232 A MASTER CARPENTER. 



flourishing business. A carpenter is said to be " known by 

 his chips ;" but the artizan in question, as if aware that his 

 operations are all trespasses, swallows (after the fashion of 

 some detected thieves) every particle of the saw- dust and 

 shavings which his trenchant jaws produce. In summer he is 

 content thus to proceed working and eating his way through 

 the winding wooden tunnels which afford him sufficient shel- 

 ter against all enemies wind and weather included ; but as 

 soon as the gales of autumn whistle through the thinned 

 branches of the trunk he inhabits, he begins to provide him- 

 self with a more seasonable habitation. With this intent he 

 widens a portion of his gallery into a roomy chamber, and, no 

 longer satisfied with bare wooden walls, proceeds, by the ex- 

 eicise of his native skill in weaving, to hang them with an 

 impervious tapestry a fabric (to use the words of a modern 

 naturalist) " as thick as coarse broad-cloth, and equally warm, 

 composed of the raspings of wood scooped out of the cell and 

 united with strong silk.* In this snug dormitory he passes 

 the winter, in an idle fast, to resume his labours and feed with 

 the return of spring ; for this master Carpenter is a long liver, 

 working, and literally living by his work, for the space of three 

 years. At the end of this period he casts aside his working 

 (or caterpillar) garb, throws by his tools, and after an aurelian 

 slumber, passed in a summer cell, lined with a lighter tapestry 

 than that occupied in winter, he thence emerges (a dark-brown 



* Rennie. 



