THE FARMER'S HELPERS 351 



and especially on those of the June-bug, tender and 

 fat. It is a small creature for supplying the wants 

 of such an appetite, but its numbers make up for its 

 littleness. "What a massacre of worms, then, must 

 not the mole be credited with in the season when 

 worms abound! Scarcely is one meal finished be- 

 fore another begins, and at each repast the worms 

 must be gobbled up by the dozen. To clear a field 

 of these formidable ravagers the farmer has no 

 helper equal to the mole. The only regret is that to 

 reach the vermin on which the animal lives, it has 

 to burrow among the roots where they have their 

 haunts. Many roots that lie in the way are neces- 

 sarily ruptured in this work ; plants are broken off 

 and destroyed; and, finally, the little piles of earth, 

 or mole-hills, heaped up by the animal in the course 

 of its excavations, impede the reaper when harvest- 

 time comes around. Never mind : the worms would 

 have caused much more serious damage, and to get 

 rid of them there is nothing like this ravenous insect- 

 hunter. Therefore, children, never molest the mole, 

 the protector of our crops. 



"The toad is harmless, but that is not enough to 

 commend the creature to our attention. It too is a 

 helper of great worth, a greedy devourer of slugs, 

 beetles, larvae, and every sort of vermin. Discreetly 

 withdrawn by day under the cool cover of a stone in 

 some obscure hole, it leaves its retreat at nightfall 

 to make its regular rounds, propelling itself, hoppity- 

 hop, on its ample stomach. Here is a slug on its 

 way to the lettuce-plants ; yonder is a cricket chirp- 



