2 
NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN 
man. Take the hornets and wasps, for instance, 
they were making paper ages and ages before 
man attempted it; indeed it is a well-known fact 
that man got his first ideas of the paper-making 
art from these industrious little citizens, who have 
been living in paper houses and rearing their 
young in paper cradles since the beginning of 
Time. The beavers built the first dams, the ants 
and moles the first tunnels, and the mussels and 
nautilus constructed house-boats long before man 
ever even dreamed of such a thing. Then, there 
are the spiders—a natural born race of teleg¬ 
raphers ; besides, long before the invention of bal¬ 
loons and aeroplanes, spiders had solved the 
problem of aerial navigation. Instances are on 
record of spiders being met by ships at sea hun¬ 
dreds of miles from land.” 
“Do tell!” ejaculated Max, using Grand¬ 
mother’s favorite expression in his astonishment. 
44 How ever do they manage it? ” 
44 Easily enough, it seems,” smiled Uncle John, 
44 though the spiders’ methods of sailing through 
the air are widely different from man’s.” He 
drew the small lad down on the bench beside him, 
and kept an arm around his shoulders as he went 
on to explain: 44 Usually it is the young spiders 
that are the aeronauts. Young folks are always 
the most venturesome, you know. I’ve watched 
a band of spiders take to the air many a time. 
