"Mother, what's a romance?" asked Betty.
"You'll know, dear, in time."
"Notice this imp's mouth," said the guide. "It's made for sucking. But
there's a great difference in the mouths of insects: some are made for
biting, some for lapping, some for piercing, and some for sucking. The
butterfly, which lives on nectar in the depths of the flowers, has a
long, coiled tube which scientists call a proboscis. This it unrolls and
buries in the throat of the flower. Mrs. Mosquito has a file and pump,
for it is she, and not her husband, who does all the singing and biting.
The male mosquito has nothing more than a mouth for sucking nectar. And
I told you about the biting jaws of the locust with which it nibbles
grass and leaves."
"And does the tree-hopper breathe the way the locust does--through those
pores on the side?"
"Yes, child," said the old man, "and the air-pores are protected by fine
hairs which surround the openings, just the way the hairs in your
nostrils keep the dust from getting up your nose and into your throat."
"Things in the bugs," said Betty, "are so like us."
"The world becomes more and more like one great whole as you grow
older," added Ben Gile. "Those are interesting elves I've been telling
you about, aren't they?"
"I didn't know bug elves could be so interesting."
"Now run and get us some of the fresh cake Lizzie has been baking," said
Mrs. Reece. "I hope it will taste as good as it smells."