CRABS. 
13 
A crab is not like a lower animal. He does not seem 
to work by instinct. All his avocations are carried on 
as if he had fixed principles, and his whole behaviour 
is so deliberate and decorous that you feel almost sure, 
if you could get a proper introduction to him, he would 
shake hands with you. 
At times I have thought I detected a broad grin on 
the face of an old crab, but this may be fancy. I incline 
to the idea, however, that he has a sense of humour. 
He is courageous too — not foolhardy, but wisely valiant, 
and marvellously industrious. Watch him as he repairs 
his house flooded by the tide. Cautiously he appears 
at the door with a great ball of sand in his arms, and 
erecting his eyes to see if any enemy is near, advances 
a few paces, lays his burden down and returns to dig. 
Again he appears and puts a second ball besides the 
first, and so on till there is a long even row of them. 
A second row is then laid alongside the first, then a 
third, and a fourth ; then a passage is left, after which 
a few rows more are laid down. So rapidly is the work 
done that the tide has scarcely retired when the whole 
beach is chequered with flowerlike patterns radiating 
from a thousand holes. These are the work of infant 
