186 THE INSECT MATKON. 



late efforts, she reposed awhile, after the accomplishment of 

 her purpose, brushed her denuded corselet with her feet, and 

 then proceeding to burrow in the soft earth of the hillock, 

 was speedily lost to our observation. "How very odd!" 

 said Emily ; " what can possibly be the meaning of such a 

 strange, unnatural proceeding?" 



" I will tell you," replied we, " that which has been thought 

 fully to explain its intention. This insect female, in common 

 with her sisters, has hitherto been privileged to lead a life of 

 entire indolence and pleasure. A few days since, having risen 

 from her lowly birth-place on those, discarded pinions, we 

 might have seen her disporting in the air with some gay and 

 gallant companions, of inferior size, but winged like herself. 

 But now her career of pleasure, though not of happiness, being 

 at an end, her life of usefulness is about to begin, and, in cha- 

 racter of a matron, she is called to the performance of such do- 

 mestic duties as will henceforth confine her to the precincts 

 of her home. 



U 0f what use now, therefore, are the glittering wings 

 which adorned and became her in her earlier youth ? Their 

 possession might only, perchance, have tempted her to desert 

 the post which Nature, under Divine guidance, has instructed 

 her to fill. Obedient to its teaching, she has thus despoiled 

 herself of the showy pinions which (essential to her enjoy- 

 ment in the fields of air) would only have encumbered her in 

 the narrower but more important sphere of home." 



