"LITTLE RIVERS." 127 



have nothing so ferocious, and just at present it is the 

 hope of all good Americans you never will. " 



Most certainly we do not want that American 

 " Hornick " here. Our own hornet is bad enough. 

 If he does not bite, he knows how to sting most 

 venomously ; but there is this to be said of him, that 

 nothing but the gravest provocation will induce him 

 to put forth the power that is in him. He knows 

 that the loss of his sting is the loss of his life hence 

 he is sometimes regarded as a coward and a bully. 

 Many a time have I had him come right straight at 

 me with lightning flight, and, when within an inch of 

 my nose, divert his course. Was this magnanimity 

 or cowardice ? We used to think it was his way of 

 saying "Go away, and let us alone, or you will catch it 

 next time. " It was his way of barking without biting. 



Here is another poser for our friend ! Do American 

 adders sting? Do American boys study their Bible ? 



''Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in 

 the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider 

 shall fall backward. " Genesis , chap. xlix. v. 17. 



Do AMERICAN ADDERS STING? 



On this question that accomplished angler and 

 pleasant poet "Cotswold Isys" quotes Proverbs xxiii. 

 32 : "At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth 

 like an adder " and so justifies Mr. Van Dyke and 

 proves my charge against American boys to be un- 

 founded. I blush in acknowledging my error. The 

 quotation from Proverbs is one of great poetic beauty ; 

 the fact remains, however, that adders do not sting, 

 but bite with their poison-conveying fangs. 



