GIRLS AND WASPS
All the while Hervey Willetts was lying on his back looking up in the
air and not saying anything. When he can’t be moving he’s as still as a
ghost. He was kind of kicking his hat from one foot to the other. All of
a sudden he started something—that was just like him. That fellow can
start something lying on his back. He said, “Oh, look at the wasps’ nest
up there in the tree.”
Gee whiz, you should have seen those girls jump. Right then we all
noticed that there were wasps flying around above us and in and out of
the big nest. It was a great big nest, as big as a watermelon and the
entrance to it was underneath; it was a hole about as big round as a
quarter.
Hervey said, “Give me a stick and I’ll knock it down and we’ll have a
game of football with it while we’re waiting for the jelly cones, or
whatever you call them.”
“In quest of adventure,” Brent said, “we’ve all been stung once to-day
following you and that’s enough. If you want to take it down lift it
down carefully and pour the wasps out first. Then we can take a few
kicks at it.”
Warde said, “It has kick enough in it, let it alone. It has too much of
a kick in it for me.”
Then up jumped our young hero. “You don’t catch me doing any kicking,”
he shouted.
“I’m glad to hear that; you’ve been kicking ever since we started,” I
told him.
“Shall I knock it down and see what happens?” Hervey said. It was awful
funny to see him lying there on his back and making believe to try and
reach it with his foot. All the while the wasps were flying in and out
of it and kind of hanging around the doorway.
By that time the girls were crazy, picking things up all excited and
getting ready to move away. “Come away, don’t _touch_ it; oh, don’t
_touch_ it whatever you do!” they were crying.
Marjorie Eaton knocked the lunch basket over and spilled everything out
of it, she was in such a hurry. They both started picking things up and
kept kind of edging away from the tree all the time. I had to laugh to
see how they’d sneak up on tiptoe and pick up something and then go
scooting away with it and sneak back for something else. The stuff was
all over the ground, and they crept around groping for it all the while
looking very scared-like at the tree.
Hervey didn’t pay any attention to them, just lay there on his back
looking up at the big nest. He said, “I tell you what let’s do; let’s
take it down and see how far we can roll it.”
“A game of one o’ cat would be better,” Brent said, very sober. “The
first one to knock a home run will get six jelly rolls to begin with.
Only we’ll have to bat at it left-handed.”
“Oh, absolutely, most conclusively,” I said.
“And when we run we’ll turn to the left,” Warde piped up.
“That’s understood,” Hervey said.
“I think it would be better to toss it gently,” Brent said. “I’ll lift
it down and throw it to Miss Eaton, she’ll throw it to Warde, he’ll
throw it to Miss Wingate, she’ll throw it to Pee-wee——”
“Not gently,” I said.
“By that time,” Brent said, “the wasps will be dizzy; they’ll be so
seasick that they’ll tumble right out through the hole, and we can hold
a plate of jam to catch them in. They’ll stick in the jam while they’re
in a state of como, or coma, or whatever you call it, and we’ll capture
them all by one master-stroke.”
Warde said, “You got that idea from the best way to kill flies by
hanging a slippery cord above a plate of ice cream. The fly alights on
the cord, slides off into the ice cream and freezes to death.” Brent
said, “I’ve heard of that but it’s cruel and scouts don’t use it. In the
seasick method the wasp is rendered unconscious first and he never knows
he’s dead till afterwards. He dies in the jam, an ideal death. Even
Pee-wee will admit that.”
Warde said, “I should think the wasps would be stuck on that—or in it.”
“That’s just it, they are,” Brent said. “Now, all form a circle while I
lift it down.” He made believe to reach for it and, oh, boy, I wish you
could have seen those girls run. When they got about fifty feet away
they stood hugging each other and screaming.
“By doing that you’ll only wake the wasps up,” Warde said to them. “This
is just the time they take their afternoon nap.”