328 The Life of the Spider 



in the wallet. At length, when October ends, 

 she clutches her offspring's nursery and dies 

 withered. She has done all that maternal 

 devotion can do ; the special providence of 

 tiny animals will do the rest. When spring 

 comes, the youngsters will emerge from their 

 snug habitation, disperse all over the neigh- 

 hood by the expedient of the floating thread 

 and weave their first attempts at a lab5nrinth 

 on the tufts of thyme. 



Accurate in structure and neat in silk-work 

 though they be, the nests of the caged captives 

 do not tell us everything ; we must go back to 

 what happens in the fields, with their com- 

 plicated conditions. Towards the end of Decem- 

 ber, I again set out in search, aided by all my 

 youthful collaborators. We inspect the stunted 

 rosemaries along the edge of a path sheltered 

 by a rocky, wooded slope ; we lift the branches 

 that spread over the ground. Our zeal is 

 rewarded with success. In a couple of hours, 

 I am the owner of some nests. 



Pitiful pieces of work are they, injured beyond 

 recognition by the assaults of the weather ! It 

 needs the eyes of faith to see in these ruins the 



