with the bacon in the pan. Never did a luncheon taste so good as that,
with fried trout and bacon, and hard-boiled eggs, soda biscuits, and a
mammoth apple pie. They listened to the fire crackling; they looked up
into the shining trees; they watched the water beyond the pool go
tumbling downhill.

Finally the old man said, "It's going to be a clear day to-morrow."

The children gazed up into the sky.

At this Ben Gile laughed. "Don't look at the sky, look at your plates."

Puzzled by this, the children did look at their plates.

"But there's nothing left to look at," said Jack.

"That's just it. There's an old saying that people who eat all their
food make a clear day for the morrow. Now," he continued, "I'll smoke my
pipe of peace before we go on. Just look at that fellow darting about
over the pool!"

"Oh!" cried Betty, "it's a darning-needle, and it will sew up my mouth
and my eyes--oh, oh!"

"Nonsense, child, that's silly. The dragon-fly is a very useful and a
very harmless fellow. It's a pity that there are so many superstitions
about it."

"There's another name for it," said Jack--"devil's darning-needle."

"And in the South the darkies call it the mule-killer, and believe it
has power to bring snakes to life. It's all nonsense. They are not only
harmless to human beings but also very useful, for they eat flies and
mosquitoes at a great rate. Once upon a time I fed a dragon-fly forty
house flies in two hours. And they eat beetles and spiders and
centipedes. And sometimes they eat one another."

"Like the crickets?" said Betty.

"Yes, like the crickets. Just see that fellow dart about. The sharpest
sort of angles. There, it has something! It caught that lace-wing in its
leg-basket."

"Leg-basket!" exclaimed the children.

"Yes; it draws its six legs together, and makes a sort of basket right
under its head. Then the dragon-fly devours what it catches by these
strong-toothed jaws. It is a hungry fellow, it is."

The old man puffed away quietly for a few minutes, while the children
watched the darning-needle and hoped Ben Gile would say something soon.

"Those scientists," he continued, "who are working on flying-machines
could learn a good deal from this fellow. The dragon-fly is made for
flight. A long, slender, tapering body that cuts the air, moved by four
narrow, gauzy wings, and steered by that pointed abdomen. They eat,
mate, and lay their eggs while they are flying. I don't know that they