What is that you say? They are old enough to know better?

Why, May, what have they ever done to you?

Nothing, only you don't like them?

Well, well, they don't like you, either. Poor old cockroaches; nobody
seems to like them.

Perhaps they don't care.

Will you let me tell you where they came from?

They do not belong to this country.

Their natural home is tropical Asia.

You see, about four hundred years ago, the ships that bore fruits and
other merchandise from India and other warm countries in Asia, bore, as
well, a number of little, flat, reddish brown stowaways.

[Illustration]

Stowaways, as you know, are people that do not buy their tickets, but
that hide among the ship's cargo, and so get free transportation to
other countries.

Well, these little flat stowaways were not human beings, they were
insects. Yes, May, they were the cockroaches.