ood at the motley
relics of good cheer which sophisticated the retreat, so pathetically
eloquent of pristine joys to which you had been a stranger? Here in my
present picnic is the suggestive parallel, for even though no such
actual episodes as those I have described had been witnessed by me, an
examination of the premises beneath my bramble were a sufficient
commentary. These were the unimpeachable witnesses of the pleasures
which I have pictured. Dismembered butterfly wings strewed the grassy
jungle, among which were a fair sprinkling from that black and white
halo already noted. Occasional dead wasps and detached members of wasp
and hornet anatomy were frequent, while the blue glitter of the bodies
of flies lit up a shadowy recess here and there, showing that Musca had
not always so correctly gauged his comparative wing resources as my
observation had indicated.

It was interesting to discover, too, down deep among the herbage,
another suggestive fact in the presence of a shrewd spider that showed a
keen eye to the main chance, and had spread his gossamer catch-all
beneath the bramble. It was all grist into his mill, and no doubt his
charnel-house at the base of his silken tunnel could have borne eloquent
testimony alike to his wise sagacity and his epicurean luxury.

I have pictured my picnic, and the question naturally arises, what was
it all about--what the occasion for this celebration? There was
certainly no distinct visible cause for the social gathering upon this
particular bramble-bush. There were a number of other bramble-bushes in
the near neighborhood which, it would seem, should possess equal
attractions, but which were ignored. In what respect did the one
selected differ from the others?

This bramble had become the scene of my carnival simply because it
chanced to be directly beneath an overhanging branch of pine some twenty
feet above. Here dwelt mine host who had issued the invitations and
spread the feast, the limb for about a foot space being surrounded by a
colony of aphides, or plant-lice, from whose distilling pipes the rain
of sweet honey-dew had fallen ceaselessly upon the leaves below. The
flies, butterflies, and ants had been attracted, as always, by its
sweets; the preoccupied convivial flies, in turn, were a tempting bait
for the wasps and hornets, and my dragon-fly and mock bumblebee found a
similar attraction in the neighborhood.

An examination of the trunk of the pine showed the ine