hours."

"So we could," admitted Jimmie.

"Tell us something about the cousins, sir," said Jack.

"We can't have much more now," replied the guide, "for we shall have to
stop for luncheon soon. But I'll tell you about a little fellow called
the ant-lion. Along the side of almost any country path or road, if you
keep your eyes open, you may notice some day little pits of sand with
sloping sides, and down at the bottom of this is a hole. The hole is
very dark, and unless you look sharply you will think it just a hole.
But if you examine it you will see a little head and two little sharp,
curved jaws. These are the jaws of the ant-lion, lying in wait to gobble
up the first passer-by. The rest of the body is in a little tunnel
burrowed out in the sand. They get their name, I suppose, because they
think an ant an excellent dinner. They lie there knowing very well that
Mr. and Mrs. Ant will surely slip on the steep-sloping sides. And if by
any chance they don't, these ant-lions have been seen to throw up sand
with their heads in order to hit a helpless little ant and knock it down
into the pit."

The children exclaimed at this cleverness.

"After it has eaten its fill, this cruel, greedy fellow makes a little
room for itself of fine grains of sand firmly held together with silky
fibres. In this room it lies quietly, sometimes all winter, until it
changes into a grown-up ant-lion with four long, narrow wings. Then Mrs.
Ant-Lion lays her eggs in the sand, and when the young ones hatch out
they build the 'pits of destruction' which I told you about. What book
is it, children, that uses the 'pit of destruction' so often as a
figure?"

"The Bible!" shouted Peter, who was the minister's son in Rangeley
Village.

"Good! Now, no more for the present, and here we are at a splendid place
for luncheon--clear spring, dry ground, handy wood, and all."

The canoe beached noiselessly on the river's edge, the boys jumped out
with a whoop, and soon luncheon and frying-pans were out of the canoes,
and there was the sound of the axe chopping the dry wood, the good smell
of smoke, and the sizzling of bacon. Betty and Hope went for water. The
boys fetched wood. Mrs. Reece and the guide took care of the luncheon,
Mrs. Reece spreading the table on the ground, and the guide frying the
potatoes and bacon.

"Oh, mother," said Jimmie, "what does make things taste so good
out-of-doors?"

"I'm sure I don't know."

"And, mother," asked Bet