CHAPTER XII 



TWO CITIZEN CRABS OF NONSUCH 



IF WE live out our span of life on the earth 

 without ever knowing a crab intimately we have 

 missed having a jolly friendship. Life is a little in- 

 complete if we can look back and recall these small 

 people only as supplying the course after soup and 

 with the Chablis. The ancient astrologers honored 

 Cancer by making it one-twelfth of the celestial 

 zodiac — the sign of the summer solstice ; but to the 

 majority of human beings crabs are merely crea- 

 tures which skitter over the rocks, and, being rather 

 unknown, are, therefore, to be exclaimed at and 

 feared. Indeed they have even been branded with 

 an opprobrious term in our language — crabbed^ 

 one who is sour-tempered and peevish. 



Often I am asked, " What is a crab, anyhow? " 

 and it is difficult to answer. We might say that it is 

 a spider which lives in the sea, or a lobster which 

 forever sits upon its folded tail or, to be Grecianly 

 repetitious, we could call a crab a Brachyuran. The 

 matter of the tail is of importance in much the same 

 way that the short skirt is related to the old- 

 fashioned crinoline. Lobsters are conservative old 

 crustaceans, creeping along with half-extended 

 bodies. When danger threatens, however, they be- 



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