The “Spanish fly” is a large blue-green beetle. It is very handsome, and is most useful when it is dead. It is used in medicine. It makes blisters on the skin.
Do you say, “Oh, blisters are very bad!” Yes, they cause pain. But even pain can be of use in this world. The blister, though it pains us, is of use. It cures what might be a worse pain.
This Spanish fly is not a fly at all. It is a beetle which has been given a fly’s name. It is put here at the end of the lessons on flies, because in the next lessons you are to read about beetles.
LESSON XXII.
IN ARMOR CLAD.
Go to the garden or to the house plants, and after a little search you will find one of the wonders of the world.
You will find a small, horny, shining, red thing with black spots on its back. “Why!” you say “that is only a lady-bug, or lady-bird. We say a little rhyme to it.”
The rhyme is—
“Lady-bird, lady-bird,
Fly away home!