Fatigue aiding, Mrs.Weldon and hers were already asleep, when they were awakened by a great cry.
"Eh! what's the matter ?" asked Dick Sand, quickly, who was on his feet first of all.
"It is I! it is I who have cried!" replied Cousin Benedict.
"And what is the matter with you ?" asked Mrs.Weldon.
"I have just been bit!" "By a serpent ?" asked Mrs.Weldon, with alarm.
"No, no! It was not a serpent, but an insect," replied Cousin Benedict.
"Ah! I have it! I have it!" "Well, crush your insect," said Harris, "and let us sleep, Mr.
Benedict!" "Crush an insect!" cried Cousin Benedict.

"Not so! I must see what it is!" "Some mosquito!" said Harris, shrugging his shoulders.
"No! It is a fly," replied Cousin Benedict, "and a fly which ought to be very curious!" Dick Sand had lit a little portable lantern, and he approached Cousin Benedict.
"Divine goodness!" cried the latter.

"Behold what consoles me for all my deceptions! I have, then, at last made a discovery!" The honest man was raving.

He looked at his fly in triumph.

He would willingly kiss it.
"But what is it, then ?" asked Mrs.Weldon.
"A dipter, cousin, a famous dipter!" And Cousin Benedict showed a fly smaller than a bee, of a dull color, streaked with yellow on the lower part of its body.
"And this fly is not venomous ?" asked Mrs.Weldon.
"No, cousin, no; at least not for man.