ves fell drumming on the leaves and bouncing off, rolled on to the ground. Karik picked up one of the 'rolls' and bit a piece out of it. "Well, how's that?' asked the old man from above. The 'roll' was scented and just as delicious as the Andrena bee's pastry. "Is it made of flower pollen and honey?" asked Karik. "Yes! Pollen and nectar. Do you like it?" "It's lovely. What are you doing with them up there?" "I am sprinkling the pollen into the nectar and kneading them like dough." The 'rolls' fell around Karik like autumn apples from an apple tree. Karik collected them and stacked them in a pile. At length the Professor climbed down the tree, sat on the ground and choosing a 'roll' rather bigger than the rest at once bit off half of it. "Life is not so bad actually !" The Professor winked in a friendly way at Karik. "No," agreed Karik, "it is possible to live here, but all the same . . ." he sighed and became silent. "Well, well," grunted the old man, "don't worry. We'll get home and everything will be grand." He stood up. "Although it is still a long time before evening comes, we mustn't go away from the Oenothera wood. Let's go there, sit down and wait for Valya. Bring the 'rolls.' I think Valya will like them." "I am certain of it," nodded Karik. "She, poor girl, has had nothing to eat all day. Everything will please her." "That's good," said the old man, "but how are we to carry all these rolls? Without a basket we certainly cannot carry more than a few. Look here, my boy, you sit here a little while whilst I go and look for a basket." He looked to the right and to the left and then went over to one of the big brown heaps which rose like hillocks on the river bank and, bending over it, picked at it with his fingers. "Excellent," he announced, "it seems to be just what we need." He started to dig out a lump. "Here you are, my dear, wash this thing!" handing Karik a big muddy lump. Karik took it and trying to hold it as far away from himself as possible so as not to get dirty ran down to the river. He went into the water up to his knees and lowered the Professor's find into the river. The water became cloudy. The clay melted away like a piece of butter on a frying-pan. Soon something white appeared from beneath a layer of dirt. Karik started to scrape off the clay with his hand and suddenly felt some sort of slender handle. "Apparently it is actually a basket," he marvelled. Soon the strong current of water had completely washed away the clay, and Karik found in his hands a basket of unusual beauty. He lifted it by the handle, right up to his eyes and stood for a minute gazing in admiration at its ornamental lattice work which looked as if it had been wove out of ivory. "How's that? Good enough for a basket?" Karik heard the old man's voice behind him. "It's exactly as if it had been made of lace," replied Karik, admiring it. "Who ever made it?" "I'll tell you that later," said the Professor, "but now wash these as well." He threw two heavy balls of clay on the ground and went back to his excavations. Karik started work. He carefully washed the clay off the extraordinary baskets and stood them side by side on the bank; but the Professor brought more and more. One basket was even more amazing than the others. Fine silvery stems were platted- together in ornamented squares. On the squares there were screens pierced by the stems and decorated with stars, leaves and garlands. One would have thought that such delicate baskets must have been made by the hands of a master craftsman. One basket reminded them of some sort of tiny palace with openwork towers and fine Gothic windows. Silver lattice work stood up around the palace-like walls. These walls were decorated with flowers, stags' antlers and stars. Some of them were not like baskets at all, but Karik did not throw them away but stood them beside the baskets. It was as though dishes, vases, helmets, spheres, stars, cubes and crowns had been woven out of ivory. "And they are all different!" marvelled Karik. "Yes," said the Professor, "they are every sort of shape. You could study them for a lifetime and yet every day you would always discover new forms of the plant." "What?" Karik turned quickly to the Professor. "Did you say it's a plant?" "Yes, it is a single-celled water weed. Diatoms, more exactly - membranous plants. In these beautiful basket-like membranes live the simple water plants - the diatoms. Thus, in this one," the old man pointed to a round basket, "there lived the heliopelta diatom; in these triangles - a tritserata; in this rhomboid - a navicula. That which you hold in your hand is only the skeleton of the diatom. The water plants die, but their strong membranes remain. In tens or even hundreds of years the amazing baskets