72 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



Numbers of other larvae of no names perished 

 in their infancy. The Monarch of Mortar Lake, 

 however, deserves honorable mention. I am al- 

 most certain that, if the Sexton of the Grave- 

 yard of Beetles had left the Monarch alone, he 

 would have come out as a beetle. But said Sex- 

 ton was too officious, and to that may be ascribed 

 the Monarch's death. I am sure his intentions 

 were all right. He was the only one of all the 

 larvae that managed, after forming a round cell, to 

 pull off his skin and become a pupa. 



The Monarch had left the watery for the earthy 

 element on the 7th of May. The 8th of June 

 an unlucky fit of curiosity seized me and I ex- 

 plored the depths to see what had become of 

 him. I found that he had made a good-sized 

 round hole as big as a small potato. Inside the 

 cell was the old skin overcoat that the Monarch 

 had worn as a larva. Outside, below the cell, 

 having evidently tumbled out through my fault, 

 was the Monarch himself, but so changed that 

 one would hardly have known him, for he was 

 very much fatter than he had been as a larva, 

 and was now a big, white pupa, with legs folded 

 on his breast, and dull, black eyes showing under 

 the white. He looked as if he were made of con- 

 densed milk. After this the Monarch turned 

 dark, but the poor fellow never came out, for the 

 Sexton had been his murderer. 



The next time that I undertake to raise 



