The Tent-Makers 
some of the threads stick to your fin- 
ger, just as the spiral in Mrs. Epeira’s 
wheel did. 
The reason for the sticky threads is 
obvious. If a fly or beetle or cricket 
happens to step or alight upon Mrs. 
Agelena’s tent, it becomes tangled up 
in the threads, and before it can extri- 
cate itself Mrs. Spinner has darted 
from her stairway, where she has been 
hiding, and clutched the luckless in- 
sect in her claws. She dashes down 
the stairs, and hides among the 
grass roots, where 
she dines at her 
leisure. 

“* Mrs. Spinner has darted from her stairway” 
15 




