The Mason- Wasps 



points that are unhurt; but at the breach it 

 employs only the quantity required under 

 ordinary conditions. This is not economy 

 imposed by shortage; it is blind clinging 

 to custom. And so my commiseration 

 changes to amazement in the presence of 

 such profound stupidity, which applies itself 

 to the superfluous work of upholstery in 

 a dwelling henceforth uninhabitable, instead 

 of attending, while there is yet time, to the 

 business of repairing the ruins. 



I make my cut a third time. When the 

 moment has come to resume the series of 

 boxed cones, the caterpillar arms the 

 breach with bristles arranged in a disk, as 

 they appear in the last courses of the un- 

 disturbed structure. This configuration 

 shows that the end of the task is at hand. 

 The cocoon is strengthened for a little 

 longer; then rest ensues and the meta- 

 morphosis begins in a dwelling with a nig- 

 gardly fence to it, one which would not 

 strike terror into the puniest invader. 



To sum up, the caterpillar, incapable of 

 perceiving the dangers attendant upon an 

 incomplete palisade, resumes its work, after 

 each amputation of the cocoon, at the point 

 where it had left it before the accident. 

 Instead of thoroughly restoring the ruined 

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