THE GOLD-BANDED PAPER-MAKER 143 



mother. Mother Paper-maker was a widow, 

 for Father Paper-maker had died the fall be- 

 fore, shortly after their honeymoon. So 

 Mother Paper-maker must build her nest, care 

 for her young, and hunt for food all alone. 

 The Naturalist was very anxious to pry into 

 the secrets of her household. He wished to 

 know how she made the paper from which she 

 built her nest, how she made the cells after 

 she had made the paper, how she captured the 

 insects on which she fed her young, and many 

 other things. It no longer mattered that 

 Father and Mother Red-tail were only seen on 

 rare occasions, or that Mother Polecat had 

 taken her family and moved into the woods 

 where the Naturalist seldom saw them. The 

 new friends soon occupied so much of his time 

 that he did not miss the old friends who had 

 moved away. 



At first Mrs. Paper-maker was much dis- 

 turbed at his presence, but he came so often 

 and stayed so long that she soon paid no atten- 

 tion to his visits, even when he took the cover 

 to which her nest was attached and laid it on 

 his lap in order to watch her movements. 

 When she flew away for food he always put 

 the nest back exactly as it had been, for she 



