The Collaborators 



with Nature and the animal creation. If 

 they are ever so little wide-awake, they are at 

 once, for him, friends whose society he seeks 

 and helpers whose assistance he appreciates. 

 Such is the " young shepherd, a friend of the 

 household," who is without a peer in catch- 

 ing the pill-rolling beetles, 1 so greatly does he 

 excel in profiting by the truly exceptional ad- 

 vantages which the pastoral calling offers 

 from this point of view. 



In such company insect-hunting is so en- 

 gaging and profitable that our naturalist de- 

 cides to accompany him. Among these mem- 

 orable mornings there is one which deserves 

 particular mention, for it was truly a his- 

 toric occasion: 



The young shepherd who had been told in his 

 spare time to watch the doings of the Sacred Beetle 

 came to me in high spirits, one Sunday in the lat- 

 ter part of June, to say that he thought the time 

 had come to begin our investigations. He had de- 

 tected the insect issuing from the ground, had dug 

 at the spot where it made its appearance, and had 

 found, at no great depth, the queer thing which he 

 was bringing me. 



Queer it was, and calculated to upset the little 

 that I thought I knew. In shape it was exactly 

 like a tiny pear that had lost all its fresh colour 



1 Souvenirs, v., pp. 43-44. The Sacred Beetle and 

 Others, chap, iv., "The Sacred Beetle: The Pear." 

 267 



