A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



that he has himself made that will tolerate his 

 impertinence. While I sat there thinking of 

 financial combinations that had been cut short, 

 and saying to myself, &quot; The bulls are up in Ber 

 lin and the Boerse is bellowing,&quot; another June 

 bug hit me on the nose and fell over on his back 

 on the table. Several more came in, bombarded 

 my lamp-stand, and fell dead. There was quite 

 a row of them on the Doctor s letter with their 

 claws up. Harmless, jolly little imps of the 

 darkness, they seemed at that moment to be 

 punctuating the night s contempt for me. They 

 recalled to me a vanished estate when they and I 

 were on better terms. All at once the name 

 came back through the window like the bug him 

 self Phyllopertba horticola. It was as plain as 

 some of the adages in my old copy-book, and 

 along with it my juvenile translation &quot;leaf- 

 eating, garden-haunting acrobat.&quot; Always he 

 came with the early roses and the first hot, dry 

 spell. And always without steering apparatus, he 

 ran foul of everything, and always got the worst 

 of it. Now, either he or I was an impertinence. 

 Night with these winged succubi was tedious. I 

 looked at Charlie. His head was on his arm. 

 How far away he appeared to be. Nothing could 

 annoy him, for the same night that was bombard 

 ing me had her protective arm around him. I 

 made a memorandum on the margin of the Doc- 



o 



tor s letter. &quot; Get mosquito netting, and send 

 for book on entomology.&quot; Then I blew the 

 light out and went to bed. 



24 



