POOR JONES.
As Mr Jones was returning from church with bis family, he discovered a new and singular-looking insect on the front doorstep of his suburban villa. As he is somewhat of a scientist, ho was naturally pleased with the new specimen, and, forming his pockethandkerchief into a cage, he pounced down upon it, and sac*, ceeded in capturing it. " Bring the microscope, children," he said, " and tell your ma to hurry; I want her to look at it. I'm sure it belongs to thehemiptera class, and is a new specimen. Here, Charlie, put your eye to the ocular side and tell me what you see." " Oh, pa, ain't it splendid. It's got four wings, eight eyes, and oh my. ain't it a sparkler, though. Bed, and green and—-Oh, its getting away, ain't it, pa ?'-'-■■ "it isn't dead !" cried Mr Jones, in ecstacy. "I wasn't quite sure whether , it moved or not. Let me look. Yes, it's a terrestrial, I think after all; it belongs' ' to the genus Pentatoma—antennas have that peculiar flexible look; and yet now that I look again, the eyes seem to indie* ate that it is a phytocois, in which oase it will be very destructive to your ma's plants, and we must kill it at once. I'll ask Professor Sill. It will be in any case, a valuable addition to our collection. Marie, where's the chlorform?" "In the corner cupboard. What are you goipg to do with it ?" asked Mrs Jones, who bad been giving her undivided attention to the baby. " Kill this insect as soon as you have examined it," answered Mr Jones, in a lofty tone. "I shall present it to the learned society with which " "Well, I think not, Mr Jones," broke in his wife, who was look" ing with much interest at the new specimen, " I paid ten shillings for .that insect, as you call it, last week to wear on my new bonnet, and it must have dropped off when I came in. It belongs to the genuine millinerse, and couldn't be any deader if it had been baked for a century. Science will have to get on without it: it's already classified."
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Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4785, 10 May 1884, Page 2
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363POOR JONES. Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4785, 10 May 1884, Page 2
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