CHAPTER VI 

 A MASON- WASP 



I 

 HER CHOICE OF A BUILDING- SITE 



OF the various insects that like to make their 

 home in our houses, certainly the most inter- 

 esting, for her beautiful shape, her curious 

 manners, and her wonderful nest, is a certain 

 Wasp called the Pelopseus. She is very little known, even 

 to the people by whose fireside she lives. This is owing to 

 her quiet, peaceful ways ; she is so very retiring that her 

 host is nearly always ignorant of her presence. It is easy 

 for noisy, tiresome, unpleasant persons to make themselves 

 famous. I will try to rescue this modest creature from her 

 obscurity. 



The Pelopseus is an extremely chilly mortal. She pitches 

 her tent under the kindly sun that ripens the olive and prompts 

 the Cicada's song ; and even then she needs for her family 

 the additional warmth to be found in our dwellings. Her 

 usual refuge is the peasant's lonely cottage, with its old fig- 

 tree shading the well in front of the door. She chooses one 

 exposed to all the heat of summers, and if possible possessing 

 a big fireplace in which a fire of sticks always burns. The 

 cheerful blaze on winter evenings has a great influence upon 

 her choice, for she knows by the blackness of the chimney 

 that the spot is a likely one. A chimney that is not well 

 glazed by smoke gives her no confidence : people must shiver 

 with cold in that house. 



During the dog-days in July and August the visitor 



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