TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS. 373 



They are not the scourges that many are led to believe. 

 During our nine years' residence in Florida we have been 

 only very occasionally annoyed by fleas, and then only for 

 a short time continuously. 



For the major part of the year we would not even know 

 that there Avere such creatures in existence, did not our 

 memory serve to remind us of the fact, and during the 

 very height of flea-life (the spring months) an occasional 

 warm kiss from flea-lips is the height and breadth of their 

 offending. 



The worst of a flea is his ubiquity : he gives you a nip, 

 you " put your finger on him, and he is n't there ; " no, he 

 is somewhere else, hard at work, looking up another nice, 

 tender place for a second bite. You rub and scratch, and 

 he immediatly proves his non-relationship to a leopard by 

 changing his spots ; he changes them often, with bewilder- 

 ing frequency, and 



*' The wonder was, and still the wonder grew, 

 That one small" flea could so much damage do. 



But when one has looked into the mysteries of flea-life, and 

 has learned that it takes him but half a minute, or less, to 

 digest the delicate drop of blood he robs you of and get 

 ready for another, the wonder ceases, and it is easy to under- 

 stand how one flea is just as good — or as bad — as a dozen. 



But he has a conqueror, before a puff* of whose breath 

 he lies down and dies very quickly. Shoot him with the 

 insect-powder gun, and you will have no further trouble. 



Does he creep into the bed and nip your toes until they 

 feel as if you had been v/alking in a bed of nettles ? Put 

 the little gun beneath your pillow, and puff" the poAvder 

 down under the covers ; that Avill change the direction of 

 his energies and terminate speedily the base attack on your 

 understanding. 



