23G ' LITTLE FOLKS 
This droll little pill-maker is a tiny Crab, and, as I said, he lives 
on the sea-shore, in little holes which he digs in the sand. If you live 
on the sea-shore, you know all about the tide ; and if you don't live 
there, I dare say you have heard that every day the water comes up 
very high on the shore, and then goes out again, so that where you 
can walk on dry sand at one time, in an hour or two will be deep 
water. Well, these odd little fellows live where the tide will cover 
them. As soon as it goes out, the beach is covered with thousands 
of them, each one busy rolling up balls, and laying them one side. 
Funny enough it looks, as though the very sand was alive, so 
many and so lively they are. It is almost impossible to see them 
work, for they are very shy, and the instant they see any one com- 
ing they scamper into their holes, or if they are too far off they 
wriggle and twist themselves into the loose sand and out of sight 
in a minute. But naturalists, perhaps you know, are more interested 
in such little creatures than you are in your most interesting games, 
and no trouble is too much for them to take to find out all their 
curious and wonderful ways. So one of them resolved to watch 
Mr. Crab, and see how he lived. Seating himself on the sand, 
where he saw lots of their pills, he kept as still as a mouse, and 
waited. Pretty soon the sand began to move, and hundreds of tiny 
heads came to hundreds of tiny doors, but seeing him there, instantly 
popped back again. After trying it two or three times, and finding 
him in the same place, I suppose they made up their minds he was 
some new kind of plant that had grown up there. At any rate, 
they finally went to work. Every one began to gather up sand and 
mike it into pills. In a very short time the whole beach was cov- 
ered with the odd little balls. It is supposed they get their food 
out of the sand as they roll it up ; but that's only a guess. 
No sooner did the watcher move an arm towards the busy 
workmen, than there would be a sudden little twinkle on the sand, 
and every one would whisk out of sight. After trying a long time, 
he did succeed in catching one, when it rolled itself up and pre- 
tended to be dead. When he laid it down, however, it suddenly 
came to life, and sank itself in a minute. 
There's another funny thing about them ; you may dig till you 
are tired, where a minute ago there were thousands of them, and 
not one can you ever dig up. They live in villages; that is, there 
are large places entirely covered with their holes. Curious they 
look, too, all over the beach, with tiny paths leading from one to 
