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