TRANSLATORS' PREFACE 



this book and others of the series plays the story- 

 teller's part, is not hard to guess; and the young 

 people who gather about him to listen to his true 

 stories from wood and field, from brook and hilltop, 

 from distant ocean and adjacent millpond, are, with- 

 out doubt, the author's own children, in whose com- 

 panionship he delighted and whose education he 

 conducted with wise solicitude. 



In his unselfish eagerness to see the truths of nat- 

 ural science brought within the comprehension and 

 the enjoyment of all, Fabre would have been the first 

 to wish for a wide circulation for his own books in 

 many countries and many languages; and thus, 

 though it is now too late to obtain his authorization 

 of these translations, one cannot regard it as a wrong 

 to his memory to do what may lie in one's power to 

 spread the knowledge he has so wisely and wittily, 

 with such insight and ingenuity, imparted to those 

 of his own country and tongue. 



It remains to add that in the following pages the 

 somewhat stiff dialogue form of the original has 

 given place to the more attractive and flexible narra- 

 tive style, with as little violence as possible to the 

 author's text. 



