in the middle of
a history lesson. There was a long pause of expectation on the part of
the three children. Surely even a grown-up person could not be so
utterly uninterested as to allow a queen-wasp to escape alive?

"What was the chief event of the reign of Henry the Eighth?" continued
Miss Thompson, quite unmoved by the display of suppressed excitement
around her. There was no answer, so she repeated the question a little
louder.

"May I kill it, or would you rather do it yourself?" said Madge
eagerly. The three children had now shut their books and given up all
pretence of interest in anything except the wasp, which was trying
harder than ever to buzz right through the pane of glass.

"Really nobody would suppose that you were twelve years old!" said Miss
Thompson, in a vain effort to make her eldest pupil ashamed of herself.
"Now then, open your history and see what was the most important event,
if you can't remember."

"But it'll get away if you don't squash it!" shrieked John and Betty.
They were twins, and perhaps for that reason always spoke together.

"Do leave the poor creature alone!" said Miss Thompson imploringly.
"It cannot hurt you if you sit still and attend to your lessons."

"That's not what we are afraid of!" cried Madge; "it's the fruit!
Don't you know a queen-wasp has millions of children before the summer
is over, and we shan't have any fruit at all if you don't kill it!"

"No strawberries! No peaches! No nothing!" echoed the twins with
growing excitement. "And it will be all your fault! But of course you
don't care, as you never eat fruit. Papa won't like it though. He
always kills--"

"My dears, please don't make such a silly fuss about nothing,"
interrupted Miss Thompson, rising with considerable dignity from her
seat. The children watched her with the most intense interest; but
when, instead of crushing the intruding wasp, she merely tried to brush
it out of the open window with her handkerchief, they broke out into
shouts of disapproval. If the poor lady had let loose some peculiarly
savage wild beast on society she could not have been more severely
condemned by public opinion. And the worst of it was, that the wasp
would not go! She clung to the handkerchief, and when it was shaken at
the open window suddenly transferred herself to the sleeve of her
deliverer's dress.

Even Miss Thompson's calmness gave way under this trial. She started
back with a slight scream. T