living wasp was visible.

By means of a little careful cutting, the nest was removed from the
hollow tree almost entire, and, without remembering to say "thank you"
to old Sam, the boys carried the nest up to the house, and then went in
search of their worms. Harry soon fetched a fork, and Philip carried
the moss-bag, while Fred, who hardly liked to touch the wriggling,
"nasty things," as he called them, looked on.

Now Fred was not much of a student of nature after all, or he would not
have called worms "nasty things," but have taken more notice of them as
they were turned out of their damp bed, and seen that they were clothed
with a skin whose surface reflected colours of prismatic hue, as bright
and perfect as those seen upon some pearly shells. He would have seen
how wonderfully the worms were constructed for the fulfilment of their
apportioned position in the animal kingdom; how, without legs, or the
peculiar twist of the snake, they crept swiftly over the ground by means
of their many-ringed bodies; and also learned that, by their constant
tunnelling of the ground, they prevented the water that sank from the
surface from lying stagnant amidst the roots of the trees, and thus
rotting them, but enabled it to fertilise larger spaces. Then, too, by
their peculiar habit of drawing down dead leaves and straws, and small
twigs, how all these rotted beneath the surface, and helped to renew the
strength of the earth. Their casts, too, those peculiar little heaps
which they throw up at the mouth of their dwellings, formed another
source of fertility to the earth, by bringing up from beneath the
surface unspent soil, and spreading it upon the top.

However, I must say, that I believe the boys thought of nothing else
then, but of getting the finest red worms, and those marked with yellow
rings round the body, as being especial favourites with the perch at the
great lake.

At last a sufficiency had been obtained and put on one side in a cool
place; and now a tin box with a pierced lid was brought out half filled
with sand, and the boys started off to the village butcher's, to get
some gentles or maggots. This time they did not choose the path by
Water Lane, as on the morning when they went to buy the new
water-bottle, but strolled round by the road, talking earnestly of the
sports of the following day. Fred listened very attentively as they
trudged along, and rather strange were the ideas he had stored up
respecting