FROGS, BOYS, AND OTHER SMALL DEER. 197 



up in the air on five-sixteeiith-of-an-inch long 

 stems, much as real beans hoist themselves up 

 when they begin to grow. Unfortunately I broke 

 the " bean " off one of the stems, so but nineteen 

 remained. The " beans " were oval, opaque, and 

 inclined to shiver on their slight stems like a 

 number of reeds. 



I took the leaf home, and looking at it, I saw 

 at the bottom of one of the bean-stalks a little 

 green plant-louse, or aphis. He was standing look- 

 ing up the stalk as if he longed to climb. It was 

 quite a tree to him. He did not know what enemy 

 lived on it. If he had climbed, it would have been 

 almost a repetition of the story of Jack and his 

 Bean-stalk, except that perhaps the giant might 

 not have been awake by the time Aphis arrived 

 at the top. 



For, although little Aphis did not know it, 

 there really was a giant at the top of the stalk, as 

 there was on Jack's, a giant that was coming down 

 by and by to startle all the Aphides. 



The " beans " were really eggs, and one day, 

 after they had turned to a lilac color, they hatched. 

 How those Giants of the Bean-stalks ever got 

 down from such heights I do not know. Perhaps 

 they tumbled. If they did, it must have been like 

 falling over a precipice to them. 



But when I looked, there they were on the leaf, 

 queer little mites of brown things, with six legs 

 and a pair of nippers apiece, The eggs that the 



