The lazy amazons did not appear. Now and then a single miner might
be seen wandering alone at the entrance of their subterranean
dwelling.

Seated upon a piece of turf near the parterre, the little girl
followed with her eye, all along the stem of a plant, two or three
brown ants who led their flock of grubs to pasture, when a murmuring
sound near her, which seemed to spread all over the beds of
mignonette, attracted her attention to some large flies, of a dull
color, who whirled about among the flowers, darting from one to the
other, and seemed very busy.

"Can these be any of my old acquaintances?" said she; but she could
not be satisfied with this idea; the new comers, much larger, had
also a very different physiognomy from that of her old friends. They
had oval eyes, with a network over them; a protruding jaw; antennae
of twelve olive scales, terminated by a button. Their brown
corselets covered with a tawny fur; their brilliant cuirasses, and
their legs of unequal length,--all these things attracted the
attention of the young observer.

She saw these flies rolling themselves over in the bosom of the
flowers, with a joyous activity which amused her very much, and the
reason of which she desired to understand.

There was, however, in their appearance and manners, something
repulsive which prevented familiarity. Each one of them caused to
vibrate four gauze wings, two large and two small ones. In their
rapid and measured motions, these wings produced sound, and the air,
issuing from little breathing places situated, as in the common fly,
on each side of the corselet, produced a sort of a song.

As if attracted by the song, these insects flew in swarms to the
flower-bed. Very soon it was evident that they were heavier when
they went away than when they came. Two large, round, red and
yellow, or rather golden balls loaded their brilliant brown thighs.
Some of them plunged into the bosom of a lily. Raising herself on
tiptoe, Piccolissima kept them in view. She saw their slanting
teeth, which formed the point of their triangular head, open and
close like two strong pincers, and shake the tops of the stamens.
She had never noticed before, but now she perceived, at the end of
the six threads in the centre of the flower, a sort of little green
box; this was the anther. These flies pressed it and pulled it, till
it opened and scattered a quantity of little yellow pellets, which
covered the insects so thoroughly, tha