418 TENANTS OF AN OLD FAE.U. 



" Very well,'' I coiiiinued, " let the stick drop do-i\-n 

 to the paper. Here at the points where the cords 

 touch I thrust pins through them into the table. Re- 

 move your stick now, and there ! You see that the 

 sheet reemains quite curled over. That is substantially 

 the leaf-roller's mode of curling a leaf; except, of 

 course, that, instead of pinning down its threads, it 

 glues them down to the leaf; and, by a succession of 

 like operations, succeeds in making one complete roll 

 or cylinder, and then another and another, until its 

 full growth is attained. 



"And, now, you want to know what the caterpillar 

 does in its leafy tent ? Well, having made its home, 

 it straightway proceeds to eat it." 



"Verily," said Aunt Hannah, who could not resist 

 the opportunity to draw a moral lesson, "there are 

 human beings who have the same unhappy faculty. 

 Many a good house and fair farm have I known to dis- 

 appear down the gullet of the glutton and wine-bibber. 

 Truly, Holy Scripture well calls man ' a worm ' — 

 although, perhaps. Friend Mayfield, th}' caterpillar 

 doesn't exactly illustrate the mind of the Spirit in that 

 phrase." 



The closing sentence was evidently forced into this 

 apologetic strain by the smile which I could not re- 

 strain at the quaint use which the good woman had 

 found for my little leaf-roller. 



"Pardon me," I said, "your lesson is not less 

 profitable because it awakes mirthfulness. ■ But really, 

 Aunt Tlanuah, you have done the worm injustice by 



