Fore Talk 5 



There are some beetles so large that they would 

 frighten timid people and some so small that one 

 must use a magnifying glass to properly see them. 

 They are all of them strong in proportion to their 

 size; many of them are armed with pincers, like 

 the well-known pinch "bug" of the Southwest, the 

 friend and playmate of my youth. Xot long since 

 when 1 was travelling in the southwest, one of them 

 flew into the car window and fell on the floor along- 

 side of me, then reared up its familiar mahogany- 

 colored body and opened its jaws ready to fight the 

 whole world. I had not seen a hve one since I was 

 a boy and I felt like hugging the saucy little fighter. 

 The vagrant poodle told of in " Tom Sawyer," 

 came idling along the aisle of the church and sat 

 on one of these same pinch " bugs." A pinch 

 " bug " rightly administered can always create con- 

 siderable excitement. 



Besides tumble " bugs " and pinch " bugs " 

 there are beetles of such brilliant colors that they 

 look like jewels and people wear them set in 

 brooches, stick-pins, sleeve-buttons and ear-rings. 

 Some beetles carry lights at night on their shoulder- 

 blades, others carry a lantern at the end of their 

 jointed body, some are queer, some are funny, some 



