Thk First Pai'kk-Maker 159 



otfspriiij^. Tlicif tlit'V lie in tlair cradles, head 

 dowiuvard, crviiij^ always for prowiuU-r, like the 

 daughters ot the horse-leech. Korj^ive lier, there- 

 fore, if hei" tempei' is sometimes shoit, and if she 

 resents intnisioii upon the strawbei ry she is cart- 

 ing away to feed her yonnj^ family by a hasty 

 stin^, administered, perhaps, with rather n)ore 

 asperity than a lady sliould display under tryinj^ 

 circumstances. Some of my readers are mothers 

 themselyes, and can feel for her. Xor is even 

 this all. The j^rubs of wasps ifrow fast — in itself 

 a testimonial to the constant '.are wtth which a 

 deyoted mother feeds and tends them : and eyen 

 as they j^row the poor queen (a tpieen but in 

 name, and more like a maid-of-all-work in reality) 

 has C(jntinually to raise the cell-wall around them. 

 What lo(jked at first like shallow cups, thus ^row 

 at last into deep, hollow cells, the walls beiuj^ 

 raised from time to time by the addition of papery 

 matter, with the growth of the inmates. In this 

 first or foundation-comb — the nucleus and orij^inal 

 ayemie of the nascent city — the walls are neyer 

 carried hij^her than the height of the larya that 

 inhabits them. As the j^rub j^rows, the mother 

 adds daily a course or layer of paper, till the larya 

 reaches its final size, a fat, full ;4rub, ready to 

 underj^o its maryellous metamorphosis. Then at 

 last it bej^ins to do some work on its own accomit : 

 it spins a silky, or cottcMiy, web, with which it 

 coyers oyer the mouth or openinj^ of the cell ; 

 though eyen here you must reuRMuber it deriyes 

 the material from its own body, antl therefore 



