The Collaborators 



his proposals, even if he was not forestalled 

 by their offers of service. Allured by the coin 

 or the slice of bread and jam, or the sugar- 

 plums, and also, we may say, stimulated by 

 the evident good faith of the master, and 

 the delightful drollery o-f his enterprises, all 

 the juvenile unemployed of Serignan vie with 

 one another as purveyors to the entomologi- 

 cal laboratory. They zealously keep the lar- 

 der of the Scarabaei supplied, without neg- 

 lecting that of the Sexton-beetles and tutti 

 quanti. Thanks to them, not a creature in 

 the entomological laboratory goes hungry. 

 The most difficult to provide for have al- 

 ways a well-spread table, although this is 

 not always easy to ensure. One has to al- 

 low for the thoughtlessness of children and 

 the hazards of the chase. 



But in spite of their heedlessness, and be- 

 cause of their very ingenuousness, there are 

 connections in which the child is an incom- 

 parable helper, difficult or even impossible 

 to replace. This Fabre was often to prove. 



To continue an investigation into the ol- 

 factory faculties of insects a moth is re- 

 quired which is rather rare and difficult to 

 capture. Can he obtain this moth? 



Yes, I shall find him; indeed I have him al- 

 ready. A little chap of seven, with a wide-awake 

 265 



