■.m TENANTt^ OF AN OLD FARM. 



' Uowii in a coal mine uiulerncatli the ground, 

 Digging dusky diamonds all the year round.' 



" But here is a destiny -whose intolerable dreariness, 

 even for a young bug, passes imagination. It paralyzes 

 one's pity by its very magnitude. Dear, dear, what a 

 monotonous flite !" 



" Xo doubt. Miss Abby, your sympathy would be 

 quite wasted upon our Cicada pupa', wlio are enough 

 lilve many of our ow'n species to hud a paradise in the 

 most monotonous round of untliinking and inactive ex- 

 istence. As the years roll on, the four small, scale-like 

 prominences on the Cicada's backs, wliich represent 

 and actually contain their future wings, begin to swell. 

 The long period of pubation is nearly done. Indeed 

 life, at last, is nearly over, and it is to end in a brief 

 glory of sunliglit, wings, love and music. There is a 

 strange stir in the thin blood of the insects that bids 

 them mount upward. They cut their way through the 

 soil by cylindrical passages, often very circuitous, the 

 sides of which are firmly cemented and varnished so as 

 to be waterproof. These buri'ows are about five-eighths 

 of an inch in diameter, are filled below with eartliy 

 matter removed by the pupa in its progress. They can 

 be traced by the color and compactness of their con- 

 tents to the depth of from one to two feet, according to 

 the nature of the soil. The upper portion, to the ex- 

 tent of six or eight inches, is empty, and serves as a 

 Jiabitation for the insect until the period for its exit 

 arrives. Here it remains during several days, ascend- 

 ing to the top of the hole in line weather for the benefit 



