The Life of the Caterpillar 



To go from one end to the other of a 

 box two inches long and filled with fine sand, 

 the living sausage takes nearly an hour. It 

 is by crawling like this that it moves about 

 in its case, when it comes to the threshold 

 to meet its visitor and goes in again. 



For three or four days, exposed to the 

 roughness of the soil, the oviferous bag leads 

 a wretched life, creeping about at random, 

 or, more often, standing still. No Moth pays 

 attention to the poor thing, who possesses no 

 attractions outside her home; the lovers pass 

 by with an indifferent air. This coolness is 

 logical enough. Why should she become a 

 mother, if her family is to be abandoned to 

 the inclemencies of the public way? And so, 

 after falling by accident from her case, which 

 would have been the cradle of the youngsters, 

 the wanderer withers in a few days and dies 

 childless. 



The fertilized ones — and these are the 

 more numerous — the prudent ones who have 

 saved themselves from a fall by being less 

 lavish with their appearances at the window, 

 reenter the sheath and do not show them- 

 selves again once the Moth's visit to the 

 threshold is over. Let us wait a fortnight 



210 



