SNUGGING-DOWN DAYS 



magic, or that it should fatten in the 

 meanwhile on willow fibre. The necro- 

 mancy comes in the fact that every willow 

 tip that is made the home of this grub 

 should thenceforth forsake all its recog- 

 nized methods of growth and produce a 

 cone for the harboring of the grub during 

 the winter's cold. There are many vari- 

 eties of these gall-producing insects. The 

 oaks still hold spherical attachments to 

 their leaves, produced in the same way. 

 Look among your small fruits and you 

 will find the blackberry stems swollen and 

 tuberculous from a similar cause, and 

 full of squirming life. It is all necro- 

 mancy out of the same book, the book of 

 the witchery of insects that makes human 

 life and growth seem absurdly simple by 

 comparison. The snugging down of the 

 open world in preparation for winter is 

 full of such tales, and he who runs 



