CHINCH-BUGS 115 



rushed like a pack of wolves. The geese, flapping 

 their wings, began a retreat which soon became a 

 rout. They scattered pell-mell off the ridge into 

 the water below and swam away. When the boys 

 reached the uplands they stopped and waited for 

 Mr. Minter. When he came up he said, "Boys, I 

 wish that they had been chinch-bugs." 



"We should be heroes then/' the boys replied. 



"Yes," said Harry, "we should have earned our 

 ride already, for we surely routed them and scouted 

 them, nor lost a single man." The boys all laughed 

 and walked on. 



When they came to a wire fence at the edge of a 

 cotton field Sammy exclaimed, "By the way, boys, 

 I nearly forgot something. I have with me here 

 little bottles with dead chinch-bugs in them, one 

 bottle for each of you. The other evening papa hap- 

 pened to recall that he had gathered a lot of them 

 last summer and put them in a bottle. He put them 

 in these small bottles and asked me to give each of 

 you one of them so you would know chinch-bugs 

 when you met them and not make the mistake 

 of taking a chipmunk or a field-mouse for one of 

 them." 



With much laughter the boys took the bottles, 

 agreeing that this was very thoughtful of Mr. 

 Sprague. Each boy examined the bugs in his 

 bottle with squinting eyes. 



