Miss Benson's Beetle

This summary section includes the chapters entitled: “The Golden Beetle of New Caledonia, 1914”; “What Are You Doing with My New Boots?”; “A Really Stupid Woman”; and “Just Get Rid of It!”

Margery Benson is a 10-year-old English girl in 1914, whose four older brothers have gone to fight in WWI. Margery’s father is a mild-mannered clergyman who spends most days in his study. To amuse his daughter, he shows her a book entitled Incredible Creatures with illustrations of species that may or may not exist. Margery’s attention is riveted by a small golden beetle, “Oval in shape and gold all over, it was incandescent […] as if Nature had taken a bit of jewelry and made an insect instead" (5).

From that moment, Margery vows that she will find this golden beetle, which is supposed to live only in New Caledonia. A specimen has never been captured, so the insect is still technically undiscovered. While Margery peruses the book, her father receives a phone call giving him the terrible news that all his sons have been killed in combat. Without saying a word to his daughter, he takes a revolver out of his desk drawer, goes out into the garden, and shoots himself.