FABRES BOOK OF INSECTS 



to please the Caterpillar. When spring comes he spends 

 all his spare time in improving his quilt, in making it 

 ever thicker and softer. Even if I take off his outer case 

 he refuses to rebuild it : he persists in adding new layers 

 to the lining, even when there is nothing to be lined. 

 The sack is lamentably flabby; it sags and rumples. He 

 has no protection nor shelter. No matter. The hour 

 for carpentry has passed. The hour has come for up- 

 holstering; and he upholsters obstinately, padding a 

 house — or lining a garment — that no longer exists. He 

 will perish miserably, cut up by the Ants, as the result 

 of his too-rigid instinct. 



[108] 