will not have been destroyed by age." "Oho!" said Karik. "They are certainly very strong. Look, you can't break them." The Professor laughed. "That is because the membrane is made of silica. That's a ' very strong material." "You said that this was a water plant. That means they live in water. How is it that they - ?" "You want to ask how they got on to the land? Apparently they must have been deposited on the bank by a flood or a storm. Or maybe very long ago there was a lake here which was filled with diatoms from the surface to the bottom." "Such little things! How could they fill a lake?" "Yes, they are small, but against that there are so many of them. Like dust in a broad sunbeam they exist throughout the whole mass of the water. Millions and millions. Their life is short. They are born and having lived a few hours they die. Day and night in seas, lake and rivers there falls without ceasing a rain of their corpses. "Their bodies lie on the bottom. On their bodies new bodies fall. Layer after layer the pile of millions of diatom bodies rises up and thousands of years pass. The diatoms rise from the bottom of the rivers in islands and shoals. The river divided course around them into branches, they make the river deltas. By this means. they change the course of the rivers. By this means they change geography. Huge lakes slowly die under the layers of diatoms. They turn into swamps. They vanish from the map. "Not far from Leningrad there is the fortress of Kronstadt. You have to go 30 kilometres of a water journey to reach it. But in two and a half thousand years it will be possible to go from Leningrad to Kronstadt on foot. The bodies of the diatoms will have covered the gap between with a dense, firm causeway. "So you see these teeny creatures, unnoticed by man, change the face of the earth. "Well! the membrane of the diatom has new significance now. Choose for yourself baskets for the 'rolls.' Karik thoughtfully filled two little baskets with 'rolls' and went after the Professor. They returned to the Oenothera wood, laid their baskets under a tree and stretched themselves out in the cool shadow. With their arms under their heads, they lay there talking quietly, but both started very soon to yawn. "Let's sleep," proposed the old man. "You sleep and I'll keep guard," said Karik. The Professor went to sleep. Karik lay beside him and listened to the measured breathing of the old man. He started to think how pleased mother would be when he and Valya arrived home and how she would exclaim when he started to tell her about this wonderful journey. Karik's eyes felt full of sand. He turned on his side and was soon just as fast asleep as the Professor. In their sleep they heard some indistinct noise and soft steps as if a wild beast was creeping up to them. All was silent. Then suddenly a very ordinary human voice shouted. "Ah, here you are ! Whatever has happened?" The Professor and Karik opened their eyes. CHAPTER XV Karik makes the acquaintance of a lion ant - A caw hospital - The bumble bee's larder - Mysterious lights - An extraordinary horse - Besieged by flies IN THE ROSY GLOW OF THE EVENING SUNSET, THERE IN FRONT OF the Professor and Karik stood Valya: the real live Valya. She held in her hands one of the diatom baskets and she was attentively examining its silvery pattern. She first put the little basket up close to her eyes, then lifted it high above her head and peered at it with one eye screwed up. "Take a look, citizens!" grinned Karik. "The next instalment of the film 'The girl from Kamchatka' has commenced. The missing damsel mysteriously appears on the west coast." The Professor didn't say anything. He just clasped Valya to him and silently stroked her hair. Valya wriggled out of his arms and stretching out the diatom basket towards him, demanded: "Did you really make this yourself? What is it made of? And why does it smell so delicious? Can we eat it?" "You cannot eat the basket but you may certainly cat the 'rolls' in the basket," answered the old man. "How many do you want? Two? Three?" asked Karik, taking the rolls out of a basket. "Five! I want five!" Valya answered quickly. The Professor and Karik laughed. "That is what they call famished!" said Karik. "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter! Let her eat what she wants. Indeed, we might all have a bite with you. Would you like something?" "I could manage it !" agreed Karik. The Professor arranged the baskets of 'rolls' opposite Karik and Valya, and with a wide hospitable sweep of the arm invited the children to supper. Valya took a bite of 'roll,' munched it, and announced: "Most delicious!" and proceeded to stuff her two cheeks with 'roll'. The other two watched her smilingly. Karik winked at the Professor