122 WAYS OF THE SIX-FOOTED 



not relating to it, and I forgot all about my little 

 leaf-roller for a week. I suddenly remembered him 

 with a pang of remorse and hastened to him. I fully 

 expected to find my prisoner a wasted corpse. But 

 no ! he had fastened his broken tent down again 

 with silken ropes ; then, finding the pasturage getting 

 dry, had abandoned his old home and folded over 

 and fastened a corner of the leaf, in vain hope of 

 finding there fresher food. In this lesser tent I found 

 him a little pale, it is true, but with spirit stUl un- 

 daunted. He greeted me with a spiteful jerk; this 

 time his scornful rejection of my advances seemed justi- 

 fied. I sent immediately for fresh leaves and trans- 

 ferred him to one of them. In a very short time he 

 had folded an edge of the leaf over himself and secured 

 it with a web of silk. But he had concluded, evidently, 

 that eating was not a safe indulgence in this uncertain 

 world, for he refused to take even a nibble from his 

 new pasture. It may be, however, that he had so 

 far matured that he no longer needed food ; possibly 

 he was ready to seek a nook under leaves or earth in 

 which to spend the winter, and was meditating upon 

 the fact that the hand of fate which swept him from 

 his ■ native tree had placed him beyond the reach of 

 earth in which to hide. 



I first made a full-length portrait of him ; a per- 



