"Now we've had our dinner, our rest, our pipe of peace, a plan for a prize, and we must push on for the camping-ground. Get the canoes ready." And, with laughter and talking, the canoes were off up the river again. X A NAGGING FAMILY "Do you know of a family around here whom no one likes?" asked Ben Gile. The lanterns were burning brightly out on the lawn of Turtle Lodge, and Mrs. Reece had just stopped playing so that the children might rest from dancing. All the lanterns moved gently to and fro on the piazza; the children were running about, and everybody seemed to be having a beautiful and breathless time. "Do you know of a family around here," called the guide, "whom nobody likes?" "I do," replied Mrs. Reece, laughing and slapping the side of her face. "They are just like some people, nagging, annoying, and numerous." "Do any children here," called Ben Gile, for the third time, "know of a family nobody likes? For the child who guesses I have a pocket-knife." "The Smiths!" shouted Peter. "My father says Mrs. Smith is always quarrelling with the choir." "Hush!" said Mrs. Reece, seeing danger ahead. "Ben means a family right here on the piazza." The children looked at one another, and then Jack turned shrewdly to the guide. "I guess, sir, it is mosquitoes and flies." "Good boy, and here's the knife." Jack thought he had never seen such a wonderful knife. It had three blades, a corkscrew, a file, and a pair of scissors, and to this day Jack has that knife. "Come," said Mrs. Reece, "let us all sit down for a few minutes while Lizzie is getting supper ready inside." "How many wings," asked Mrs. Reece, "has a fly?" "Four," answered Jimmie. "No," corrected the guide; "a real fly has only two wings. In the place of the second pair they have queer little knobbed rods which are called balancers--something like the out-riggers on your scull, Jim. These steer and steady the fly's body." "What makes a fly bite?" asked Hope. "They do not bite, child. A beetle or a grasshopper can really bite, because beetles and grasshoppers have heavy, horny jaws, toothed on the edge, with which to do it. But a fly has fine, sharp-pointed jaws. With these needlelike jaws they pierce a hole in the skin, then with a tiny sucking-beak, made by the rolled lower lip, they draw up the blood through this opening." "I wonder whether any little girl here knows why flies should not be allowed in the house?" asked Mrs. Reece. No little girl did know anything except that their mothers were always driving flies out, and that these creatures buzzed and were a nuisance. "Do tell them," said Mrs. Reece. [Illustration: _A._ House-fly. _B._ A grown-up mosquito, two larvae, and a pupa.]