316 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



for this cold in time, the resting spores and seeds 

 being ripened and the bud scales formed over the ten- 

 der tips of the branches long before the first severe 

 frost appears. 



Let us now take up those higher forms of life-called 

 animals "higher," because they are absolutely de- 

 pendent upon plants for their food and see how they 

 pass their time while their food producers, the plants, 

 are resting. 



Beginning with the earth-worms and their kindred, 

 we find that at the approach of winter they burrow 

 deep down where the icy breath of the frost never 

 reaches, and there they live, during 



t ^ ie co ^ season > a ^ e f comparative 

 quiet. That they are exceedingly sen- 

 sitive to warmth, however, may be proven by the fact 

 that when a warm rain comes some night in February 

 or March, thawing out the crust of the earth, the next 

 morning reveals in our dooryards the mouths of hun- 

 dreds of the pits or burrows of these primitive tillers 

 of the soil, each surrounded by a little pile of pellets, 

 the castings of the active artisans of the pits during 

 the night before. 



If we will get up before dawn on such & morning 

 we can find the worms crawling actively about over 

 the surface of the ground, but when the first signs of 

 day appear they seek once more their protective bur- 

 rows, and only an occasional belated individual serves 

 as a breakfast for the early birds. 



The eyes of these lowly creatures are not visible, 

 and consist of single special cells scattered among the 

 epidermal cells of the skin, and connected by means 



