The blank silence became
oppressive. Was the Scarabee crushed, as so many of his namesakes are
crushed, under the heel of this trampling omniscient?
At last the Scarabee creaked out very slowly, "Did I understand you to
ask the following question, to wit?" and so forth; for I was quite out of
my depth, and only know that he repeated the Master's somewhat complex
inquiry, word for word.
--That was exactly my question,--said the Master,--and I hope it is not
uncivil to ask one which seems to me to be a puzzler.
Not uncivil in the least,--said the Scarabee, with something as much like
a look of triumph as his dry face permitted,--not uncivil at all, but a
rather extraordinary question to ask at this date of entomological
history. I settled that question some years ago, by a series of
dissections, six-and-thirty in number, reported in an essay I can show
you and would give you a copy of, but that I am a little restricted in my
revenue, and our Society has to be economical, so I have but this one.
You see, sir,--and he went on with elytra and antennae and tarsi and
metatarsi and tracheae and stomata and wing-muscles and leg-muscles and
ganglions,--all plain enough, I do not doubt, to those accustomed to
handling dor-bugs and squash-bugs and such undesirable objects of
affection to all but naturalists.
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