“The toad is harmless, but that is not enough to commend the creature to our attention. It too is a helper of great worth, a greedy devourer of slugs, beetles, larvæ, and every sort of vermin. Discreetly withdrawn by day under the cool cover of a stone in some obscure hole, it leaves its retreat at nightfall to make its regular rounds, propelling itself, hoppity-hop, on its ample stomach. Here is a slug on its way to the lettuce-plants; yonder is a cricket chirping at the entrance to its hole; and over there a June-bug is laying its eggs in the ground. Master toad comes along in circumspect fashion, opens his cavernous mouth, and in three gulps swallows them all with a gurgle of satisfaction. Oh, but that was good! Now for some more of the same sort. “He continues on his rounds, and when dawn begins to glimmer in the east what kind of a hodge-podge of variegated vermin must there not be in the glutton’s capacious maw? Yet they kill this useful creature—stone it to death because, forsooth, it is not so handsome as it might be. My children, may you never be guilty of such cruelty, such foolish and mischievous cruelty! Never stone the toad, for in doing so you would be robbing the fields of a vigilant guardian. Let the poor creature perform in peace its appointed task as destroyer of worms and insects. “Finally, and not least of all, must be mentioned the various birds, chiefly the little birds of our fields and farm-yards, that help the farmer by devouring harmful insects and the seeds of wild grasses and intrusive weeds. These indefatigable assistants, however, we have already discussed, and we have gratefully acknowledged our indebtedness to them. No more, then, need be said about them at present, except in the way of renewed admonition never to molest them, never to rob their nests; for they are our friends and benefactors.” FINIS NOTES [1] Laundry starch is now obtained chiefly from rice and from pulse.—Translator. [2] The author is not quite accurate here. Franklin was, as he tells us, “the youngest son, and the youngest child but two.”—Translator. [3] The old fashioned loaf-sugar is here meant.—Translator. [4] This is inconsistent with what Uncle Paul stated two paragraphs above. He should have said here that the lily has but one floral envelope.—Translator. [5] In English this transfer of a bud is commonly called “budding.”—Translator. [6] The author does not, either here or later, distinguish by name, as might have been done, between butterflies and moths. The latter fly mostly in the evening or at night.—Translator. [7] The corresponding English term is “screech-owl.”—Translator.