66 SUMMER 



animals. It is very common ; and yet, while it is one l& 

 of the strongest, most interesting, most beautiful of , ; 7 

 animal traits, it is at the same time the most individ- ^ 

 ual and variable of all animal traits. 



This particular cow of my neighbor's that I hear<f 

 lowing, is an entirely gentle creature ordinarily, but < 

 with a calf at her side she will pitch at any one who & 

 '$ approaches her. And there is no other cow in the c \ y 

 N j.'^k herd that mourns so long after her calf. The mother J-tT 

 ^ ^ in her is stronger, more enduring, than in any of the \ i ; 

 '( other nineteen cows in the barn. My own cow hardly c / 

 ^ mourns at all when her calf is taken away. She might \ 

 / be an oak tree losing its acorns, or a crab losing her '. ^ 

 y f hatching eggs, so far as any show of love is con- tf 

 ,!, : cerned. 



The female crab attaches her eggs to her swim- < \ 

 merets and carries them about with her for their pro- \ I 

 tection as the most devoted of mothers ; yet she is no ^ 

 more conscious of them, and feels no more for them, | 1 

 than the frond of a cinnamon fern feels for its spores, y i 

 She is a mother, without the love of the mother. 



In the spider, however, just one step up the ani- y^\ 

 mal scale from the crab, you find the mother-love or \ ; 

 passion. Crossing a field the other day, I came upon t. I 

 a large female spider of the hunter family, carrying ^ \-\ 

 a round white sack of eggs, half the size of a cherry, 

 attached to her spinnerets. Plucking a long stem of 

 grass, I detached the sack of eggs without bursting 

 it. Instantly the mother turned and sprang at the 



j (y 



