case of the water-bug for robbing the
animal or plant of a small and quite insignificant quantity of its
blood, or sap, as the case may be.

W. P. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S.

[Illustration:

1. Young Dragon-Fly and "Mask" (magnified).
2. Dragon-fly.
3. Poison Gland of Spider (much magnified).
4. Spider and Bee Fighting.]

THE BOY TRAMP.

(_Continued from page 38._)

Thoughts of the ill-favoured tramp had once or twice come into my head
while I ate my eggs and bacon, but, perhaps as one result of the meal, I
felt very little doubt that he had by this time got some distance ahead,
while the rest which I had determined to take would allow him to leave
me still further behind. On coming into the street again, however, I
took the precaution to look to the right and left, and rejoiced to see
no sign of the man. The houses of Broughton soon grew farther and
farther apart, but I had to walk a mile or more without seeing any
tempting resting-place. The sun was very hot, and my legs were beginning
to ache, when, at the foot of a slight hill, I saw that the road was
edged on each side by a thick wood, whose shade looked particularly
inviting. As soon as I reached the shade, I found that I was not alone,
for sitting in the road were two men wearing wire spectacles and
breaking stones with a hammer. They paid not the slightest attention to
me, while, for my part, I felt rather glad of their presence. The shade
made the spot seem more lonely than the road I had as yet traversed, so
that I stepped into the wood on my right with a pleasant feeling of
security. A few yards from the road I lay down at the foot of a large
beech-tree, and resting my head on my bag, after listening for a few
minutes to the ring of the hammers in the road, I must have fallen
asleep. On reopening my eyes I instinctively felt for my watch, and when
I realised that I should never see it again, it seemed that I had lost a
familiar friend. The sun now shone lower in the sky, and it must in any
case be time that I continued my journey.

Throwing the bag over my shoulder, I walked towards the road, when what
was my dismay to see the tramp, who I imagined had long left me behind,
seated by the roadside, smoking a very short, black pipe and gazing
silently at the stone-breakers. Although he took no notice of my
presence, I now began to wonder whether he had deliberately followed me
from Broughton, or whether his presence in this shady part of the road