Why, John, you are like a good fairy to us to-day, giving us just the things we want just when we want them.
Now, see this little shell. See the front legs, like strong paws to dig with. And see its little glassy eyes, and its little wing pads!
It is a perfect cast of the cicada larva.
Yes, May, this little cast is made of chitin, and it will last a long time. Chitin is a very indestructible substance; even fire will not destroy it, but in course of time the moisture and the acids in the earth destroy it, so that at last the millions of cicada shells and grasshopper cast-off skins, which are also of chitin, and cricket moults, and all the other little cast-aside chitinous overcoats of the insects, return again to the earth and the air whence they came. The minerals and gases that compose them let go of each other, as it were, and the chitin is no longer chitin.
Amy says she has seen these little cicada shells hundreds of times but did not know what they were.
Yes, we are sure to find them almost every summer.
If we look, we will also find other larvæ shells. Down in the grass are the cast-off coats of the grasshoppers and the crickets.
All we need do is to look, and we shall be sure to find them—like unsubstantial ghosts of the active little wearers.