Year: 1879

you; and when am not hunting 1 am
playing hide-and-go-seek with my broth
ers and play-fellows, dodging in and
out of the grass and weeds right mer-
r1ly. A cheerful, good-natured COM
pany we are when the sun shines warm
and the wind don't blow; for when it
blows we can't always go the way we
would like, and sometimes, am sorry
to say, this makes us cross and disa-
greeable. You can hardly imagine a
more pleasant sight than a group OF us
chasing each other up and down and
around until our legs are most ready
to drop of. For we are good-looking,
and no mistake; for some of my cous-
ins wear a green-and-gold suit, and
some purple. I am more modest, and
am content with brown coat, curiously
figured with white, and un der I wear a
satiny green-and-gold vest. I am very
careful OF my clothes, since one suit has
to last lifetime, and many and many
an hour spend in washing and brush
ing myself from head to foot, polishing
and rubbing till my breast shines like
an emerald, and speck OF dust gives
me great deal of uneasiness till it is
removed.


My legs are long and slim, and am
quite famous among the other beetles
for the rapid walking and running
can accomplish when I have mind to
try. This speed is useful to me in
more ways than one, for when I want
my dinner it is not very difficult to run
some down; and, when once I have
outrun my game, it doesn't take me
long to tear it to pieces and swallow it.
Cook it? Why, that's the very way to
spoil it, for my eating, anyway. 1 once
happened to come on place where a
man had eaten some lunch and scat
tered some crumbs of meat, and, Just
out of curiosity, 1 tasted them; but you
can't make me do it again, since that
experiment made me SO sick 1 thought
L would die. Raw and warm is the
only way to'eat it, and if you knew as
much as you would agree with me.


Ny mouth is quite savage-looKing
piece of machinery, and perhaps you
would like to hear about that. Instead
of owning whole row of teeth, I have
only two on each side of my mead, but
those two are so long and so strong that
any more would only be in the way.
They are curved like an old-fashioned
sickle, and are notched on the inside of
the curve, something like a saw. Be-
tween the teeth, or mandibles as they
are called, above and below, are several
pairs of joined fingers, or what answer in
the place of fingers, for holding what
ever I am eating, and for turning it
around as I eat it. These fingers"
are called ma1Nlg, and are so useful in
taking care of my dinner that without
them should be as helpless as an old
man without teeth. Immediately back
of my mandibles are set my eyes, which
are so placed on the side of my head
that i can aaa hankwor1 = - -.o1:I---
sects, my eyes are compound-that is,
made up of hundreds of small eyes
close together, and this fact explains
the difficulty you may have in approach
ing me, when I appear to be perfectly
motionleps.


But I am getting hungry, and think
there is fair chance of some dinner in
yonder clump of grass, SO, if you will ex-
cuse me for this time, I may give you
another talk some day, or coax some OF
my cousins to do so; that is, of course,
if you have not grown weary listening
to me. Truly your friend,


o. w.