were the cockroaches.

When they landed from their hot land of Asia in cold England, they must
have wondered what was to become of them. Many of them no doubt died,
for they cannot stand cold weather at all; but some of them were
carried, with the fruits and other things, quite unintentionally, of
course, for nobody guessed they were there, into warm cellars and
kitchen cupboards.

_Then_ they felt at home!

They knew better than to leave the cosey nooks where they could hide
away and sleep all day, and when they came out at night would find a
delicious supper close at hand.

They are great eaters, you know, so what with the good things in the
pantry and the warmth of the kitchen quarters they prospered wherever
they could find a kitchen to live in.

Soon they spread all over the large cities of England and finally into
even remote country districts.

Of course they found their way to the United States of America, and in
many houses in the North they have taken lodging. But down South, where
it is always warm enough, they have prospered greatly, and they are
there in far greater numbers than in the North.

Besides, there is a large American cockroach that belongs to tropical
America, but that has found its way pretty well over the country. And
there are cockroaches that live in the woods, some of them coming in the
night to visit our houses and help themselves from our pantries.

Yes, Mollie, the cockroaches eat almost anything they can find, and what
they do not eat they spoil by an ill-smelling liquid they give out when
disturbed.

It is this liquid that makes the cockroaches so very offensive to us.
We cannot bear to touch one because of it.

Cockroaches eat one variety of food that nobody objects to their having.
They are fond of bed bugs and greedily devour them.

Besides the large, dark, reddish brown cockroaches there is a little
tan-colored fellow that is often very troublesome.

[Illustration]

It is not a native of this country, but is supposed to have been brought
to England by soldiers from the Crimea, and later it found its way to
America.

We call it the croton bug, but it is not a bug at all, it is a
cockroach.

It is particularly numerous about water pipes, and, like the rest of the
cockroaches, it hides in the daytime.

At night out troop crowds and crowds of the little tan-colored water
bugs. They run about the floor, and over the pantry shelves. They get
into everything they can