nets' nest, about as big as a common snow-ball, and
as round. Jonas walked slowly up towards it, watching it very
attentively, as he advanced.

"O Jonas! Jonas!" exclaimed Rollo, "you'd better be careful. Jonas!
Jonas! you'll get stung."

Jonas paid no attention to what Rollo was saying, but still kept moving
slowly on towards the bush. When he got pretty near, he took his knife
out of his pocket, and advancing one step more, he took hold of the end
of the branch with one hand, and cut it off close to the tree, with the
other. Rollo, in the mean time, had run backwards several steps to avoid
the danger; still, however, keeping his eyes fixed upon Jonas.

Jonas brought the nest out of the thicket.

"Jonas!" said Rollo, in a tone of strong remonstrance, "you are crazy."

"There are no hornets in it," said Jonas, quietly.

He brought out the nest, and held it so that he and Rollo could see it.

"The hornets have made it of brown paper," said he.

"Brown paper," said Rollo. "Where do they get the brown paper?"

"O, they make the brown paper too."

"Ho!" said Rollo; "hornets can't make paper."

"Think not?" said Jonas. Jonas was always careful not to contradict,
even when he supposed that Rollo was mistaken.

Rollo said he was _sure_ that hornets could not make paper. Then Jonas
took off a little shred from the hornets' nest, and compared it with
some brown paper which he had in his pocket; and he explained to Rollo
that the hornets' nest was made of little fibres adhering to each
other, just as the fibres of the paper did.

"It is the same article," he said, "and made of the same materials; only
they manufacture it in a different way. So I don't see why it is not
proper to call it paper."

"_I_ don't think it is paper," said Rollo; "nothing is paper but what
men make."

"Very well," said Jonas, "we won't dispute about the name."

So Jonas returned to his work, and Rollo said that he meant to carry the
hornets' nest home, and show it to Nathan. He accordingly laid it down
by the side of his fire, near the dipper and the raspberry seeds.

In a short time, Jonas reduced the neck of ground, where he was digging,
to a very narrow wall, and he called Rollo to come and see him let out
the water. He took the shovel, and he told Rollo to take the hoe, so
that, as soon as he should break down this wall, they could both be at
work, digging out the passage way, so as to get it cleared as soon as
possible.

He acco