STACKPOLE MRS. GRASSHOPPER GOES HO USE H UNTING 293 



for that Bob White who snipped off my husband's leg and wings." 



With her six padded feet Mrs. Gray Grasshopper climbs upon 

 the first branch and proceeds to chew the edge of a tender leaf. 

 Then she decides that a sip of tea would be just the thing for her 

 nerves; so she sets to work with her strong mandibles, digging 

 and scraping the bark until the tiniest drop of sap appears. As 

 the sap flows, she washes her face with her long whiskers and dries 

 it with her front feet. And now she is ready to sip her tea. But 

 just as she is about to take a long draught, something dreadful 

 happens. A sudden, creepy, chilly sensation causes her to draw 

 up those red hind legs, spread out her wings and fly as far from the 

 hazel bush as she possibly can. What has happened? Is she 

 afraid to investigate the cause of her sudden fright? 



Mrs. Gray Grasshopper does not know that a score of thirsty 

 black ants from their nest at the foot of the hazel bush smelled the 

 sap the very instant it began to flow, and hustled themselves up, up 

 the limb, ready to drive her away by tickling her hind legs with 

 their wiry antennae, and reap for themselves the harvest of her 

 toil. 



Will Mrs. Gray Grasshopper never learn that the ant family 

 are ever upon her track, waiting to steal water from her fountain, 

 and, the moment her heart stops beating, make a luncheon of her 

 juicy hind legs? Also, how is she going to learn about her worst 

 enemy, Mrs. Gnat? 



Like most parasitical people, Mrs Gnat is a great talker; it 

 is she who buzzes about the ears of Htmians when they sleep out 

 of doors, keeping them awake and causing them to say and think 

 wicked things about her. It is Mrs. Gnat who wears a dainty, 

 transparent gown and is quite invisible in the sunshine. But 

 the noise she makes ! It is a great wonder the' little black ants 

 who are deaf cannot hear her buzzing! 



Now, instead of building a nest of her own as any respectable 

 insect should, Mrs. Gnat follows Mrs. Gray Grasshopper about 

 from the time she leaves her husband, waiting to lay a ruinous egg 

 in each compartment which Mrs. Grasshopper fashions for her 

 own little ones. 



Such ladies as noisy Mrs. Gnat may be essential to this world, 

 for, were she not to destroy so many of Mrs. Gray Grassliop])cr's 

 eggs, there would be so many little Grasshoppers to feed, that 



