The Life of the Caterpillar 



heaps, wake up and resume their evolutions 

 on the ledge of the vase. This time the fine 

 order of the beginning is disturbed and a cert- 

 ain disorder becomes manifest, apparently an 

 omen of deliverance near at hand. The 

 scouting-path inside the vase, which was up- 

 holstered in silk yesterday and the day before, 

 is to-day followed to its origin on the rim 

 by a part of the band and is then abandoned 

 after a short loop. The other caterpillars 

 follow the usual ribbon. The result of this 

 bifurcation is two almost equal files, walking 

 along the ledge in the same direction, at a 

 short distance from each other, sometimes 

 meeting, separating farther on, in every case 

 with some lack of order. 



Weariness increases the confusion. The 

 crippled, who refuse to go on, are many. 

 Breaches increase; files are split up into sec- 

 tions each of which has its leader, who pokes 

 the front of his body this way and that to 

 explore the ground. Everything seems to 

 point to the disintegration which will bring 

 safety. My hopes are once more disap- 

 pointed. Before the night the single file is 

 reconstituted and the invincible gyration re- 

 sumed. 



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