young! ABIMELECH 345 



I was only home part of the time, so of course I could not have 

 them in my room, but then, with us as with all famiHes, Mother 

 had to receive that which was not wanted by anyone else, so day 

 and night, as we passed Mother's door, we would hear the steady 

 crunch, crunch, crunch. 



Each day the worms ate the equivalent of their weight and as 

 we carried in leaves by the basket full we could not help but 

 become interested in the sleek, fat Httle creatures. We really 

 did not want to show our interest as we were just a Httle ashamed 

 but we were all caught watching them so much we at last had to 

 admit that we did so because we wanted to. 



As they grew most of them looked alike, but a few seemed to 

 have a little individtiality, and those we named. There was one 

 worm that always seemed to get the best leaves and the best place 

 to stand. He always took the lead in every thing, and so we 

 named him "Abimelech". 



One day much to our distress, Abimelech would not eat. What 

 could be the matter with him? We had grown to love him so 

 we were ver>' much worried. As the family stood over the box 

 wondering what they could do for his comfort Abimelech did a 

 marvelous thing. He had decided that he wanted some new 

 clothes, so he just stepped out of the old ones waiting for Mother 

 Nature to supply the new, and then he went on mimching as before. 



Of course the other worms had already chosen Abimelech for 

 their leader, as they could not help themselves, and so one and 

 all followed suite and stepped out of their clothes too. Poor 

 Mother Nature was busy for a day or two, but at last she had them 

 all properly clothed and we ceased worrying, realizing that worms, 

 like people had their eccentricities. The whole family was busy 

 from now on, gathering leaves to feed these ravenous children. 



We not only had them to feed, but every day or two find a new 

 box in which to keep our treasures for they rapidly out grew one 

 home after another. We began with a httle box two inches square 

 and by the time that Abimelech and his brothers and sisters were 

 two weeks old, two suite boxes were hardly large enough to hold 

 them. Three times Abimelech changed his clothes. Wliy we 

 never could see, imless it was with worms as with small boys, 

 the clothes were outgro\^-n. At the end of five weeks we began 

 to watch for Abimelech to leave the stmshine, and make for him- 

 self a httle house in which he was to stay for a period of ten days. 



