240 The Life of the Spider 



the accident, they behave in the same way as on 

 a non-gutted dweUing. The crevice is closed, 

 in course of time, not intentionally, but solely 

 by the action of the usual spinning. 



We arrive at the same conclusion on the 

 subject of the House Spider. Walking about 

 her platform every night, she lays fresh courses 

 without drawing a distinction between the 

 solid and the hollow. She has not deliberately 

 put a patch in the torn texture ; she has simply 

 gone on with her ordinary business. If it 

 happen that the hole is eventually closed, this 

 fortunate result is the outcome not of a special 

 purpose, but of an unvarying method of work. 



Besides, it is evident that, if the Spider really 

 wished to mend her web, all her endeavours 

 would be concentrated upon the rent. She 

 would devote to it all the silk at her disposal 

 and obtain in one sitting a piece very like the 

 rest of the web. Instead of that, what do 

 we find ? Almost nothing : a hardly visible 

 gauze. 



The thing is obvious : the Spider did on that 

 rent what she did every elsewhere, neither more 

 nor less. Far from squandering silk upon it. 



