THE BLACK BILL-BUG OF CORN 



25 



have laughed had they considered it safe. No one 

 laughed, you may be sure, or if he did he took good 

 care that his father should not see him, because he 

 was not in a humor to see 

 anything funny about this. 



Johnny had to goto school 

 the rest of the week, and he 

 saw farmers all around him 

 harvesting corn. When he 

 came from school the first 

 evening after his father had 

 found the beetles, he asked 

 him whether he had found 

 any more. 



"No," his father answered, 

 "I cut dozens of stalks open 

 to-day, but I did not find 

 another beetle.' 7 



So it was the rest of the 

 week. His father had been 

 cutting stalks but had found 

 no more beetles. On Satur- 

 day morning all the corn had 

 been gathered, and only the 

 stubble were left in the fields. There was much 

 other work to do at this time of the year, so that 

 the beetles were soon forgotten. One very cold 

 morning in January, as Johnny started to school, 



FIG. 12. "But what they did 

 do is enough." 



