THE PAPER WASP AND HIS DOINGS 97 
the every-day capers, which have not helped his 
reputation, as I observed them on the crowded 
porch of a summer hotel in the White Moun- 
tains several years ago. It was in September, 
and about twenty guests, mostly ladies and " sum- 
mer girls," were assembled in a quiet social con- 
vention. 
Suddenly there was a scream, as one of the fair 
ones, with a frantic, vigorous stroke of uplifted 
fan, distorted face, and a cross-eyed glare, clutched 
her roll of fancy-work and fled to the house. " Did 
he sting you ?" asked her friend, who readily fol- 
lowed her in the door. " The horrid hornet !" she 
exclaimed. " No, he didn't sting me, but he would 
have done if I hadn't hit him just that minute. 
He flew right at me in the ugliest way!" The 
words were hardly out of her mouth when another 
scream was heard, followed by a general clear- 
ing of the piazza. There were now two or three 
" mad " hornets making themselves generally pro- 
miscuous among the guests. At the last general 
alarm one gentleman, an old bachelor, who sat 
tilted back in his chair near by, remarked, with 
an expression of superior disdain at such a silly 
exhibition of feminine weakness: " Why, ladies, 
the hornet won't sting you if you'll only let him 
alone ; he has been buzzing around here for an 
hour, and hasn't stung anybody yet." 
At this moment, as fate would have it, the rov- 
7 
