TEIALS AND TRIBULxVTIONS. 397 



For, in all the great family of insects, there are none that 

 succumb more quickly to a puff of the powder than the 

 wasps. 



Whenever we hear the peculiar " buzz, buzz," that tells 

 the story of the hidden, muddy piece of work in progress 

 behind a picture, in a closet or corner, we go there straight- 

 way, gun in hand, and send some of the powder flying, 

 and if the least particle of it touches the wasp, as it inva- 

 riably does, it ends the building of that particular mud- 

 house. 



Neither is it difficult to keep the wasps at a distance ; 

 the netting with which the doors and windows of every 

 country house should be provided, whether North or South, 

 will prevent their entrance, except perhaps a stray one 

 now and then. 



Add to this that the mud-wasps never sting of malice 

 'prepense, but only when a hand is actually placed on them, 

 and it Avill be seen that they need cause but little annoy- 

 ance to the housekeeper. 



The same is true of scorpions, of which so many persons 

 have an exaggerated idea ; they are seldom seen at all, and 

 then usually in hasty flight. Like the wasps, they will 

 strike back if you lay your hand on them ; but are they to 

 blame for that? our own laws justify self-defense. 



" Snakes? " Well, they can hardly be classed under the 

 especial head of a housekeeper's trials, and yet they are 

 often one of her first and most "awful" tribulations. 



We know of one who for weeks after being domiciled in 

 Florida would not allow her children to leave the broad 

 piazzas that surrounded the house, because of her fear of 

 snakes ; but after watchiug for their dreaded appearance 

 in vain, she came to the conclusion, arrived at by every 

 one who lives in Florida and knows it as it is, that snakes 

 are actually less numerous, especially in the pine lands, 



