that is why they
choose plums and pears and peaches that have fallen down to the ground.
It is dangerous to eat any ripe fruit that has fallen, without first
looking to see if there is a wasp inside it.

"But the young wasps soon want green caterpillars and flies to eat, and
many a blue-bottle fly is killed by wasps."

"If wasps don't store up honey for the winter, what do they live upon
when there are no insects about?" asked Mary.

"When the fruit is all gone, and the nights get cold, about the
beginning of October, then some instinct tells them what to do, for only
a few of them live through the winter.

"The wasps cease to bring in any more food for the young. They tear open
the cells and expose the young grubs to the weather, when they die, or
the birds eat them. Generally they pinch them to death, for they will
not let them live to die of starvation; and while they are in this state
they do not feel pain. So what looks like cruelty is really kindness.

"The full-grown wasps soon become sleepy with cold and die off, all but
the few which live to be the mothers of the wasps next year."

VII.

_CHARLEY FOSTER'S PETS._

"Sweet is the love which Nature brings."--WORDSWORTH.

On the following Saturday afternoon the children went to see their
cousins.

As soon as they arrived, Tom said to Jack, "I saw Charley Foster
yesterday, and told him we would go to see him this afternoon. I asked
him that, if he had any birds' eggs to spare, would he give them to you,
that you might take them back with you to London. He said he should be
most happy to do so; and that we had better stop till after tea, and go
home in the cool of the evening. So," continued Tom, "as soon as you're
ready we'll be off."

"I'm ready now," said Jack; so the boys started for Charley Foster's
house, which was about half a mile off, along the upper edge of the
wood, so the walk was a pleasant one.

Presently they saw two men come out of the wood with large,
square-looking packages, covered over with black linen.

"What are those men doing?" asked Jack; "and what have they got in those
packages?"

"They are bird-catchers, and those are the traps and cages for the
birds. It's a downright shame to keep a thing with wings in a cage. I
can't see what pleasure it can be to listen to their song when they are
shut up like that. I like plenty of room myself, and so do birds," said
Tom.

"What birds have those men been catching?"

"Linn