find, and have a beautiful time.

They are funny little fellows, and if they were not so troublesome, we
might admire them.

How they can run!

All the cockroaches run very fast, so that it is hard to catch one. And
they are hard and smooth, too, which makes it yet more difficult to
catch them. They are well made to escape their enemies, and they are so
flat they can hide in cracks or almost anywhere.

No, May, they do not fly very much. You see this one has short wings. It
is a male cockroach. The female of this species of cockroach has no
wings at all, only little hints of wings, as it were.

Such little useless wings we call "rudimentary" wings.

John says he thinks that is a long word for short wings.

Yes, but it is not a hard word,--ru-di-ment-ary, see if you can remember
it.

The croton bugs have longer wings and they sometimes fly.

If you were to spread out the wings of a cockroach, you would find it
had four.

What is that, May? You wouldn't spread them out for anything?

Yet wise men have been very much interested in our poor, ill-smelling
old cockroaches, and have studied carefully all about them.

[Illustration]

If you dislike to touch the cockroach so much, perhaps you will look at
this picture of a croton bug.

See, the upper wings are different; the cockroach does not fly with
them, he merely uses them to cover up the under wings, and we call them
wing covers.

It is the under wings the cockroach flies with.

Cockroaches may not be pleasant, but who can say they are not
interesting?

What other insect lays its eggs in little bandboxes?

Here is one of the little boxes, shiny and hard.

[Illustration]

This little case is at first a sticky substance that soon hardens. The
eggs lie in it side by side in two rows.

These cases remain attached to the abdomen of the female cockroach until
the eggs are all laid. Then the case falls off, and soon out runs a
crowd of infant cockroaches.

[Illustration]

The case is something like a satchel that shuts with a spring. The
youngsters are packed close together, side by side, with their heads
towards the mouth of the satchel.

As soon as one hatches it pushes open the side of the case and creeps
out. Then the case springs together again to protect the rest of the
brood.

They are funny fellows when they first come out, little and
white-looking. But they eat and grow of course, and shed their skins,
and after each moult they become