TAILORING ANIMALS 



might pass through a 

 finger-ring a net that 

 would enclose a field. 

 Arachne's silken toils, 

 were they capable of 

 like manipulation, 

 would be fomid of even 

 greater fineness. Cer- 

 tainly no lace-maker's 

 art excels in beauty and 

 delicacy some of the 

 snares that our com- 

 mon field and garden 

 spiders spin daily in 

 summer fields and 

 groves, and in such 

 numbers that the face 

 of nature, when moist- 

 ened with mist or be- 

 sprinkled with dew, 

 seems draped with a 

 dotted veil of white silk. 

 The spider mother 

 makes a yet nearer ap- 

 proach to her human 

 sister. Mother love and 

 care are the threads 

 that bind into one gar- 

 ment the various pieces 

 of natural hfe. There 

 is no sweeter thing 

 within the compass of 

 human actions than a 



AN ORBWEAVING SPIDER S NESTING- 

 TENT OF FERN-LEAVES SEWED 

 TOGETHER 



203 



