896 HOME LIFE IN FLOPJDA. 



the warm weather to the end thereof, buzzing in and out 

 of doors and Avindows, carrying little bits of soft mud in 

 their mouths, sticking them up on the walls behind pic- 

 tures, inside of closets, on the ceilings, or any where else 

 they may fancy for the future birthplace of their larv2e. 

 For that is the whole object of their mud-houses, and the 

 skill with which they build them, with their numerous cube- 

 like tunnels, is well worth noting, as is the ludicrous en- 

 ergy they expend in kneading and pummeling the mud 

 with their heads, and then smoothing it over with their 

 feet. 



The places they choose for building-sites are sometimes 

 exceedingly eccentric : glass jars, tea-pots, bonnet-boxes, 

 trunks, old hats, clothing hanging long undisturbed, all 

 these are commonplace and fade into insignificance when 

 compared with the site chosen by one wildly eccentric wasp. 

 No one would e\eY guess where it was, for it was located 

 on in no less a place than the clustering curls surrounding 

 the head of that devoted member of our family already 

 alluded to, as having a horror of roaches, ants, fleas, frogs, 

 chameleons, wasps, and others of their numerous family, 

 and therefore receiving their especial attentions. 



This wasp, we might well call it a " crank," came flying 

 in a window at which habitually sat our companion. It 

 paused over her head, and then gently dropped on it the 

 first bit of mud, the intended corner-stone of its j)rojected 

 building. 



That was supposed, of course, to have been dropped by 

 accident ; but when the same thing was repeated several 

 times, and on successive days, that charitable view of the 

 matter became impossible, and finally we were compelled 

 in self-defense, or rather in defense of another, to shoot 

 the persevering intruder with the omnipotent powder-gun, 

 and that put an end to the projected "castle in the (h)air." 