and asked in a very innocent way: "Is it true that there was a man in Moscow who had the appetite of an elephant?" "I never heard that," said the Professor. "But I heard it. They say he ate ten plates of soup." "And I could eat them!" said Valya, shoving a huge piece of 'roll' into her mouth. Karik nudged the old man with his elbow. "And for a second course he ate fifteen tender chops." "And I could eat fifteen!" rejoiced Valya. "Lastly, he ate twenty dishes of fruit salad," continued Karik. "But I would like thirty!" Karik moved the basket away from himself and wiped his fingers on a petal. "Then this chap tied a napkin across his chest and said: "Well, I think I must have swallowed a worm. So now, if you please, I'd like to start my proper dinner!" "And I. . . ." Valya stretched out her hand to the eighth 'roll\ but after touching it, thought a little and then sighing heavily declared: "No, I don't want anything now." "Perhaps you will now tell us how you contrived, to get into the Oenothera flower," said the Professor, clapping her on the shoulder. "Karik and I were looking for you. . . . That's right, Karik?" Karik nodded his head. "I went on and on and suddenly I got hungry. In the wood there was something which smelt just like a confectioner's shop. 'I'll climb up a tree,' I thought. I climbed up. But then all of a sudden it shut and wouldn't let me out. I shouted and shouted, until even my own ears ached." "And you cried, surely?" "A little. . . . But then I slept so soundly that I didn't even dream. Afterwards I heard someone shouting 'Valya, Valya!' I wanted to wake up but I simply couldn't." "Well, all's well that ends well!" said the old man. "Now in order that we shall not lose each other again, give me your word that you will not wander off, not even one step, from me!" "On my honour as a Pioneer!" said Karik. "On my honour saluting!" Valya saluted. "Then - on we go!" ordered the Professor, cheerfully, "on the march, my dears, on the march!" The travellers collected the baskets with 'rolls' and moved off beside the river. By nightfall they reached a big hill. Here in some sort of hole they spent the night, and then next morning, having eaten some scented 'rolls', they continued their journey. Thus they proceeded for several days, spending the night in flowers, in shells, in empty wasps' nests, under stones, and in mucky damp dens. They fed on nectar, bees' honey, butterflies' eggs and green milk. In the valley of Three Rivers the Professor succeeded in killing a hedge sparrow. The travellers had roast and smoked fowl for three days and indeed would have had sufficient meat for a further fortnight had not 'skin' beetles attacked them on their journey, carried off all their provisions and very nearly disabled the Professor. * * * * * Every day they got nearer and nearer to the lake on the opposite side of which stood the pole landmark. According to the Professor's calculations they were due to get to the lake the following day in the evening. They had then only to get across the lake, when they should be able to land quite near to the landmark. "In a few days we should be home !" the Professor assured the children. But their guide's calculations were not to prove correct. When the travellers were near the lake an unfortunate event occurred. It happened in the early morning. The Professor and the children had just emerged from the cavern in which they had passed the night and they were beginning their march in the cold morning dew. "I declare there's a frost!" shivered the old man. Shaking with cold and with their teeth chattering the travellers marched up hill and down dale. It seemed to them as if their bare feet were moving over ice sprinkled here and there with earth. They wanted to stop and tuck their feet up under themselves like a goose standing on the ice does. At last the children could stand it no longer and in order to get warm they started to run ahead. "Don't run too far !" the old man shouted after them. But the children were already dashing towards a chain of high hills, overtaking each other, jumping in their chase over wide holes and little rivers. "Come back!" shouted the old man. "Come back, Karik! Come here, Valya?" But Karik only waved his hand and quickly running up on to the crest of a hill disappeared behind it. Valya stopped as if undecided whether to turn back or to follow Karik, but, after hesitating a little, went off after her brother and was also disappearing behind the hill. The Professor, alarmed, quickened his steps. Then suddenly from behind the hill came a desperate cry. A few moments later Valya reappeared on the top of the hill. She waved her hands and called to the Professor for help. "Quickly, quickly! . . . They are attacking!" she