"Yes, a bug; and when he doesn't look like an elf, he looks like a king with a high crown on his head or a naughty boy with a dunce cap." "Let's see him, please," said Betty. The old man opened his box. Inside lay a lot of little creatures with backs like beechnuts. "See, look through the lens!" Betty laughed. "Oh, aren't they funny! The eyes are so big and so far apart." "And the lines on their heads make them look as if they were gazing through heavy-bowed spectacles," said Mrs. Reece. "There is a very wise man, and his name is Mr. Comstock, who says that Nature must have been in a joking mood when she made these little tree and leaf hoppers, they are so impish and knowing-looking. Ah, they are the naughty brownies of the insect world!" "Betty, Betty," called Mrs. Reece, "your popcorn is burning!" [Illustration: Tree and Leaf Hoppers] "Mother, I don't care to pop any more; let me just listen now. What makes them bad?" "Well, they are born with a naughty desire to suck everything they can get their tiny sucking beaks upon. They hop around in great numbers on the fruit trees and pierce the leaves with their sharp beaks. Then, with a tubelike lower lip, they suck up the sap. They also make slits in the twigs in which to lay their eggs. In the following spring the eggs hatch, and there is a fresh supply of tree-hoppers ready to begin the mischief their parents left off only when they died." "And what is the difference between the leaf-hoppers and the tree-hoppers?" asked Mr. Reece. "Not much. They are cousins--cousins in naughtiness. The leaf-hoppers are a great nuisance. Every year they destroy from one-fourth to one-fifth of the grass that springs up. They also suck the sap of the rose, the grape-vine, and of many grains. These sturdy fellows live during the winter by hiding under the rubbish in the fields and vineyards, ready when the warm spring does come to begin their naughty work." "What makes a little fellow like this able to do so much damage?" asked Jimmie, who had come in, his hands all stained with chemicals. "Well, it is well covered by this horny substance called chitin, and then it is very active. You see, the chitin acts both as armor-plate for the soft parts and also as a firm support to the many muscles. As many as two thousand separate, tiny muscles have been counted in a certain caterpillar. That shows how very active insects are." "And they all have such big eyes they can see everything," said Betty. "So they have--bigger eyes than the old wolf of the story had." "You remember, I told you about the thousands of facets in the big eyes of the darning-needle? Not contented with these large eyes, most insects have three small eyes arranged in the form of a triangle on the front of the head." "This bug has feelers, too," said Jimmie.