68 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



(Fig. 21). I strip aside the leafy covering, and expose 

 a stiff, parchinent-lilce case, as waterproof as a rubber- 

 coat. Inside, you see an egg-shaped object, completely 

 covered with a thick blanketing of flossy silk. (Fig. 22). 

 The silk overlays a second parchment case, which I 

 cut away, and come to the baby moth, tucked in its 

 cradle, sound asleep. This is what we call the pupa. 

 There it is !" 



The whole party had eagerly watched the progress of 

 the scissors as I dissected the cocoon, and the young 

 people had become so much interested that they left 

 their seats at the fireside, and approached the table. 



" Dear me !" said the Mistress, laughing, " that quite 

 equals the care which German mothers show their 

 babies in winter. I have seen them lying upon a 

 feather bed, and another bed of eider down or feathers 

 laid upon them as a covering. Their rosy little fat faces 

 peeped out of their knit woolen caps, and showed pink 

 and chubby like a premium peach in a bunch of cotton." 



"I wonder," said Abby, "if the Indian mothers 

 didn't get their style of wrapping up their papooses 

 from the Cecropia moth ?" 



" "Who knows ? Dame Nature has given many a good 

 hint to men, and the squaws might have gone further 

 and fared woi'se. But to proceed with our lesson : here 

 is one of Harry's contributions. He dug it out of the 

 potato-field for me this afternoon. I didn't give him 

 the name of the baby insect, or I fear that he would not 

 have been so friendly toward the ' poor wee thing,' for 

 it is an old acquamtance — ' the potato-worm.' " 



