"Well, Uncle Philip, it is really very pleasant to walk with you: it
seems as if you met nothing which could not teach us things worth
knowing."
"Why, my dear boys, there are, as I told you once before, a great many
things which I do not know; and what I do know I am very willing to tell
you. But you may learn just as I did,--by reading, by taking notice of
things around you, and by thinking for yourselves. And I do not know any
thing more pleasant to notice than the works of God. I see his wisdom
and his goodness in every thing which he has made. I see them in the
insects, and the birds, and the larger animals; I see them in the grass,
and the flowers, and the trees; and I see them in the rocks and the
stones upon the ground. All these things are well worth our attention,
boys; the study of all these things around us is called the study of
'Natural History;' and I think it is apt to make him who loves it a
better man; at any rate, I believe that there have been very few who
have been fond of it, who have not been amiable and benevolent men. But,
hark! Do you hear that noise?"
"Yes, Uncle Philip; it is the sound of men chopping wood in that clump
of trees."
"No, boys; it is like the sound of a wood-cutter; and it is a
wood-cutter, but he does not use one of our hatchets."
"What is it that he uses, then?"
"He uses the tool which God gave him. It is a bird, boys, which you
hear: it is the woodpecker. See, there it is on yonder tree, and look,
at the foot of it, there is something like a bushel of the bird's chips
or dust. Its bill is a complete chisel; it is straight, hard, and sharp,
with edges too upon the sides. It is not a very broad chisel, but still
it is one, and used as we use ours. But the chisel is not the only
instrument of that workman. Its tongue is worth examining. It bores a
hole into a tree that is dead or decaying, to look for insects whose
nests are in the tree; and when it reaches the cell where the young
insect is, it uses its tongue to get it out, and it suits exactly for
the business. In the first place, it is so long that the bird can shoot
it out three or four inches longer than the bill is; in the next place
the end of it is tipped with a stiff, sharp, long thorn; and in the
last place, that thorn has little teeth on both sides of it, like that
which you see on the point of a fish-hook: these teeth are to keep the
insect from falling off when it puts its tongue in the hole and sticks
its sharp point into it to draw it out for food. So that besides the
chisel, the woodpecker has a spear, or lance, or arrow, barbed (as it is
called) or bearded at the point.
"But we are some distance, boys, beyond the old mill: suppose we now
turn back towards home; I find the gnats rather troublesome."
"So do we, Uncle Philip; they have been biting us for some time: it
would be well if there were no such tormenting things in the world."
"I am not sure of that, boys. We may not always be able to find out the
exact use of some of these little animals; but that only shows that we
are ignorant, not that they are of no use. God would never have made
them if he had not some wise purpose in doing so: I do not believe he
ever wastes his power in making useless things. But what will you say
about gnats, when I tell you that they have a tool to work with, and a
very perfect one, too?"
"Why, we will almost forgive them for biting us."
"Biting you! They have not been biting with teeth: they are doctors,
boys; they have only been bleeding you, and cupping you."
"And what have they been bleeding us with?"
"Why, with a lancet, to be sure; what should a doctor use but a lancet
to let blood?"
"And has the gnat really a lancet?"
"Yes, it has: this instrument forms a part of what you may call the
tongue of the gnat: it is made up of five pieces, which are shut up in
a case, split from one end to the other; these give steadiness to the
lancet when it is used. But the reason of the pain is not so much the
wound of the lancet, as it is the fluid or poisonous juice which the
gnat puts into the wound to make the blood thin enough for the insect to
suck it up through a tube or case, which makes part of its mouth. Here
is a drawing of part of a gnat's mouth.
[Illustration]
And here is a picture of the lancet or knife of a horse-fly.
[Illustration]
"We have now reached the bridge,--and here we must part; your homes are
in one direction, and mine is in the opposite. I hope, however, that you
have learned something in our morning's walk."
"We have, Uncle Philip, and we thank you much, and bid you, good day."
"Good day, boys."