1. There was a great stir at dinner one day. A wasp came in, begging for
sugar and plum-tart. Harry and Dora ran this way and that.

2. At last their father got the wasp out into the garden, and, when all
was quiet again, he asked if they would like to hear its story.

'Oh yes, father!' said Dora.

3. Harry was busy with his plums, but he nodded, as much as to say, 'I
shall be glad to hear it too!'

4. So the father began:

'All last winter the wasp was asleep, but when spring came she waked up
and set out to look for a home. I am not quite sure where she found it,
but it was in the ground, I think.

5. 'She began to dig in the soft earth, and she dug on till she had made
a long passage. She had to carry out all the loose earth herself. Then
she made a little room at the end of the passage.

6. 'Next she looked about for some old wood, and found it in a tree,
perhaps, or post, or bit of fence. She rubbed away at it with her jaws
till she got some of it off in powder.

7. 'She made this powder into a paste with a sort of gum which came out
of her mouth, and off she went with it to her room.'

8. 'What did she do with it?'