IO8 EYE SPY 
the neighborhood of their cradle and swaddling- 
clothes. They are the most independent and 
self - reliant babies on record. They ask advice 
from no one indeed their mother died a year 
ago, perhaps but each determines to leave his 
brothers and sisters, to " see the world " for him- 
self, and paddle his own canoe. 
Fancy a first trial trip on a tight- rope from 
the torch of the Statue of Liberty to Govern- 
or's Island ! Yet such is the corresponding 
feat accomplished by this self - reliant acrobat, 
which a few days or perhaps hours ago was but 
an egg! 
Here is one family of spiderlings upon the 
grape-vine spray, for instance. They are hanging 
several yards above the water, and with an ocean, 
as it were, between them and the distant country 
upon which their hearts are set. But there is no 
hesitation or misgiving. Let us closely observe 
this eager youngster far out upon the point of the 
leaf. The breeze is blowing across the brook. 
In an instant, upon reaching the edge of the leaf, 
the spiderling has thrown up the tip of its body, 
and a tiny, glistening stream is seen to pour out 
from its group of spinnerets. Farther and farther 
it floats, waving Across the water like a pennant. 
Two, three, five, ten, fifteen feet are now seen glis- 
tening in the sun. Now it floats in among the 
herbage upon the opposite bank, and seems reach- 