shouted. The old man ran as fast as ever he could. He simply flew up the hill. "Where is he? Where?" he panted at Valya. "There! There he is!" Valya replied. At the bottom of a sort of funnel up to its neck in sand a terrible monster was twisting and digging. A large black head with long curving pincers was rapidly throwing up sand and rocks in a regular spray. On the slope of the funnel stood Karik, quite dazed. He was helplessly covering his head with his hands and turning this way and that way. Sand and rocks hurtled straight at him. He fell down, got up and fell down again. The monster did not stop showering him. The sandy wall of the funnel fell away under his feet and Karik started to slide down, down, down, right into the monster's lair. "Turn on your back," shouted the Professor. But Karik couldn't understand anything and couldn't hear. Then the old man rushed down, seized Karik by the arms and clambered out of the funnel, up the crumbling side. A regular hail of rocks followed the fugitives. But the Professor set his teeth and, not letting go of Karik, quickly climbed upwards, with his head well down in his shoulders and bending down to the very ground. At last he got out of the funnel, carefully laid Karik on the ground and grunted: "Goodness gracious! are we really out of it?" Karik lay there pale with a thin stream of blood creeping down his cheek. His head and the whole of his spider's web suit were powdered with sand. Valya ran up to her brother. "Is he alive?" she demanded of the Professor in alarm, as she dropped on her knees beside her brother. "He's alive all right," said the old man, frowning. "He'll soon recover consciousness!" "The sooner the better! We must get away from here as soon as possible. That frightful thing will climb out and start throwing stuff at us again." "It won't climb out!" replied the Professor curtly, and, looking angrily at Valya, continued, "Didn't I tell you, didn't I shout at you? Oh, no . . . must have it your own way!" He put his ear to Karik's chest, then felt for his pulse and looking skywards started to move his lips, making no sounds. Karik sighed. "Can you hear me?" asked the Professor, loudly. Karik raised himself up, gazing at the Professor with dull eyes. His lips moved ever so slightly. "It's .. . gone?" he asked in a weak voice. "It's gone away, it's gone away !" said the Professor. "Now how about you? Can you get up?" "I think I can!" said Karik. Swaying, he stood up, said "Come on!" and clenched his teeth. For some time the travellers moved on in silence, but the old man could not remain angry for long. When presently they sat down to rest he looked at Karik and laughed: "What a hero. . . . Eh? Look at him! Fell into a lion's den!" "I was unlucky," said Karik. "I was running and running - and suddenly the funnel appeared and - well! I rolled down it." "You would do much better if you watched your step instead of chasing wild geese. A little longer -and you would have made a nice dinner for a 'lion-ant'." "What did you say it was called, a 'lion-ant'?" demanded Valya. "Yes, that's what it is called," nodded the old man. "However, this was not actually a 'lion-ant' itself but its larva. It doesn't live in a hole itself, it flies about, but most often climbs about trees. I think you must have actually seen one at one time or other. . . ." "What is it? What's it like?" "It is rather like a dragonfly. But it is an idler, a terrible lazybones. It sits on a tree letting its four wings flop. Yes, and it'll sit there all day long, just as if it had been stuck there on a pin. But this bully which sits in a hole and hurls stones - this is its larva. That is how it hunts. You saw what a cunning trap it had set for ants who don't look where they are going!" "For ants?" "Not only for ants. It doesn't let other insects get out. But what is most insulting," smiled the Professor, "this creature who wanted to eat you hasn't even got a mouth." "Well, then. . . . How was it going to eat me? With its feet?" "Yes, in a way - with its pincers!" replied the Professor. "You see, my dears, the 'lion-ant' has no mouth opening, but on the contrary has two huge pincers on its head with which it attaches itself to its prey, and through which it sucks their blood. Another two or three minutes and you would have made the acquaintance of these pincers." The Professor got up from the ground and said: "Well, ready? Let's go on!" Valya trotted behind the old man and Karik dragged himself along behind them both, trying not to get separated from Valya. At times a sharp pain made him jump and stop. It seemed to him as if he had trodden on a long, sharp needle. For all that he kept going. Frowning, making faces, biting his lips, he nevertheless kept moving and did not drop