48 Next to the Ground 



wasps, red and brown. A crawling wasp 

 whose wings are folded either over the back 

 or at the sides is reasonably peaceful. Crawl- 

 ing with spread wings it will sting anything 

 stingable — and sometimes try to sting those 

 which are not, as posts or boards. 



Hornets were regular piazza busybodies, 

 darting everywhere about it after flies, their 

 favorite prey, alighting now and then to dress 

 their wings with their fore feet, or to rub off 

 the feet themselves upon a smooth wooden 

 surface. But they did not nest on the piazza. 

 Instead, they built around a three-pronged 

 bough in the sweeting apple-tree. Weather- 

 wise folk said their setting the nest so high 

 was a sure sign the next winter would be mild. 

 Before a very cold winter — thus the weather 

 sages — hornets build low, on shrubs or 

 even weeds, and make their paper walls extra 

 thick. However that may be, the nest is 

 built in rings much as an onion grows, with 

 cells like wasp-cells in between the rings. 

 The building begins modestly, yet the nest 

 which at first is no bigger than an egg, may 

 end by reaching the size of a water-bucket. In 

 shape it is always an irregular oval, in color 

 grayish. Sometimes the small end is up, 

 sometimes down. There is an opening at 

 the bottom, through which the insects fly in 

 and out. 



