52 MORE POT-POURRI 



October 16th. — The beautiful gossamer time has come 

 again. Most mothers now cultivate in their children a 

 love of flowers, but it is astonishing how rarely a love of 

 insects is taught. I do not mean a mawkish fear of 

 killing them, for very often they have to be killed. I 

 remember a boy who was fond, on wet summer days, of 

 killing flies on his nursery window. I remonstrated and 

 said it was cruel, upon which he answered : ' Why ? 

 Father goes out fishing, and brothers go out shooting ; 

 why may I not kill flies ? ' The only answer that came 

 to my mind was that I could stop the one and I could 

 not the other; this remained for ever with him as an 

 injustice. But I do think that probably the more chil- 

 dren understand and admire, the less they would 

 wish wantonly to kill, and at any rate it might do away 

 with so much of that groundless dread and uncon- 

 trollable nervous fear of insects which stick to some 

 people through life. I know some girls who have to 

 leave the room if moths — innocent, soft, downy moths! 

 — come in, attracted to their doom by the cruel lamp. 

 I know others who dare not pick certain flowers for fear 

 of an earwig, which from its silly name they believe to 

 be really a dangerous enemy. Others, again, will injure 

 their health and remain, all through the hot summer 

 nights, perhaps in quite a small room, with window and 

 door closed, for fear of the inroad of some winged wan- 

 derer of the darkness. All this seems to me so silly, so 

 ignorant, so unnecessary ! And if children were early 

 introduced to the wonders of insect life — ants, bees, 

 butterflies, moths, etc. — I think they would fear them 

 as little as the ordinary house-fly, which is really more 

 objectionable than many of them, I never cared much 

 for spiders till I heard a most interesting lecture about 

 them, when I longed to know more. The process by 

 which they weave their beautiful webs has only been 