behind a single step. The old man looked around every so often and stole a glance at Karik. When Karik stumbled the Professor asked him with alarm in his voice: "Well, what's the matter with you? Perhaps you would like to lean on me, wouldn't you?" "No, no, it's nothing!" replied Karik, hastily, "it's just. . . . I trod on a sharp stone!" At last Karik began to lag. He now no longer walked but hopped, trailing one leg behind the other one after him along the ground. The Professor stopped and said: "Well, I can see you are quite exhausted." "No, no!" protested Karik. "I could do another fifty miles still." He straightened himself up and started to walk quickly forward but, having made a few steps, fell, and clutching his bad leg groaned. Then the Professor without saying a word lifted Karik up on to his back. "No, I can stick it. Let me go! I can manage it myself!" resisted Karik. "Sit there!" scolded the Professor. " 'I can stick it,' indeed! You think you're a champion." Holding Karik tightly, he walked on frowning and looking down at his feet. Beside him came Valya, with a guilty look on her face. Karik laid his head on the Professor's shoulder, his eyes were soon shut and he was sound asleep. When next he opened his eyes he saw that he was lying on the bank of a big lake. The Professor was standing on a rock and using his hand to shade his eyes was gazing at the opposite bank where the landmark stood up solitary in the distance. Karik heard Valya ask something but what it was he could not make out. He raised his head from the ground and listened. At that moment the old man was speaking: "We'll build a boat and sail or row across. But to begin with let's look for a suitable lodging-place. We may probably have to spend a week on the bank." "But why ever?" "What do you mean why ever? You must have seen how ill our Karik is?" "You don't need to!" said Karik, raising himself on his elbows. "Don't need what?" "You don't need to spend a week on the shore. I can crawl into the boat, and I am sure I could row!" "Stuff and nonsense!" the Professor waved his hands. "What will happen if a storm suddenly springs up. You'll go to the bottom like a stone." The old man bent over Karik and carefully touched his swollen knee with his hand. "Look how blue it has become! And it hurts, no doubt?" "It is painful," Karik wrinkled up his eyes. "It burns all the time as if someone was ironing the knee with a hot iron." The Professor started to think and then suddenly clapping his hand to his head ran to the lake. "0-oh, isn't it swollen!" Valya touched Karik's sore leg with the top of her finger. "Yes. If you had been bombarded like that you would be swollen too!" rejoined Karik, rubbing his bad knee. "If you don't put your weight on that leg it will soon go! Would you like me to find you a crutch?" At this moment the Professor arrived back. He held in front of himself on outstretched hands a tiny leaf from which water was trickling down on to the sand. "Well, now, turn a little!" said the old man, "and give me your leg." Then having laid the wet, cold leaf on the hot, swollen knee he skilfully bound up Karik's bad leg. "How's that?" "Very good," said Karik, "a sort of compress. It started to get better at once." "Excellent! Lie quiet, and Valya and I will go and look for a place to spend the night." As luck would have it the travellers did not have to look long for their refuge. The whole bank of the lake was pierced with deep caverns. The old man and Valya started inspecting first one and then another, and at last chose a dry sandy cave with a low roof and narrow entrance. "Let's stay in this one!" suggested Valya. The Professor agreed. He returned to the bank, lifted Karik and carried him to the cave in his arms. "Lie there!" he said, putting Karik down beside the wall. "Is that comfortable for you?" Karik did not answer. He was already sleeping the heavy sleep of the sick. The old man and Valya sat at the entrance and, by the fading light of evening, ate a supper of the remains of the honey dough. "Now we must go to sleep!" said the Professor. Blocking up the entrance to the cave with rocks the travellers stretched themselves out on the dry sand and were soon asleep. * * * * * * Towards morning the Professor dreamt he saw a lion-ant. The lion was firmly holding Karik in its curved pincers and was staring at him with huge protruding eyes. Karik was hitting the monster on the head with his arms and legs and quietly groaning. The old man opened his eyes. "Good gracious, I was dreaming!" he thought. However, the groans continued. It wasn't a dream after all! "Karik, are you all right?" the Professor hailed him. Karik did not answer. It was dark in the cave. The old man got up and feeling the wall with his hand