THE TENANTS PREPARING FOR WINTER. 31 



" Well, a spider, unlike true insects, does not undergo 

 transformation from a worm, through the chrysalid to 

 the imago. It hatches out like a bird, and has no need 

 to have stored within its cell a supply of nutrition as 

 with voracious grubs. It can wait until its exode, when 

 it is able to spin its own web and provide for its own 

 larder. Therefore, the mother shows a true forecast of 

 the situation and wants of her offspring when she fails 

 to store food within the cocoon. Besides, there is a 

 suspicion — though I am not prepared to affirm it — that 

 the little ogres eat each other up, as necessity requires, 

 an exigency of spider infancy which is provided for or 

 against in the great number of eggs laid and young 

 hatched out." 



" Dear me, what a situation that for the baby spider- 

 lings ! To be shut within those inexorable walls and 

 wait until one's turn comes to be served for dinner 

 to one's sister or brother ! It is to be hoped that Nature 

 has kindly made the little fellows unconscious of their 

 destiny. However, if one half is true that I hear of this 

 human brotherhood of ours, it is not so very unlike the 

 spider's baby-house. The big brothers eat the little 

 ones, and the monopolies swallow all!" 



"What! so young and already a cynic? But you 

 mustn't let your moralizing blind your eyes to the facts 

 of life all around you. Look into that bush that you 

 are passing. I see there one of my special friends whom 

 I want you to know. Do you find her ?" 



"You mean this pretty little cobweb? But it is 

 small and delicately wrought, and half hidden among 



