The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



I explain to him my urgent need of Moles in 

 unlimited numbers. Battling daily with trap 

 and spade against the importunate excava- 

 tor who uproots his crops, he is in a better 

 position than any one to procure for me what 

 I regard for the moment as more precious 

 than his bunches of asparagus or his white- 

 heart cabbages. 



The worthy man at first laughs at my re- 

 quest, being greatly surprised by the impor- 

 tance which I attribute to the abhorrent ani- 

 mal, the Darboun; but at last he consents, 

 not without a suspicion at the back of his 

 mind that I am going to make myself a 

 gorgeous winter waist-coat with the sort, vel- 

 vety skins of the Moles. A thing like that 

 must be good for pains in the back. Very 

 well. We settle the matter. The essential 

 thing is that the Darbouns reach me. 



They reach me punctually, by twos, by 

 threes, by fours, packed in a few cabbage- 

 leaves, at the bottom of the gardener's bas- 

 ket. The excellent fellow who lent himself 

 with such good grace to my strange wishes 

 will never guess how much comparative psy- 

 chology will owe him ! In a few days I was 

 the possessor of thirty Moles, which were 

 scattered here and there, as they reached 

 me, in bare spots of the orchard, among the 

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