made his way to the mouth of the cave. In the darkness, touching the barricade of rocks which blocked up the entrance, he took off two big rocks from the top and gently, so as not to wake the children, lowered them down to the ground. It now became light in the cave. The grey light which comes before the dawn filtered in and touched the floor where the children were sleeping. In the centre of the cave Valya could be seen curled up like a cat, Karik was sleeping near the wall with his arms flung widely apart. He was all red in the face. Sweat stood on his forehead. He was shivering and groaning in his sleep. The Professor went over to him, bent down and quietly touched the swollen knee wrapped in the leaf. Without waking Karik drew up the leg and groaned loudly. "Do you want something to drink, Karik?" he asked. Karik opened his eyes. Unable to grasp anything, he gazed at the Professor for a long time and then turned away from him towards the wall. "Would you like me to get you some water?" "No-o!" said Karik, through his teeth. "But would you like me to change the compress?" asked the old man. "Yes . . . compress, please!" The Professor brought a fresh damp petal and fastened it around the swollen knee. "How's that? Better?" "Better!" sighed Karik. "That's fine! Sleep away! Meanwhile I'll go and look for something to eat. If Valya wakes up, don't let her go out of the cave. I'll be back soon." Karik silently nodded his head. ' The Professor filled up the entrance to the cave with rocks and, looking around himself in order to remember quite clearly where the children were, went off to find something for breakfast. Not far from the cave a hill rose up covered with thick bushes. The old man went to the foot of the hill, examined it carefully, touched the soft feathery foliage of the green bushes. "Evidently it is moss! Yes, indeed, just ordinary moss. Now let's see if there is anything eatable here." He climbed daringly through the thick growth of moss. But he had only gone a few steps when he disappeared up to the waist. Falling, he managed to clutch hold of some of the foliage. With his legs swinging above a dark hole he peered downwards and in the half darkness descried earthy arches and a smooth, trampled floor. The weak light filtered in from above through the thick foliage and lit the dark cellar fitfully. In the depths of the cellar along the wall white barrels stood in even rows. "Apparently it's a bumble bee's store!" muttered the Professor. He measured with his eye the distance to the earthern floor and letting go the foliage with his hands dropped down. The earth beneath his feet was dry and warm. Examining the cellar with curiosity the old man went over to the barrels. They were each of them closed with a white cover. He lifted the cover off one of the barrels, bent over it and sniffed. "That's just what it is!" The barrel was full to the very brim with scented honey. Alongside stood other barrels, and they too were filled with honey. It was very much like a storeroom in which supplies were kept "for a rainy day." In actual fact this was what it was - a bumble bee's storeroom. The female bumble bee lays its eggs in a nest and leaves alongside them little balls of honey and pollen. The larvae come out of the eggs, eat the balls of honey and pollen and turn into cocoons, which are barrel-shaped. After a little while the young bumble bees open the top of the barrels and fly out. But the cocoons are not wasted. In the summer the bumble bees fill them with honey and in cold, rainy weather, when it is not possible to fly out of the nest, they feed on this. The Professor, in no hurry, breakfasted and then chose one of the stronger barrels and started to drag it out of the storeroom. This was no easy task. The barrel, as if it had been alive, jerked itself out of the old man's hands, bumped him and knocked him off his feet. But for all this the Professor managed to get it up out of the cellar. His knees shook. His hands were numb. His heart beat so furiously that he could feel it clearly even in his temples. "And now how can I roll it to the cave," he puzzled. He was afraid to turn the barrel on its side and roll it along the ground as one normally rolls the ordinary barrel. The lid might open and all the honey would pour out on to the ground. "There's nothing for it but to try some other way." He gripped the edge of the barrel with his hands and shook it fiercely. The barrel rocked. "Aha! It'll soon come!" he rejoiced. He tipped the barrel over on one side and proceeded to push, at the same time rolling the barrel from side to side as if he wanted to bore a hole in the earth. Slowly, step by step, pushing the barrel with his hands and leaning his full weight against if, the old man