Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1875-09-08
The faulty Circle.
A GunpOWder Plot.

L
have been in the country good deal.
But everybody knows, whether he has seen
him or not, that the hornet is fierce lit
tie fellow; brave, though small, and always
ready to defend himself The naturalsts
among the paper makers" rs those in
sects are called that make their nests of
paper itself. or of material which looks
like it. fabricated by themselves.
l will give short description of him,
to colony of hornets and some young
friends of mine.
The bald-faced hornet is about the size
Of a bumble-bee; his color is black, with
white bands around his body. His eyes
are black and CLASSY and his face looks as
if it had been dipped in meal which would
not stick to his eyes; and this is the reason
he is called bald-faced.' His nest is 4
wonderful structure. 1t is made Of scraps
of paper, the ''fuzz'' on fences or wooden
buildings which have been exposed to the
weather, and the smaller lichens which
grow on the trunks of trees. The nest,
which is somewhat in the shape of the
TASKS in which olive oil comes, though
much larger, is built stem downward, on
the limb of Il tree or the rail of a fence,
and generally not high from the ground.
Now. in my part of the country. boys
are very fond of attacking and destroying
these nests, and they almost always get
stung i'll doing SO.
Why boys like to do this when the hor-
nets have done them no harm, | do not
know | was a boy once, and knew then,
but that has been so long ago that | have
forgotten; so will give the adventure al
ready promised instead of the reason.
Teddie and Lud. two city boys, these
are the ''shorts" for their names.o of course
were spending their vacation with friend
of their mothers in the country. You
may be sure they had q nice time. for there
was Il great many things to interest them.
But among the most interesting things
on the place, at least, to them, was a de
lightful little darkey called Bat prob
ably a nickname for Bartholomew.
Bat not only knew every hole and cor
ner, tree and bush on the place, but had
extended his knolcd@e to the surrounding
plantations He would constantly have
some such joyful news to give the boys. as
the discovery of 4 guinea hens nest on the
farm, the finding of Il brood Of young par
tridgcS, or splendid hole in the creek,
full of minnows and catfish. He took adj
vantage of his frequent crrandS to the
neirhboring farms to acquire information
of this sort.
Bat came to the boys. who lay on their
faces under the great oaks in the yard. and
read for the iifticth time their favorite sto-
ries.
"MarSe Lud, l done found sumthin'.'
The boys instantly changed to upright
positions, and said together, 'what?"
whilst their eyes glistened at the prospect
of something new; times have been Il little
dull with them of late.
I'm de woods over Wonder, tudder side
de broom-straw tield,' answered Bat
'husting' bio horncks' ness, big us half
peck measure"
"Wel,n said Ind. did any one of them
sting you?'
Law, no. | didn't tctci dc thing; but l
thought I'd come and tell We all. So We kin
60 over and blow it up
''Do YOU mean to blow it to pieces with
the gun inquired Lud.
NO, no. said Bat, quickly; blow it
up like YOU gwine blast rocks. Put de
powder under it, and den light it wild de
slow match
Bat was rummaging in his deep and UNI
certain pocket whilst saying this, and at
last succeeded in extracting from tangle
of string, marbles, flint stones and rab-
bit paw, a piece of the match used in
the mines. and which looked like sma
rope about four inches long.
Il picked dis up over ut de coal-pt,
whar somebody done dropped it. You
jess make 4 little pile of powder under de
ness, den you puts one end of de slow
match in it. and light de udder. den de fire
ketches de powder, an who-ee. up goes de
ness in de ar; all bus to pieces. an de
hornicks all kilt Bat delivered this de-
Scription with great vivacity, and added,
Make haste and get de powder, so rs we
kin cit over dar fore de hornicks all goes
out to git der dinner
Lud was quickly off to the house, and
soon back with powder-tlask; so away
the boys trugged rs fast us they could
Bat took the lead, and they made their way
rs directly as they could to the spot, some
times in the shade, but mostly through the
scorched fields, where myriads of grass
hoppers bounced up under their noses, and
the blistering sun seemed to wakcn all
manner of twittering and buzzing insects
At last the boys arrived, hot and pant
ing. at the further side Of the broom Straw
field. where it was skirtcd by line of
low scrub oaks and chinquepin bushes.
Bat took little time to find the spot. but
at length pointing toward it, he called out
under his breath, g Oar 'tis.''
"Where?' cried the others.
Oar, dar" don't talk loud; skcer EN-, =
replied Bat. in II loud whisper. and max
ing violent gestures for them to keep 81
lence. The others joined Bat, and soon
discovered the object of their search. 1t
was attached to a tree somewhat larger
than the others, and which stood in a little
glade in the wood. and the limb from
which it hung jutted out close to the ground
It looked like 4 ball of dirty paper, which
diminished gradually into a sort of neck
the whole about a foot long and nearly as
much through in the widest part. Not a
hornet was to be seen,
Lud whispered, "Oh. Bat, they are not
there, after all"
dunno bout dat" answered Bat; I've
all lay down, and I'll try EN-" The two
lay down among the hot weeds Bat broke
off the longest switch that he could find,
and ticklcd the nest from rs safe Il distance
Us the length of the switch allowed stand
ing behind Il sapling which protected about
three inches in width of his person. He
paused and with a grin made an encourage
ing sign to the boys, who were now raised
on their elbows, watchingt he operation.
Then, crouching low, he cautiously back
ed from his position.
"All right he whispered, when he had
backed to where the others were. All
light, dey sent out one to see what was de
matter; lets 90 to work.
Bat proceeded Immediately to explain
that the powder must be poured in :. pile
Just under the nest-which was about two
feet from the ground-and the match laid
with one end in the powder; and that un-
less 1-ud touched the nest, there was no
danger whatever. Under these instruc
tons I.ud carefully approached the nest
on all-fours. The others watched with in
tense interest while Lud poured out the
powder directly under the nest. as he
thought, and then laid the slow match.
Bat and Teddie held their breaths The
former by crab-likc movement, had
gradually increased his distance from the
scene of operations. and was a ward or two
behind Teddie. They saw Luu fumbling
in his pockets, and he began to work his