CHAPTER THE FIFTH. 
v 
THE MISCHIEF CATEHPILLABS CAN DO. 
When you think of the millions of caterpillars 
that come out of their eggs every spring, and 
what an enormous appetite each caterpillar has, 
you will hardly wonder that, every now and then, 
they should he almost as destructive as the locust. 
Were it not for a tribe of enemies, amongst- 
which are the birds, the wasps, and the ichneu¬ 
mon flies, we should find them sad pests to our 
orchards and gardens. As it is, with all these 
enemies to wage war upon them, they often do 
us a great deal of mischief. 
Once upon a time, a wood in Kent presented 
a very strange appearance. In the month of 
June, when the trees, in every other place, 
were in full beauty, in this wood there was not 
a leaf to be seen; nothing on every side met 
the eye but bare branches, as though it were 
the depth of winter. The people, who lived near, 
