Worm in the Wood In every old house round about,
the beetle has been emerging from the woodwork. It seems to do well here, for the climate is mild and timber keeps its sap for a long time. I was amused to overhear a conversation on the subject which ran like this: "Got 'em! They got us! I was at my sister's an' she asked me to look at her bedroom. They was comin' out of holes an' marchin' up the walls in regiments after she'd put some lamp-oil on 'em. At my place we ignores 'em unless somebody puts his feet through the floor. Last Guy Fawkes day I went up the attic to get a chair for the kids to put on the fire. An old chair of my grandmother's it was. Put it there when she passed on. It was no more than a heap o' dust. It only took 'em two years. I told Joe, who's always proppin' himself on somethin', to mind where he put his head or they'd be into that next!" Things aren't as bad as the wag makes out, but the discovery of woodworm, as of dry rot, can cause dismay, to• say the least. It is disturbing to think of the roof- timbers being silently reduced to powder while one lies in bed.
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