Matilda clapped her hands. “How glad I am!” she exclaimed.
Mrs. Roberts looked towards her; but a look, however impressive, was seldom sufficient for Matilda.
“Yes,” she continued, “I am glad; for it is a comfort to me that though Cousin Leila is so patient about flowers, she is not in the least patient about larva.”
Leila coloured, but said nothing.
Matilda looked at her for a moment, then throwing her arms round her neck, she said,—“Oh! I am a wretch to vex you, and just at the very moment too when you have been so kind to me about the flowers; but kiss me, Leila, and don’t let us think any more about it; there, Alfred, do you wash out the net again, and dip it in the right way, and let us see the larva and talk about it.”
Alfred obeyed, and having gone to the other side of the pond where the water had not been disturbed, he dipped the net very gently in, and soon brought up a large muddy-looking insect.
Mrs. Roberts looked at it attentively. “You have been in good luck, Alfred,” she said, “for you have got the larva of the great dragon-fly, the very same species you caught in the garden. This species is fond of concealing itself in the mud, and lies in wait there till it pounces on any insect that comes in its way.”
“But it seems to move so slowly,” Matilda observed, “that I should think that if the other insects were the least bit clever, they could easily get out of its way. They must stand still, silly things, to be devoured.”
“No, Matilda, you are deciding too hastily. The poor insects are in much greater danger than you are aware of. This slow-looking gentleman has a most curious apparatus at his command that you are not yet acquainted with. He has very large jaws which are covered with a kind of mask. Look at this horny substance which covers its face.”
“So much the better that it does cover its face,” Matilda said; “for I am sure it must be a frightfully ugly one. But what more does it do?”