374 Next to the Ground 



spread his wings from beneath his cupped 

 outer coat, and fly away. There was an egg 

 inside each of the balls he rolled. When he 

 got it where he thought it would be safe, he 

 dug a hole with his round flat spade-head, 

 rolled the ball inside, filled up the hole with 

 loose dirt, and flew ofF to begin work over 

 again. After the beetle fashion, his outer 

 shell was turtle-shaped, divided across the 

 middle where the waist might be thought to 

 lie, with the lower half hinged and split 

 lengthwise up the middle. The earliest 

 tumble-bugs were dull black all over, then 

 came fine fellows green throughout the upper 

 half, and later, gorgeous gentlemen, golden- 

 green all over. The gorgeous gentry were 

 less industrious than the black fellows — at 

 least in the matter of rolling balls. They 

 made balls all right enough, but commonly 

 buried them very close to where they found 

 them, whereas the blacks sometimes rolled 

 balls over a hundred yards. 



Golden green tumble-bugs grew plenty just 

 as June-bug time came on. Thus the black 

 people had a color of reason for believing as 

 they did that the June bugs were tumble-bugs 

 transfigured. The June bugs had rich green 

 coats, with lacy wings hidden underneath, 

 and legs, breasts, and throats of the finest yel- 

 low. They haunt gardens and cornfields in 



