133 LITTLE FOLKS 
THE LITTLE WORM HUNTERS OF NEW YORK. 
Pretty little fellows they are, with their neat brown coats and 
sharp black eyes. What do they hunt worms for? why to eat, of 
course, and to feed their babies with, and very nice and fat they get 
too, on that curious diet. 
But stop — I'll tell you the whole story of how they came to 
live in New York, for they are emigrants — like the rest of us — 
and came over in a steamship. Several years ago a colony of 
worms, or caterpillars, came to the city and settled in the trees of 
New York and Brooklyn, having a nice time, and eating the leaves, 
with no one to molest them. 
Nobody knew where they came from, and at first the people 
did not think much about them, though they had a disagreeable 
way of spinning a thread and dropping down on passers-by. But 
as the years went on, and the colony increased, it got to be an 
intolerable nuisance. Ladies could not go out without being cov- 
ered with worms, nor step without crushing one. The poor trees 
were nearly eaten up, and half dead, and at last people had to carry 
umbrellas, and cut down the prettiest trees, which were favorites 
with this disagreeable colony. 
After awhile the newspapers began to talk about it, and finally 
it was discovered — by some naturalist, I dare say — that there was 
a little fellow living in England, who just delighted in these very 
worms, as you do in candies, and who would eat nothing else so 
long as he could find one of them. So the whole big city began 
to cry out for this little foreigner, and at last somebody w T as sent 
over to England to induce a part of the family to emigrate. 
By means of boys with snares, and in other ways, quite a large 
family — many hundreds — of the little worm hunters was collected, 
provided with suitable traveling accommodations, and started for 
New York. 
In the meantime, the people of that worm-eaten city prepared 
to welcome the strangers, by putting up hundreds of houses for 
them, for they don't stop at hotels like other foreigners ; they must 
have their own homes before they can feel contented to stay. The 
houses were of all kinds — from the rustic, bark-covered cottage 
