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Little Busybodies: The Life of Crickets, Ants, Bees, and Others

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<h2>II</h2> <h3>RANGELEY VILLAGE</h3> The next morning great was the stir in the town, for it was known by the village children that Betty and Jimmie had come, and by the grown-ups that Mrs. Reece was there. All winter long the children had looked forward to their coming, for it meant jolly times: picnics, parties, expeditions, and games. Then, too, Ben Gile would begin to tell them wonderful things. Through the winter he had been teaching school, and it was only when the ice broke up in the big lake and the beavers decided to stop sleeping that Ben Gile came back to his guiding. There was great excitement about Turtle Lodge. Lizzie kept flying out with rugs, and then forgetting they hadn't been brushed and flying in again. The cat was playing croquet with the balls and spools of an open work-basket, and Max had discovered an old straw hat which tasted very good to him. Only Mrs. Reece kept her head and stayed indoors, moving about quietly from room to room, putting the house in that beautiful order which little children never think about. Out on the grass that sloped down to the street, which, in its turn, tumbled head over heels down to the lake, Betty and Jimmie were playing with their playmates. They were all so wild with joy that every time Jimmie saw another boy he shouted, "Come over!" when the boy was coming, anyway, just as fast as he could. Up, up from the foot of the lake climbed an old man; up, up, up the steep street he came, his white hair shaking and shining in the brisk June breeze, his long, white beard caught every once in a while by the wind and tossed sideways. "Mother," called Jimmie, "Ben Gile is coming!" Out came Mrs. Reece to greet the old man. Then, one by one, the children spoke with Ben Gile. "You're having a good time before you can say Jack Robinson, aren't you?" "Yes, sir," came in a chorus of voices. Then, "Tell us a story; tell us a story!" <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus-013.jpg" alt="eye and brain" title="" /> A. A few facets of the compound eye of an insect. B. Brain and nerve cord of an insect. </div> "Not to-day," said the old man. "Why, you want a story before you've had time to turn around." Betty stuck her head out from behind her mother. "Mother said you would tell us about crickets and moths, and everything." "Well, well, well," murmured the old man, "did she? But I can't tell a story to-day. I'll tell you, though, something, so that when you come to collect the little creatures you'll know what to do. All sit down." They all sat down cross-legged on the ground, the old man in the middle. "Here, you big Jim-boy, catch me that butterfly." There was a wild rush, and the bright wings were soon caught. "There, you've torn off one of its legs," said the old man. Jimmie looked troubled. "I didn't mean to, sir." "Do you know how it hurts to have your leg torn off, boy? Do you know, children?" "No," came in a chorus. The guide took out a piece of paper and drew a picture on it. "There, every part of that little fellow's body I've drawn has muscles, such fine muscles no naked eye could ever see them. I'll show them to you under the microscope in my cabin. Those muscles move the body, and each muscle is controlled by threads, still more fine, called nerves." The old man reached out like a flash and pinched Jimmie. "Ouch!" cried the boy, and there was a shout of laughter from the children. "You felt that?" "I guess I did," said Jim, sulkily. "Well, that's because you're made something the same way this butterfly is. When anything hurts us it's because some of our nerves are hurt, and quick as a flash the news travels to the brain, and we try to get away from the thing that causes pain—a pinch, perhaps, or, still worse, the hurt of a poor leg that has been torn off." "But a butterfly hasn't any brain," objected Jimmie, who was still cross. "Hasn't it? Well, we'll see. Now, you watch my pencil." He pointed to the head of the butterfly. "This little fellow has a very tiny brain there. Also running through the body, from end to end, is a little tube through which the food passes. It is in the head above this tube where the tiny brain is, and from which two little threads run down around the tube and join to form another little knot of nerve cells like that of the brain. Then, from this second one there runs a series of little knots united by fine threads the entire length of the body, one in each ring of the body. Do you understand that?" "Yes," piped up Betty, "mother told us an insect is made up of rings, and—and—" she stammered, surprised at her own boldness, "the word means cut up into parts." "Good! Why, that's a real bright girl. Well, from each one of these knots nerves go to the muscles of the body." "It's just like a lot of beads on a string," said Hope Stanton. "So it is, child. So, you see, if we handle an insect roughly, squeezing it too hard, or breaking a leg or a wing, a message is sent to one of these little beads or knots or nerve cells, and the poor, helpless creature suffers pain." "But I didn't mean to hurt that butterfly!" "No, of course you didn't. The only way to do," said the old man, "is to catch them in a net. Make it of bobinet with a rounded bottom, sewing it to a wire ring and fastening it to a handle that is the right weight and length for your arm." "But then, after you caught it, how could you keep it, sir?" asked Betty. "There are two merciful ways," said the old man, "of killing insects, but neither way is safe for children to try. Put a few drops of chloroform on a piece of cotton under a tumbler turned upside down. Put the insect inside. It will soon fall asleep without pain. The other is a cyanide bottle. I have one down at the cabin. It must be kept tightly corked and never smelled. The cyanide in the bottle is hard and dry. Several insects may be put into the bottle at the same time. Once there they die very quickly. After large insects are killed the wings should be folded over the back, and they should be placed in a little case like this. See, I'm folding a piece of paper to form a three-cornered case. Then I bend down one edge to keep the little case closed." At this moment out flew Lizzie with a curtain which she was going to shake. "Here, here!" shouted the old man, "don't shake that; catch that caterpillar on it. I want it." Lizzie made a good-natured grab at the caterpillar, and then there was a cry of pain. "Oh, begorra, begorra, I'm stung by a wasp, I am! Ow!" But she still kept tight hold of the caterpillar as she danced about. "No," said the guide, "you're not stung by any wasp. Bring me that! There, open your hand. You see, the caterpillar stung you." "Oh my, what a beauty!" exclaimed the children. "But caterpillars don't sting." "Oh yes, they do," continued Ben Gile, with a twinkle in his eye; "ask Lizzie." Lizzie was looking at the palm of her hand, which showed how badly it had been stung. "Now, you see, we'll need something to pick up these little creatures with—a pair of forceps or something of that kind. At least, you must be very careful." "And what else do we need?" asked the children. "A little hand lens will magnify the small parts of an insect a great deal. It will show you all the tiny hairs on the body, and the little rings and the feelers and the facets of the eyes, and many another wonderful thing." "What are we going to put the bugs in?" inquired Jimmie. "Lizzie will get you a small wooden box," said Mrs. Reece. Lizzie went off grumbling something about guides and bites and insects, but soon she came back with a nice box, and in a minute all the children's heads were clustered about Ben Gile as he showed them how to line the box with a layer of cork, how to steam the insects a little if they were dry, and then how to put the long, slender pins through the chest of the insect and stick it into the cork. <hr class="major" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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