drove it to the cave. When the Professor got to the bank of the lake Valya came to meet him, "Up already?" he asked, stopping and taking breath. "How is Karik getting on?" "He is asleep! Let me help you!" "Certainly, help if you can!" "But what is this? What is the barrel?" "Honey!" "A whole barrel! That's really grand!" Valya took hold of the barrel and began to push it, helping the Professor. With their combined efforts they rolled the barrel into the cave and stood it in a corner. "You have breakfast, little Valya," said the Professor, wiping his hot neck with his hands, "I must go and look for a bed for Karik. It's not very comfortable for him, poor chap, to sleep on the bare ground." He went out. Valya successfully threw off the lid and at once dug her hands into the honey. Her fingers became covered with the scented liquid. She ate so enthusiastically that soon her face, neck and arms, up to the very elbows, were coated as if with glue, in amber-yellow honey. "Now what shall I do?" Valya spread her sticky fingers apart. "There isn't even anything to wipe them on. I'll go to the lake and wash." She went out of the cave and ran to the lake. On the sandy beach Valya stopped to make sure that there were no monsters in the neighbourhood and only after this did she get into the water and start to wash. After bathing she ran back. On her way back she collected a piece of petal and dragged it into the cave. "It will be useful," she considered. "It is certain to be useful to us now!" At the cave itself she saw the Professor, who was dragging a mass of feathery hair. "Now where have you been running to?" he asked, stopping. "To wash myself!" The Professor shook his head. "Now, that doesn't please me at all. I warned you most seriously. I warned you not to go out without me." "But I was all covered with honey!" "All the more likely," gruff-gruffed the old man, "that a fly, wasp or a bee would carry you off with the honey - in fact, there are few of our neighbours here who could resist a girl covered in honey." He went into the cave and threw the pile of tangled hair on the floor. "Well, there you are, there's a bed for Karik! Yes, and there is enough hair for you and me as well." "It's just like a real mattress!" Valya touched the hair. "Where did you get it?" "I took it from a gipsy moth!" "Does a gipsy moth sleep on a mattress?" "No," smiled the Professor, "it doesn't sleep itself. It flies. But its next generation are covered carefully by it with this down. Neither rain nor cold are harmful to the eggs of gipsy moths, which lie under such dense feathery eiderdowns." "What is this feathery stuff? It's surely ordinary horsehair!" "You forget that you and I are not ordinary ourselves and that is why this down appears to us as horsehair. However, let us make up a bed for Karik now." "I'll make the bed!" said Valya. She laid hair near the sandy wall, beat it up with her hands as one puffs up a pillow, then threw a big bunch of hair at the head of the bed and went a little way away. "It looks quite nice," she said admiringly. "Excellent," approved the Professor. He took the sleeping Karik up in his arms and transferred him to the bed. Valya opened the petal up and laid it over Karik like a quilt. "He seems pretty comfortable now. Look after him while I go out for half an hour or so," said the old man. "I have some things to do outside. If Karik wakens feed him!" "Right you are," said Valya. "You go on, I have some things to do too." When the Professor had gone, Valya made up two more beds, dragged in two new blue quilts made from harebell petals, swept the floor with a piece of petal, then rolled into the cave four big stones, put a flat rock on top of them and on top of that laid as a tablecloth the white petal of an ox-eyed daisy. This provided a splendid table. Around the table Valya arranged smaller stones, put the remainder of the hair on these and covered it with yellow petals. "There are our comfy chairs!" said Valya. Having finished work she inspected the cave and was very pleased - it was now really cosy. "Now we could stay here even a whole month while Karik gets well." She went over on tiptoe to her brother's bed, bent over him and carefully rearranged the quilt. "He is asleep," she said in a whisper. Soon the Professor arrived back. Breathing heavily, he rolled a second barrel of honey into the cave and stood it up by the wall. "Look what I have done here," boasted Valya. "What's happened?" asked the old man in alarm, but on looking around the cave nodded his head approvingly. "Bravo, bravo! You're a champion! Yes, you're a regular housewife!" He praised Valya. "By the way, I too may be able to add something to the comfort of our dwelling. Just here by the cave I found an interesting