Madame Redbelt 



r 



forcing the latter well into the ground. Often 

 she would try a bit that would not fit the place 

 to her liking, and it was amusing to see her 

 toss it aside with an impatient gesture, just 

 as a man does when choosing proper stones for 

 a wall. 



She was very suspicious now, and at my least 

 movement would dart away, but quickly return. 



It was ten o'clock when she finished filling 

 in the nest, and then she departed for half an 

 hour as if to rest, and probably to get a drink, 

 which such wasps take frequently. In her re- 

 turning, by the way, she almost always arrived 

 from a certain direction and first alighted on a 

 particular stone, where she cautiously surveyed 

 the land before going in a roundabout way to 

 her holes. 



At 10.30 a.m. she began a fourth tunnel 

 within an inch or two of the others, and worked 

 at it with feverish haste, often lying on her back 

 to dig, until the chamber was completed, as be- 

 fore, in just thirty minutes. 



She then went out upon a warm stone and 

 quietly rested for a few minutes, then ran away 



