INSECT INTRUDERS. 



appearance of the table spoilt, and if not 

 forgotten, the ants often arrive and dispute 

 with your guests the right to eat it ; and 

 they have the start, since they like their 

 dessert early in the proceedings and most 

 of us do not care for their leavings. 

 Many people seem to look upon it as a 

 reflection on the housewife when ants 

 appear on her dinner table. I have never 

 been able to discover why ! She cannot 

 be said to be answerable for the insect 

 population of this land or for its vagaries, 

 and in nine hundred and ninety-nine 

 cases out of the thousand she most 

 certainly is not answerable for the struc- 

 tural or architectural beauties of the 

 bungalow she is occupying. She is prob- 

 ably quite content if she can prevail upon 

 her landlord to keep the roof over her 

 head fairly watertight and to put some- 

 thing else on her walls than the disfigur- 

 ing whitewash, which makes our houses 

 look like the prison cell : and many of us 

 are not so fortunate as to be able to do 

 40 