little thing." He went out and in ten minutes returned with a little leaf in his hands. Using the leaf as if it was a tray he carried in a mound of oblong little eggs. "What are those?" asked Valya, "Can we eat them?" "No," replied the Professor, "they cannot be eaten but they will be useful to us, very useful!" "But what use can they be?" "Live and learn!" The Professor put the tray of eggs on a barrel and said: "I have been thinking things over: Our patient will evidently have to stay in bed for some days. In order not to waste time you and I will roll all the barrels of honey into the cave and then we can set about building our battleship." "What battleship?" "Well, something is sure to turn up that we can make into a ship! Then as soon as Karik gets well, we can set out on our voyage. Since our landmark is on the opposite side of the lake, it means we must go across in a vessel." Having fed themselves on honey, Valya and the old man set about rolling the barrels of honey from the bumble bees' store to the cave. Each time they came back the Professor went over to Karik, listened to his uneven breathing and felt his pulse. Karik slept as if he was dead. When the whole corner of the cave was stocked with barrels of honey the Professor announced: "That's that. Now, little Valya, let's go and build a ship." "That will be interesting!" rejoiced the girl. "I don't know if it will be interesting," said her companion, "but I am ready to wager that we'll have a spot of work to do!" Having closed up the entrance to the cave with rocks in order that no wild beasts should get in to Karik, the old man and the girl set out to the lake. "What can we make the ship out of?" demanded Valya, marching along beside the Professor. "We'll find something. There are quite a few dry tree leaves on the bank. We can build it out of these. This morning 1 saw behind the hills some ordinary trees." "It is very likely that the wind carries their leaves here. At any rate, we shall soon see." The Professor and Valya went along the bank and no sooner had the old man got a little way away from Valya than she suddenly cried out: "I have found it! Found it! Found it already!" "Where?" the old man turned to her. "Here we are!" By the lake itself lay a huge yellow leaf with deeply indented edges. Thick veins spread fan-like in all directions. The Professor walked around the leaf, looked at it from every direction, lifted its edge and looking underneath said: "Yes, this is an oak leaf, but unfortunately we cannot make a ship out of it." "Why not?" "There are galls on the leaf. Do you see? The whole leaf is covered with galls!" "Galls. What are they?" The Professor lifted the edge of the oak leaf still higher. Valya squatted down and looked under the leaf. The whole of its lower surface was covered with dark balls. These balls appeared just as if they had been glued on to the leaf. Valya touched them with her hands. They were as hard as stones. "We could never move such a leaf!" the old man announced. "Whatever are these things?" demanded Valya. "They are insects' nests!" said the Professor. "Numerous insects lay their eggs directly on leaves. But the leaves don't like this and they protect themselves with all their resources against unwelcome guests. The cells of the leaf collect around the egg, trying to push it away, just as the white corpuscles of the blood push away a thorn which has got into your finger. "It is for this reason that an inflammation appears on your finger around the thorn whilst on the leaves swellings appear - these very galls. They are usually called 'ink nuts' or 'oak apples,' although by no means all of these galls are inky nor are they very inviting apples." "But what insects do this?" asked Valya. The Professor shrugged his shoulders. "One or two!" he said. "Let me see! The following lay their eggs on leaves: 60 sorts of butterflies, 113 sorts of beetles, 486 sorts of flies and, well, 290 sorts of other insects." "Can we ever find a leaf without galls?" "We shall have to find one!" answered the Professor. It was already dusk by the time they at length found a dry oak leaf suitable for launching. But it lay a good distance from the bank, so far that it was quite beyond the Professor and Valya to push it into the water. "We'll never get it there!" Valya shook her head. The Professor started to think. Stroking his beard he stood on the leaf, silently gazing at its thick veins, which stretched in every direction. "What if? . . . Yes, of course!" gruff-gruffed the old man, and then suddenly started laughing. "What are you up to?" Valya looked surprised. "I am up to just this," replied the Professor. "We'll go home now. To-morrow we'll harness a horse to do the job." "A horse?" Valya was still more surprised.