152 NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



in my boyhood. He had struck it in fear, 

 and the creature was all but dead. " Oh, 

 they Ve got a terrible stinger," said he, as 

 he cautiously delivered the fly into my out- 

 stretched palm. And he was surprised and 

 half incredulous when I told him that the 

 poor thing was not only harmless, so far 

 as we are concerned, but that it was one 

 of our best friends, as it preyed on the 

 mosquito. It has been a theory of mine 

 that a few patent facts ought to be taught 

 in the primary schools. Here is this dragon- 

 fly. In my childhood I was seriously told 

 that if I allowed one to alight on me it 

 would sew up my ears. That scared me 

 so that it did not at once occur to me that 

 perhaps it was n't necessary to sit still and 

 be sewed. In New York City a panic oc- 

 curred in a public school because a dragon- 

 fly came in at an open window. Several 

 children were hurt in the rush for the stairs. 

 Yet I suppose all of those boys and girls 

 could have figured out one of those useful 

 and instructive problems about what is the 

 price of potatoes in Schoharie County if they 

 are selling in Putnam County for I lyf cents 



