274 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



best. Besides this the ever generous 

 Mr. Hand has offered to give the Chap- 

 ter all the shells which its members are 

 able to correctly name out of his own 

 immense assortment of fresh- and salt- 

 water bi- and univalves. These, to- 

 gether with the aforementioned, praise- 

 worthy collections, will greatly add to 

 the Chapter's museum. 



The day after Thanksgiving Day, 

 there being no school, the Agassiz 

 Chapter, together with the Camera and 

 Walking Clubs, also of the Wendell 

 Phillips High School, took a trip into 

 the country. They started about nine 

 in the morning, took a car to the city 

 limits and then walked eleven miles 

 along a country road till they came to 

 a thick woods just the other side of 

 Willow Springs. Including one of the 

 girl's mother, there were twenty-two 

 of us. We built a fire amidst the woods 

 and roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, 

 turkey, "wenies," apples, etc., which to- 

 gether with the hearty lunch which the 

 girls had brought, and coffee which we 

 made over the fire, was a regular 

 second Thanksgiving dinner. We then 

 played games around the fire and con- 

 tributed one to another our knowledge 

 of the woods and its creatures. 



About four-thirty we started home 

 and a jolly time we had. All except 

 six, four of whom were boys, walked 

 all the way back to the city, making 

 somewhat over twenty-five miles the 

 day's walk. 



The adventure was so widely pro- 

 nounced a success that it is to be re- 

 peated with slight variations sometime 

 during the Christmas vacation. 



Robert P. Vanderpoel. 



I remembered to have done in my life, 

 and, as I reckoned, about nine hours; 

 for when I awaked it was just daylight. 

 I attempted to rise, but was not able to 

 stir; for, as I happened to lie on my 

 back, I found my arms and legs were 



Great Gulliver Bound by a Lilliputian. 



It will be recalled that when Gulliver 

 visited the land of the Lilliputians he 

 took a nap, and when he awoke he 

 found himself bound by tiny "liga- 

 tures" put on by little human creatures 

 about six inches high. He tells us of 

 the condition in which he found him- 

 self: 



"I was extremely tired ; and with 

 that, and the heat of the weather, and 

 about a half a pint of brandy that I 

 drank as I left the ship, I found myself 

 much inclined to sleep. I lay down on 

 the grass, which was very short and 

 soft, where I slept sounder than ever 



THE GRASSHOPPER IN THE SPIDER'S MESH. 



strongly fastened on each side to the 

 ground; and my hair, which was long 

 and thick, tied down in the same man- 

 ner. I likewise felt several slender 

 ligatures across my body, from my 

 arm-pits to my thighs. I could only 

 look upwards; the sun began to grow 

 hot, and the light offended my eyes. 

 I heard a confused noise about me, but, 

 in the posture I lay, could see nothing 

 except the sky." 



It is possible that Dean Swift in 

 writing his wonderful satire on the 

 human race must have taken the notion 

 of ^ the binding of Gulliver from the 

 spider and the grasshopper. At any 

 rate there is a close parallel. In the 

 grounds of Arcadia this year we have 

 seen many a Gulliver grasshopper 

 firmly bound by a Lilliputian spider. 



But unlike the original Lilliputians 

 these do not need to wait till their vic- 

 tim is asleep; they can start even the 

 slightest of gossamer threads despite 

 the active movements of the grasshop- 

 per. What a strange world ! And the 

 more we study it the more remarkable 

 it becomes. Into a spider's web flies 

 a big grasshopper. From this he could 

 probably free himself by his own strug- 

 gles if not attacked by the spider. But 

 the spider does attack, and the struggle 

 becomes worth watching. The spider 



