“I don’t see why you changed so many times,” said Ruth. “Neither do I. No other insect does, but I suppose it has to be. I shall soon lay my eggs, and that no doubt will be the end of me. We seem to begin and end with eggs.” She sighed heavily, and went on: “I have a cousin who is used to make blisters on people. Think of it! She is called Spanish fly, and she is no more a fly than you are.” “Does she bite them to make the blister?” asked Ruth. “Dear me, no! The poor thing is dried and made into powder and then spread with ointment on a cloth. That makes the blister. I suppose it takes ever so many of my poor cousins for just one blister. I tell you, life is sad.” “Do stop that sort of thing, I can’t stand it!” said a plain, slender little beetle, with no pretensions to beauty of any sort. “I came here as a special favour, and then I am forced to hear such talk as that. I am never at my best in the day, and you should know it. Some of you complain of being called bug, and others object to the name fly. Now I am as much a beetle as any of you, and I’ve been called both bug and fly.” “A lightning bug?” cried Ruth. “Yes, and also firefly, and if it was dark I’d prove it. Of course my light can’t be seen in the day, and generally I’m not to be seen either, for we fireflies hide away on the leaves of plants until it begins to grow dark. Then we come out, and have gay times flying over the meadows. Some of our family who live in warm climates are so large and bright they are used to read by. Not only that, ladies wear them as they would jewels, and in Japan——” But the firefly could say no more, for just at this moment some whirligig beetles came flying in and every one turned to look at them. “I should like to know what those fellows are doing here,” said a bumble-bee beetle, making such a loud humming that Mrs. Sawyer declared she thought a real bumble bee was in their midst. “People who live in the water shouldn’t belong to our family, anyhow. I can’t imagine any one liking the water.” “That’s because you are not a water beetle,” answered one of the whirligigs. “Why, the water is the most sociable place in the world. Something lively happening all the time. Constant changes too. Those who are with us one moment are gone the next, but that is life on land as well as in the water for us insects. Dinner is always our first thought. Of course we water fellows are fitted for our life. We are put together more tightly than you land beetles, and we are boat-shaped besides. We use our hind legs for paddles, and we have wings with which we can leave the water if we wish. We whirligigs are sociable fellows, always a lot of us together, and such fun as we have dancing and whirling about in the water! We don’t often dive unless something is after us.” “You must have very good times,” said Ruth, watching the shiny, bluish black little beetles with eager attention. Then she asked quite suddenly: “Have you four eyes?”