driven from his mind, for at this moment he noticed a fat, yellowish
grub, with a chestnut-colored head, crawling up his sleeve. He hated
grubs, and wondered anxiously if it had any unpleasant design of
crawling down his neck. He squirmed inwardly at the idea. But just as
he was coming to the conclusion that _that_ was something he'd _never_
be able to stand, a most unexpected ally came to his rescue. With a
blow that _almost_ made him jump out of his jacket, something lit on
the fat grub. It was a big black hornet, with white bands across its
shining body. She gave the grub a tiny prick with the tip of her
envenomed sting, which caused it to roll up into a tight ball and lie
still. Then straddling it, and holding it in place with her front pair
of legs, she cut into it with her powerful mandibles and began to suck
its juices. The Child's nose wrinkled in spite of himself at sight of
this unalluring banquet, but he stared with all eyes. There was
something terrifying to him in the swiftness and efficiency of the
great hornet. Presently the grub, not having received quite a big
enough dose of its captor's anaesthetic, came to under the devouring
jaws and began to lash out convulsively. Another touch of the medicine
in the hornet's tail, however, promptly put a stop to that, and once
more it tightened up into an unresisting ball. Then straddling it
again firmly, and handling it cleverly with its front legs as a raccoon
might handle a big apple, she bit into it here and there, sucking
eagerly with a quick, pumping motion of her body. The fat ball got
smaller and smaller, till soon it was very little bigger than an
ordinary sweet pea. The hornet turned it over and over impatiently, to
see if anything more was to be got out of it; then she spurned it
aside, and bounced into the air with a deep hum. She had certainly
been very amusing, but the Child drew a breath of relief when she was
gone. He had caught the copper-red flicker of her sting, as it barely
touched the victim, and it seemed to him like a jet of live flame.