140 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



while and tlieii gnulually resumes its activity. Some- 

 times the mother's back will l)e covered with taut lines 

 decorated with these cast-off molts, reminding one of 

 the dainty pieces of a baby's toilet hung up to dry in 

 the laundry." 



"How long does the mother keep her l)rood around 

 her ?" asked the Doctor, 



" When the young are about three weeks old a few 

 begin to leave the maternal care. They have been long 

 enough 'tied to mother's apron string,' to quote a 

 common saying that has quite as much Hxct as figure in 

 it for our spiderlings. They climb up a grass stalk, then 

 venture upon a higher weed or shrub, thence they 

 reach the trunk of a tree, and, grown bolder now, climb 

 out upon the branches. xVfter another week the mother 

 shows a disposition to send her brood adrift. The time 

 for 'weaning' has come, and occasionally a little one 

 is reminded of this fact by being tossed away into the 

 grass; A bright, warna autumn da}' follows, and then 

 the entire brood, moved by the resistless instinct of 

 migration, leave their mother without furtlier ci'rcmony, 

 run here and there upon plants and trees, or are dis-- 

 iributed over the vicinity by aeronautic thght, that 

 strange habit so stronglv analogous to ballooning as 

 practiced by nun. Later in the season or in the spring 

 one will find a number of tiny burrows, the very coun- 

 terpart of the mother's, in which the young have set up 

 housekeeping, or cave-keeping rather, for themselves. 

 As they grow in size the burrows arc enlarged, imtil at 

 last the babes have themselves become mothers and re- 



