THE FLORAL WOULD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. o75 



face of some stone or tree bark, quietly digesting his food, while he 

 makes a little addition to the size of his shell. We may see, too, 

 many " Spinners and "Weavers," seated in the midst of their delicate, 

 glistening webs, waiting for flies, or if the owners of the webs be 

 not there, we know that they are in nooks close at hand, most care- 

 fully concealed, but from out of which they can easily run down to 

 seize on their prey ; and we may notice how cleverly the weavers of 

 the great wheel-shaped nets have contrived to moor them with long 

 lines of web to some distant objects, and may calculate how many 

 times their own length are some of those lines which they have 

 ejected from their tiny spinnerets. "We pass on, and may contrive 

 to see the Three-lived Ones in each of their states : as caterpillars, 

 feeding on the leaves of plants and vegetables ; or hanging to boughs 

 or ledges of palings, iu their pupa, or chrysalis state ; or meet them 

 in their most perfect form, as lovely butterflies, fluttering about 

 among flowers, or just resting on them long enough to send down 

 their long drinking tubes into their nectaries. As we tread the 

 gravel paths, we are sure to notice some doings of the " Underground 

 "Workers," — some piles of earth thrown up while they have been 

 excavating a cave-city, or we may see a long procession of them 

 crossing a path, some going one way, and some another, an impor- 

 tant business no doubt ; very busy and very fussy, and yet stopping 

 occasionally to touch feelers and have a talk ; or we may see where 

 a number of them are making their way up the stem of some 

 standard rose-tree, in order to " milk their cattle ;" that is to say, 

 take from the green aphides on the rose-buds and stalks the sweet 

 honey-dew. We see here and there and everywhere that flowers and 

 blossoms are to be found, the "Busy Ones" collecting honey and 

 pollen, dipping their flexible tongues now into this flower-cup and 

 now into that, and burying themselves in others so deeply that they 

 come out white, or red, or yellow, with pollen, which is to be 

 kneaded at home into bee-bread. During all the time of our walk 

 we hear the cheerful trills, and twitters, and sweet notes of count- 

 less birds, and see them busy in their search after food, while we 

 know that most of them have snug little nests in the trees and 

 shrubs, and amid the ivy on walls about us, filled with young fledg 

 lings whom they never forget to provide for. As we pass a straw- 

 berry bed, we may chance to see some frog waiting, with his large 

 mouth and long tongue, ready for trapping flies ; or may chance to 

 come upon a mole, who may have ventured up from his burrows 

 underground. Even when we walk about our gardens in winter 

 time, when all seems so atill and quiet, we may remind ourselves of 

 how much life there is still around us, or provision for future life. 

 Anta down in their subterranean cities, taking their long winter 

 sleep. Bees also dormant in their hives. Little mice snug and 

 dozing in their warm nests ; while in every nook and cranny of 

 tree-trunks and branches, and in chinks of palings and walls, are 

 eggs and pupae of all manner of insects, waiting only for the warmth 

 of spring to bring them into life. 



And as wo are reminded of all the creatures whose history,^ or 

 even a portion of it, we have read, and whoso ways we havo boon led 



December. 



