232 A MASTER CARPENTER. 



flourishing business. A carpenter is said to be " known by 

 his chips " but the artizan in question, as if aware that his 

 operations are all trespasses, swallows (after the fashion of 

 some detected thieves) every particle of the saw-dust and 

 shavings which his tranchant jaws produce. In summer he is 

 content thus to proceed working and eating his way through 

 the winding wooden tunnels which afford him sufficient shelter 

 against all enemies wind and weather included ; but as soon 

 as the gales of autumn whistle through the thinned branches of 

 the trunk he inhabits, he begins to provide himself with a 

 more seasonable habitation. With this intent he widens a 

 portion of his gallery into a roomy chamber, and, no longer 

 satisfied with bare wooden walls, proceeds, by the exercise of 

 his native skill in weaving, to hang them with an impervious 

 tapestry a fabric (to use the words of a modern naturalist) 

 " as thick as coarse broad-cloth, and equally warm, composed 

 of the raspings of wood scooped out of the cell and united 

 with strong silk.* In tin's snug dormitory he passes the 

 winter, in an idle fast, to resume his labours and feed with the 

 return of spring ; for this master Carpenter is a long liver, 

 working, and literally living by his work, for the space of three 

 years. At the end of this period he casts aside his working 

 (or caterpillar) garb, throws by his tools, and after an aurelian 

 slumber, passed in a summer cell, lined with a lighter tapestry 

 than that occupied in winter, he thence emerges (a dark-brown 



* Rennie. 



