The Processionary: the Community 



change of route. Thenceforward the stran- 

 gers form part of the community on the same 

 footing as the others. In a like fashion, when 

 the caterpillars walk abroad upon the tree 

 at night, the scanty groups of the outset must 

 increase and gather the number of spinners 

 which an extensive building requires. 



Everything for everybody. So says the 

 Pine Processionary, nibbling his leaves with- 

 out quarrelling in the least over his neigh- 

 bours' mouthfuls, or else entering — and being 

 always peacefully received — another's home 

 precisely as he would his own. Whether a 

 member of the tribe or a stranger, he finds 

 room in the refectory and room in the dormi- 

 tory. The others' nest is his nest. The 

 others' grazing-ground is his grazing-ground, 

 in which he is entitled to his fair share, one 

 neither greater nor smaller than the share of 

 his habitual or casual companions. 



Each for all and all for each. So says 

 the Processionary, who every evening spends 

 his little capital of silk on enlarging a shelter 

 that is often new to him. What would he do 

 with his puny skein, if alone? Hardly any- 

 thing. But there are hundreds and hundreds 

 of them In the spinning-mill; and the result 



47 



