The odious little creature, they said, had destroyed the greater portion of the harvest.

A veritable plague, such as had never before been known, had fallen upon the haricots, leaving the housewife barely a handful to put in the saucepan.

Of the habits of the creature and its way of going to work nothing was known.

It was for me to discover them by means of experiment.
Quick, then, let us experiment! The circumstances favour me.

We are in the middle of June, and in my garden there is a bed of early haricots; the black Belgian haricots, sown for use in the kitchen.