THE FIRST PAPER-MAKER 153 



pay a small reward for every queen wasp killed 

 early in the spring. A single mother wasp de- 

 stroyed in May is equivalent to a whole nest 

 destroyed in July or August. 



As soon as warmer weather sets in, the dormant 

 queen awakes, shakes off dull sloth, and forgets 

 her long torpor. With a toss and a shake, she 

 crawls out into the sunshine, which soon revives 

 her. Then she creeps up a blade of grass, spreads 

 her wings, and flies off. Her first care is naturally 

 breakfast ; and as she has eaten nothing for five 

 months, her hunger is no doubt justifiable. As 

 soon, however, as she has satisfied the most pressing 

 wants of her own nature, maternal instinct goads 

 her on to provide at once for her unborn family. 

 She seeks a site for her nest, her future city. 

 How she builds it, and of what materials, I will 

 tell you in greater detail hereafter ; for the moment, 

 I want you to understand the magnitude of the 

 task this female Columbus sets herself Columbus, 

 Cornelia, and Caesar in one the task not only of 

 building a Carthage, but also of peopling it. She 

 has no hands to speak of but her mouth, which 

 acts at once as mouth, and hands, and tools, and 

 factory, and stands her in good stead in her carpen- 

 tering and masonry. She does everything with her 

 mouth ; and therefore, of course, she has a mouth 

 which has grown gradually adapted for doing 

 everything. The monkey used his thumb till he 

 made a hand of it ; the elephant his trunk till he 

 could pick up a needle. Use brings structure ; 

 by dint of using her mouth so much, the wasp has 



