly enveloped her head ; Abby wore her hat, and 

 had twisted a kerchief around her neck. What they 

 saAV through the broken Avail of the cave Avas a round 

 bundle of dry chopped grass, about the bigness of one's 

 head, lying on the floor, sprinkled with the yellow soil 

 fallen from our digging. 



" Look out now !" 



Haifa dozen bees rose from the pulverized ruins of 



