The Mason-Wasps 



and well, as though coming out of a limpid 

 atmosphere. She has faced the fire, like 

 the fabled Salamander, and she will face it 

 all day, until the cell is built, crammed with 

 victuals and closed. 



Cases of this kind occur too seldom to 

 satisfy fully the curiosity of a seasoned ob- 

 server. I should have liked to arrange the 

 mist-screen myself and thus to try a few 

 experiments bearing upon the dangerous 

 crossing; but I was a stranger, a spectator 

 by sheer chance; and all that I could do was 

 to trust to luck, without interfering with the 

 washing-operations and perhaps upsetting 

 them. What a sorry idea the housewife 

 engaged on that grave business would have 

 had of my intelligence if I had ventured to 

 touch her fire in order to worry a Wasp! 



" I' a petan cihicle: little things please 

 little minds," she would have been sure to 

 think. 



In the eyes of the peasant, to occupy one's 

 self with such small fry is a lunatic's game, 

 the amusement of a cracked mind. 



Once and once only fortune smiled upon 

 me; but I was not ready to profit by it. 

 The thing took place at my own house, by 

 my own fireside and, as it happened, on a 

 washing-day. I had not long been ap- 

 64 



