emptied them out, and three
times she put them back, then flew away, never to return. I suppose the
last time she went in she laid the egg among the little worms, and then,
her duty done, was off to find another good place to start a family.

"Have you ever seen a big cicada which makes the long, rasping sound in
the trees? Some wasps like these very much for food. So, when cicada
sings, Mrs. Wasp swoops down on it, stings it, and then, big and clumsy
as it is, carries it to her home for her children to feast upon."

"A cicada is three or four times as large as a wasp, isn't it?" asked
Mrs. Reece.

"Yes; but there is nothing the wasps can't do," replied Ben Gile.

"I should think not!" exclaimed Peter, who by this time was able to
smile again.

"The trout are ready, Ben," said Adam, "and everything else, too, I
guess."

With running and laughter the children were soon about the fire, eating
their last delicious out-of-door dinner.

XVI

EYES AND NO EYES

The evening party at Ben Gile's cabin was to be the last of all the
beautiful summer, for the next day Betty and Jimmie were to leave with
their mother for the city, and this was the evening which was to decide
who was to receive the prize.

Betty had been working very hard for it, and wanted it. But Jimmie
couldn't see any use in lying with your nose on an ant-hill. As for
Peter, he giggled whenever ants were mentioned to him, and seemed not to
care much one way or another. Hope, however, was often with Betty, and
the two girls, flat on the grass, tried to discover as many mysteries as
they could about the busy little fellows. As for Jack, he was as busy as
the ants, following them about, lying quietly for hours, and borrowing
any book he could find that would tell about them. It seemed to him that
if he could have that magnifying-glass, that book of colored plates,
and the five-dollar gold piece, he would be the richest boy in all the
world! He thought about it by night and by day, and he was certain that
with the insect book and the glass, he should discover things nobody
else in the world had ever seen.

The poor boy was trembling with eagerness on this evening of the party
at the guide's cabin. The children took their turn in telling what they
knew. Peter giggled, and said they seemed to lug a good deal of food.
Jimmie said they ran in and out of their ant hills very fast, and knew
how to build big hills. Hope was so frightened that, when it