COMPANIONS OF MY SOLITUDE. 157 



beside the stream a kind of plant with a number 

 of caterpillars feeding on it. Both caterpillars 

 and plant were alike unknown to me, so I caught 

 some of the almost full-grown worms, and pulled 

 up some branches of the plants to take home 

 with me for food for my captives. 



I concealed the caterpillars in a box, but the 

 long branches of the plant were not so easily 

 hidden. However, the plant was a very common- 

 place-looking one, there being nothing about it 

 to excite any one's curiosity. But it is ever my 

 doom to fall into the hands of the inquisitive. 

 I suppose that bug-hunters generally meet such 

 questioners, but I hardly expected to be accosted 

 on a city street beside a railroad track. 



I had taken the dummy and horse-car back to 

 the city, and I stood near the station waiting for 

 my train, when I was approached by a woman 

 whom I am not aware of ever having seen be- 

 fore, and whom I hope never to meet again. 



" What is that you have there ? " asked she, 

 looking at my branches. 



" I don't know what it is. Some kind of weed," 

 I answered. 



" You ought to know what you 're getting," 

 responded the woman, calmly picking a good- 

 sized leaf from my bundle, and holding the crum- 

 pled-up green thing to her nose. 



" It is n't anything, is it ? " she went on. 



"Why, I suppose it is something," I answered, 

 " but I don't know the name." 



