LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD, 209 



She remained with us about six weeks, when 

 she suddenly disappeared ; but after an absence 

 often or twelve days returned, and stayed seve- 

 ral weeks longer, when she again departed. 

 Whether the poor creature was killed in her 

 rambles, or whether she had become tired of her 

 old home, and went to seek a more desirable 

 situation for a new one, I cannot tell, but we 

 never saw her afterward. 



A friend of mine, anxious to try the ingenuity 

 of the spider, stood a wine glass in a basin filled 

 with water, and placed a spider on the top of 

 the glass. It immediately ran down the side of 

 it, but finding water at the bottom, was obliged 

 to return to the top. It then ran round the 

 glass, and went down on the other side ; still 

 there was nothing but a watery ditch. In this 

 way it tried every side, and finding it impossible 

 to escape, paused a moment on the top, as if 

 deliberating what it should do next. Suddenly 

 a bright thought seemed to strike it: it turned 

 round and threw out a long thread, which, 

 after floating a moment in the air, settled on the 

 edge of the basin. The spider touched it in its 

 usual way to satisfy itself that it was securely 



