s how it came about.

At that meeting in the woods when the Cicada and the Katydid undertook
to be musicians, while the birds were on strike, there was one strong
insect who gave off an angry "_Bizz, Bizz_" that sounded like "_Scab,
Scab_." That was the big yellow-and-black Digger Wasp, the biggest of
the wasps, with a sting that is as bad as that of a baby rattlesnake.
And that very day she declared war on the Cicada and his kind. The
Katydids she could not touch, because the Wasp cannot see at night.

But the Cicada was easy to find. As soon as the day got hot, and that
awful buzzing began in the trees, the Big Digger got her sting ready,
and went booming along in the direction of the sound.

[Illustration: The Digger Wasp (life size)]

Now Mother Carey had given the Cicada bright eyes and strong wings, and
it was his own business to take care of himself; but he was so pleased
with his music that he never saw the fierce Digger Wasp, till she
charged on him. And before he could spread his wings, she had stabbed
him through.

His song died away in a few shrieks, and then the Cicada lay still. But
not dead, for the Digger had stuck her poison dagger into the nerve
centre, so that he was paralyzed and helpless, but still living.

Now the Digger set about a plan. She wanted to get that Cicada body into
her den, to feed her young ones with it. But the Cicada was bigger and
heavier than she was, so that she could not carry it. However, she was
bent on doing it, she got all ready, took tight hold with her claws,
then swooped from the tree, flying as strongly as she could, till the
weight of the Cicada brought her to the ground within fifty feet, while
the den was fully a hundred feet away. But the Wasp dragged the Cicada
up the trunk of another tree, then took another long sloping flight as
before. One more climb and skid down, brought her to her den--a hole in
a bank that she had dug out; that is why she is called the Digger Wasp.
The passage was a foot long and had a crook in the middle. At the end
was a round room an inch and a half high. Here the Digger left her
victim's body and right on its breast, to one side, laid an egg.

This hatched in two or three days, and began to feed on the Cicada. In a
week it had eaten the Cicada and grown to be a big fat grub. Then it
spun a cocoon, and made itself into a bundle-baby, resting all autumn
and all winter in that dark den.

But when the spring came with its glorious wak