100 EYE SPY 



ments," I proposed, " I am assured you will soon 

 be disposed to offer your apology to the indus- 

 trious and innocent insect which you have so 

 libelled." 



A cautious group soon assembled at the door- 

 way of the piazza, and at my suggestion closely 

 watched the antics of the hornet, which was still 

 apparently as mad as ever, in the absence of hu- 

 man targets, seemingly " working off his mad " by 

 butting his head against the clapboards along the 

 side of the building. After a moment or two of 

 this exercise, with a quick curvet, the insect be- 

 took himself to the roof of the piazza, where he 

 disappeared among the bordering vines. A little 

 cautious search soon revealed his hiding-place, 

 however. He was hanging, head downward, by 

 one of his hind legs, twirling some dark object in 

 his front feet; and it needed only a little closer 

 examination to disclose this object to be a fly, 

 which was gradually being reduced to a pulp by 

 the sharp jaws of its captor a morsel, doubtless, 

 soon to find its way to the cell of a baby hornet 

 in some paper nest close by. 



"You will now doubtless understand that pre- 

 cipitate onslaught on your nose," I remarked to 

 my bachelor friend. " Rest assured that the at- 

 traction of that aquiline member alone would 

 never have caused the panic that ensued ; but you 

 did not give our hornet the credit for the removal 



