The Collaborators 



his proposals, even if he was not forestalled 

 by their offers of service. Allured by the coin 

 or the slice of bread and jam, or the sugar- 

 plums, and also, we may say, stimulated by 

 the evident good faith of the master, and 

 the delightful drollery of his enterprises, all 

 the juvenile unemployed of Serignan vie with 

 one another as purveyors to the entomologi- 

 cal laboratory. They zealously keep the lar- 

 der of the Scarabaei supplied, without neg- 

 lecting that of the Sexton-beetles and tutti 

 quanti. Thanks to them, not a creature in 

 the entomological laboratory goes hungry. 

 The most difficult to provide for have al- 

 ways a well-spread table, although this is 

 not always easy to ensure. One has to al- 

 low for the thoughtlessness of children and 

 the hazards of the chase. 



But in spite of their heedlessness, and be- 

 cause of their very ingenuousness, there are 

 connections in which the child is an incom- 

 parable helper, difficult or even impossible 

 to replace. This Fabre was often to prove. 



To continue an investigation into the ol- 

 factory faculties of insects a moth is re- 

 quired which is rather rare and difficult to 

 capture. Can he obtain this moth? 



Yes, I shall find him; indeed I have him al- 

 ready. A little chap of seven, with a wide-awake 



265 



