Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/238

212 announced Sam, producing some rather dilapidated specimens, for the hornbug had lost three legs, and of the moths, one was minus both antennæ, and another had a great slit in one wing.

“I’ve got eight moths,” said Phil. “I picked them up under the electric light. They’re real good ones, only they are singed a little. I s’pose that’s what killed them. And here,” diving into his trousers pocket, “is a bumblebee my father killed yesterday. Oh, dear! His head’s come off. Can’t we stick it on?”

Ted had also brought his share of mangled veterans, and Rob showed three or four moths,  quite well prepared, and a pair of golden yellow  June bugs.

It was with some difficulty that Bessie preserved her gravity as she saw the ruins spread out before her. But, always mindful that much of her influence over her boys lay in her hearty sympathy in all their hobbies, she looked them over with an air of deep interest, and then sent Rob into the library for a certain book that not only had fine pictures of all sorts and conditions of insects, but also gave full instructions for their capture and preservation.