386 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



ments. There is nothing they like better than to assist at 

 the family meals, especially if soups or meats are present 

 on the board. 



They waltz hither and thither, whispering now in one 

 ear, now in the other ; then they take a flying trip up your 

 nose, and then come out to see what you think about it, 

 and if you open your mouth to give your opinion on the 

 subject (it is sure to be a very decided one too), you are 

 just as likely as not to ingulf one or two of y©ur tormentors. 

 With a diabolical glee do they dance and circle around your 

 head, and up and down, over and into your plate. 



Now while this aggravating quadrille is in progress there 

 are just two alternatives to be faced and made the best of, 

 one is to go without your dinner — but we have never yet 

 seen any one choose this alternative ; the other is to eat 

 your food with a few gnats thrown in, nay, dropped in, by 



way of 



"Pepper and spice, 



"Which is [not] very nice." 



For there is no use in denying the fact that these omni- 

 present gnats will fall into one's plate, with the practical 

 effect, if not the intention, of ending their lives there ; the 

 warm vapors arising from the food exert an intoxicating 

 effect on the lively little torments, and as they waltz' over 

 your plate, they reel and pitch and tumble about like the 

 drunken flies they are. 



But for all this, we would not have our readers exagger- 

 ate the annoyances caused by these little gnats. They are 

 not so bad but that they might be much worse ; neither are 

 they always, nor every where. 



Moreover, the netting, or cheese-cloth, which ought to 

 be in the windows and doors of every country home in the 

 North or South, in England or in Europe, during the hot 

 season, will keep these little nuisances at bay almost en- 



