DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS 69 



ing, my attention was at length diverted by an 

 old friend of mine, who gave promise of much en- 

 tertainment — a tiny black wasp, whose restless, 

 rapid, zigzag, apparently aimless wanderings over 

 the ground brought him into continual danger 

 of contact with the snatching jaws of the cave- 

 dwelling tiger, from which, however, he somehow 

 escaped, though I distinctly heard the occasional 

 clicking of the eager jaws. 



With short abrupt flights or agile runs of a few 

 inches, accompanied by nervous periodic flirts of 

 the folded wings, the insect had covered pretty 

 much of the ground in a short time, until she at 

 length appeared to have discovered the object of 

 her search, as she withdrew from beneath a sorrel 

 leaf a big fat spider several times as large as her- 

 self. Its legs were folded beneath its body, and it 

 was perfectly plain that this was not the first time 

 that it had been in the toils of the wasp, which 

 had evidently stung it into submission and stupor 

 some minutes previous. Tugging bravely at her 

 charge, the little black Amazon dragged her bur- 

 den nimbly over the ground, pulling it after her 

 in entire disregard of obstacles, now this way, now 

 that, with the same exasperating disregard of eter- 

 nity which she at first displayed, and at length de- 

 posited it on the top of a little flat weed, where it 



