AT THE FARM 



101 



care of the family. I have never seen her since I 

 left her, and so it is reasonable to suppose that she 

 and the kids ended their days when the stack was 

 pulled down, or even sooner. I advised her to 

 choose a safer place, but she was an easy-going 

 soul who loved peace and comfort, and my 

 arguments were of no avail against her stolid 

 obstinacy. 



It was also during this short period of wandering 

 that the viper tried to kill me, and found me a 

 trifle too active. He was not bad eating towards 

 the tail end, but tasted rather bitter when I tried 

 him about the middle, so I left him for somebody 

 else. The beetles would take care of him and see 

 that he was not wasted in the end, even if all the 

 other scavengers of the earth and air rejected him. 

 I only killed him in self-defence, so that 1 did not 

 feel that it was my bounden duty to consume 

 him utterly when I did not like the taste of him. 

 You remember, of course, the beautiful poem 

 from which I quote the words : ' Who made his 

 shroud? I, said the beetle.' I do not expect to 

 use a shroud myself, they are out of fashion among 

 us at present, and, from what I have seen, I should 

 say that the beetles ha\ e abandoned the making of 

 articles for which there is so little demand, and 



