BIRDS AND INSECTS 127 



A SPIDER OF CHEWING GUM, 



painted its body with brilliant colors from my 

 father's paints and slyly stuck its legs to a show 

 case in a hat store, then lounged around until some 

 one chanced to see it. 



It created a great sensation and the proprietor 

 of the store called his neighbors in to see the won- 

 derful big spider. No one doubted the genuine- 

 ness of the thing and when at last one of the 

 spectators poked at it with a cane and pushed it 

 from its perch the wax spider fell to the floor and 

 its legs broke into fragments to the great astonish- 

 ment of all the spectators none of whom even then 

 doubted that it was a real live spider and they 

 would not believe that it was an imitation until I 

 picked it up in my hands, softened it by my warm 

 breath and rolled it into a shapeless mass between 

 my fingers. 



When but a small boy in Kentucky I often 

 amused myself with modeling 



HUGE LIZARDS OF BLUE CLAY, 



drying them in the sun and then placing them on 

 the neighbor's door steps, ringing the door bell and 

 hiding to watch results. None of the neighbors sus- 

 pected that they were but clay lizards, but without 

 exception they one and all mistook them for live 

 reptiles. I am willing, however, to swear that no 

 such lizards as my awkward boyish hands had 

 fashioned ever lived on this earth ; yet to the great 



