34 THE SWAN AND HER CREW. 



us part of our holiday at the end of May or beginning of 

 June, and we will take a cruise over all the rivers and 

 broads of Norfolk and Suffolk. We could do it nicely in three 

 weeks and scour every inch of the country in that time. What 

 do you say? I will undertake to get my father's consent 

 and Mrs. Brett's. What will Sir Richard say, Dick ? " 



" If you go, Frank, I am sure he will let me go ; he has 

 every confidence in you, and that you will keep us all out of 

 mischief." 



" I will try. Then it is agreed that we go." 



" Most certainly. Frank will go in for birds'-nesting, Dick 

 will catch butterflies and moths, and I must try to do some- 

 thing in the way of botany." 



" And now it is time to go in ; but before we go I just want 

 to say that there is an old willow-tree down by the Broad 

 which father thinks is an eyesore. I think that it is a likely 

 tree in which to find the caterpillars of the goat-moth, which 

 you know live on the wood of a willow, and eat long tunnels 

 and galleries in it. What do you say to blowing the tree up 

 with gunpowder? it is only good for firewood, and perhaps 

 we may find some caterpillars. Shall we get up early in the 

 morning, bore a big hole into the heart of the tree, and fill it 

 with gunpowder, set a train to it, and blow the whole affair up?" 



Such a proposal was sure to meet with consent, and at seven 

 o'clock the next morning the boys were down at the tree, 

 boring a large hole into it. 



The caterpillar of the great goat-moth feeds upon the wood 

 of timber trees, notably oak, willow, and poplar. He is a 

 smooth, ugly fellow of a red and yellow colour, with black 

 feet and claws. He makes extensive galleries through the 

 heart of a tree, eating and swallowing all that he gnaws away 

 from the wood in his onward passage. 



During the summer he eats . his way slowly through the tree, 

 making numerous and winding galleries ; but during the 

 autumn and winter he takes a siesta, first casing himself in a 

 strong covering made of chips of wood and the silk which he 

 weaves. The next summer he renews his work, and so he 

 lives and grows for the space of three years, and then turns into 

 the pupae state, and emerges about July a dark brown but not 

 unlovely moth, which lives for a few weeks and then lays its 

 eggs and dies. 



