CHAPTER THE SEVENTH. 
THE CHBYSALIS. 
The use the little spinnaret is to the caterpillar 
must have struck you many times, while reading 
the previous chapters. We have seen how it has 
been enabled, by its silken thread, to make itself 
either a solitary dwelling, or to rear a tent, where 
it may live, with others of its kind. Without 
this precious boon it could neither roll the leaf, 
nor draw the blades of grass together, nor weave 
the thick curtain of its winter nest. Nor could 
it so readily climb from branch to branch. The 
silken thread affords it a rope-ladder, that can be 
brought out at a moment’s notice, and on which 
it may go up and down whenever it likes. 
And by means of this rope-ladder it often escapes 
from danger. As, for instance, there may chance 
to come a violent gust of wind, and blow the 
caterpillar from its leaf; but on the first alarm 
the little spinnaret is set in motion, and the 
