“To be eaten, sir!” said Samuel.

“Yes,” replied Mr. Harvey, “mixed with butter, and fried in a pan, they form almost all the meat that the poorer classes in those countries get.”

“Its a shocking meal” said John.

“Not so bad as you suppose,” said his father.  “Perhaps, if it were not the custom in this country to eat lobsters or hogs, we would look upon them with as much disgust as you do upon locusts.  What do you think of dining off of spiders?”

“Horrible,” said John.  His father continued: 

“I have read of a man who ate nothing else, when he could get spiders.  So you see that people’s tastes differ.  You know that John Baptist’s food was locusts and wild honey.”

“Do the people kill all the locusts in a swarm?” asked Thomas.

“No,” said his father, “a swarm is so large that after hundreds of cart loads are taken from it, it seems no smaller.  Generally, the wind drives them into the sea, where they perish.  But their dead bodies, cast upon shore, become corrupt, and produce plagues.”

“I wish,” said John, “that the wind would drive all we have into the sea, or else a good distance from our fig tree.  Who would think that such little animals could do so much mischief.”

“Is it true that locusts return after every seventeen years?” asked Samuel.

“Yes,” said Mr. Harvey; “but not the common kind, such as ate the fig tree.  All locusts come from eggs.  In first coming from the egg, they are not winged, but look like grub worms.  After a while these grubs cast off their skins, and become locusts.  Now, there is a kind of locust which is seventeen years in changing from the egg to the full insect It is this kind which is so numerous every seventeen years.  If you go into the field when they are coming from the ground, you will see the grass and plants covered with them.”

“Father,” said John, “why did the locusts strip all the leaves from the fig tree, without touching any of the flowers or bushes around?”

“I suppose,” said Mr. Harvey, “it is because the fig tree is very tender.  It comes, you know, from warm countries, and is there the proper food of the locust.  Had there been figs on the tree, they would, no doubt, have been eaten also.”

CHAPTER XIII.

The return home.

A few days after this conversation, a large fox came, in the evening, into Mr. Harvey’s barn yard; but as a dog belonging to one of the farmers was near, he was driven off before he could catch any of the chickens.  The boys heard the noise, and ran down.  They saw the fox running very fast away, while the dog, which could not follow through the hole under the fence, had gone round the barn, to get into the field.  Samuel and his cousins chased the fox as far as they could see it, and then returned to the barn yard to hunt for more.  But none could be found, and they walked up to the house.