TH^ web OE TIEE 
89 
Down in the warm Caroline Islands, when careless Mrs. 
Fly touches one of the sensitive hairs upon the leaf of 
the plant called Venus Fly-trap, the two blades of the leaf 
snap together and Mrs. Fly is soon crushed, drowned 
in the sticky fluid and digested! Over in England Mrs. 
Fly must avoid the Common Sundew, or she will be 
caught in the sticky fluid of the leaf gland which will 
then fold over her and imprison her. In our own land the 
insects must be no less wary, or they will perhaps fall 
into the leaf pitchers of the Pitcher Plant and be 
drowned and digested like their brothers in Cochin-china! 
So you see that although a few animals and plants 
help each other, most of them are much more ready to 
devour their neighbors than to help them. This fierce 
and never-ending struggle for life is not a wicked de¬ 
sign of Mother Nature’s; on the contrary, it is what 
makes certain families of plants, certain kinds of animals, 
certain races of men, grow stronger and more beautiful 
from generation to generation. With so many enemies 
to fight, only the strongest, the cleverest, the best adapted 
can win the battle for life. 
In the beginning, perhaps the rose had no thorns, the 
cactus no needles, the adder no sting. Likely enough, 
the first giraffe had a neck no longer than a pony’s! But 
as the centuries advanced, the rose and the cactus, fear¬ 
ful of the trampling hoofs, the greedy jaws of wild 
