372 Next to the Ground 



weird tales of boys and girls poisoned by eat- 

 ing " locusted blackberries," or mulberries, 

 or plums, or peaches. But Joe and Patsy 

 laughed at the tales, ate all the fruit they 

 wanted, and were never the worse for it. 

 The reason may have been that they kept 

 themselves too busy and too happy to think 

 of falling ill. Day time or night, there was 

 always something to entertain them. The 

 lamps were no more than lighted, for example, 

 before there were all sorts of things flying in. 

 All of them, of course, had to be looked at, 

 but what delighted the children most were 

 the ponderous black things they called Betty 

 bugs. 



The Bettys were bigger and solider than 

 any other flying things they knew. Some of 

 them were oval, or rather terrapin-shape, and 

 quite as big as small terrapin. Others were 

 longish, and nearly as broad at the head as 

 through the body. These long gentlemen 

 had curious crescent-shaped horns projecting 

 either side from their foreheads. They were, 

 further, jointed a little less than half way 

 their length. Long or oval, the Bettys had 

 hard shells, glossy, as black as charcoal, and 

 finely ridged up and down. They sailed in 

 almost straight to the light, veered wildly, 

 flew round and round, then bumped against 

 walls or ceiling, and came croppers on the 



