ADVENTURES BY THE WAY. 



numberless strange things leaf insects, walking- 

 stick insects (exactly like dry twigs), and the fierce, 

 tall, praying mantis with their mock air of meek- 

 ness and devotion. Let one of the other insects 

 stray within reach and their piety was quickly 

 enough abandoned ! One beetle about three- 

 eighths of an inch across was oblong in shape and 

 of pure glittering gold. His wing covers, on the 

 other hand, were round and transparent. The 

 effect was of a jewel under a tiny glass case. 

 Other beetles were of red dotted with black, 

 or of black dotted with red ; they sported stripes, 

 or circles of plain colours ; they wore long, 

 slender antennae, or short knobby horns ; they 

 carried rapiers or pinchers, long legs or short. 

 In fact they ran the gamut of grace and horror, 

 so that an inebriate would find here a great rest 

 for the imagination. 



After we had gone to bed we noticed more 

 pleasantly our cricket. He piped up, you may 

 remember, the night of the first great storm. 

 That evening he took up his abode in some fold 

 or seam of our tent, and there stayed throughout 

 all the rest of the journey. Every evening he 

 tuned up cheerfully, and we dropped to sleep to 

 the sound of his homelike piping. We grew very 

 fond of him, as one does of everything in this 



