66 SUMMER 



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

 of the strongest, most interesting, most beautiful of 

 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 

 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 

 herd that mourns so long after her calf. The mother 

 in her is stronger, more enduring, than in any of the 

 other nineteen cows in the barn. My own cow hardly 

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

 be an oak tree losing its acorns, or a crab losing her 

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

 cerned. 



The female crab attaches her eggs to her swim- 

 merets and carries them about with her for their pro- 

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

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

 than the frond of a cinnamon fern feels for its spores. 

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



In the spider, however, just one step up the ani- 

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

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

 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 



