EXAPOD &&& M. Watch A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE HEXAPOD STORIES Van was ready to enjoy a New Year's dinner. LITTLE GATEWAYS TO SCIENCE HEXAPOD STORIES BY EDITH M. PATCH WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROBERT J. SIM BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1930 Copyright, 1920, by THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS First Impression, May, 1920 Second Impression, June, 1920 Third Impression, August, 1921 Fourth Impression, June, 1922 Fifth Impression, June, 1923 Sixth Impression, March, 1926 Seventh Impression, June, 1928 Eighth Impression, March, 1930 THE ATLANTIC MONTHLT PRESS PUBLICATIONS ARE PUBLISHED BT LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY Printed in the United States of America URL; TO ALICE PATCH TO INTRODUCE TWELVE LITTLE HEXAPODS THE Hexapods are funny folk who have six feet. That is they have six when they are grown up, though some of the children have none at all, and some have as many as twenty-two. You can tell from this that they are strange people, and you may call them fairies if you like! They have wings, the grown-up ones do,- wonderful wings of many shapes and colors. Luna's wings are green, pale, pale green, and very lovely, with a purple border on them. Perhaps there is nothing more beautiful in the world than Luna's wings. When Van flies, you can see the yellow edge of her brown wings; and when she alights hesto! presto! you can see nothing at all; for she disappears from sight even though she is near enough to touch. Carol wears her wings neatly folded like a fan, except when she is using them. And Gryl, the little black minstrel oh, Gryl fiddles with his wings. They do queer things that we could not do if A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE we tried. Old Bumble sleeps for more than half a year, and then wakes, thinking nothing of it at all, as if that were the most natural way to take a nap. Keti starts to build himself a log cabin before he is a day old; and finishes it, too, in time, with no one to show him how. And Cecid be- witches the willow with a magic no one else can learn. Yes, you may call the Hexapods fairies, if you like; but you must never, never forget that they are every bit as real and true as you are, even if they are so very different. They are not far away, not farther than the flowers or the trees or the nearest brook. And there are so many millions of them that every child in the world might have some for pets and they would never be missed. And let me tell you this, for this is very impor- tant: although Hexapods are common and easy to find, there is not one among them all that does not have a story about his life so strange and interesting that he is worth watching just to find out what his story is. INTRODUCTION Are you pleased to know that, whether you are in the country or in the city, and whether it is summer or winter, you are living right in the midst of Hexapod Land, where you have these most wonderful fairies for next-door neighbors ? EDITH M. PATCH. I. VAN, THE SLEEPY BUTTERFLY, WHO WAS WAKENED BY A JANUARY THAW . . 1 II. OLD BUMBLE 17 III. THE STRANGE HOUSE OF CECID CIDO DOMY 35 IV. POLY, THE EASTER BUTTERFLY 47 V. JUMPING JACK 67 VI. NATA, THE NYMPH 80 VII. LAMPY'S FOURTH 0' JULY 95 VIII. CAROL 107 IX. ANN GUSTFS CIRCUS 118 X. GRYL, THE LITTLE BLACK MINSTREL. . 129 XL LUNA'S THANKSGIVING 141 XII. KETI ABBOT, THE LITTLEST CHRISTMAS GUEST . 155 ILLUSTRATIONS Van was ready to enjoy a New Year's Dinner . . Frontispiece Van now looked like a ragged bit of bark 5 Each meal lasted several days 11 There they hung on their silk pegs 14 Old Bumble's long nap 18 How Bumble's nest looked inside 22 Old Bumble and a son and daughter bee 24 Hum and Buzz were ready to start out on their journey, and Flyaway was going too 28 The strange house of Cecid Cido Domy 34 How Cecid' s house would look if it were cut in two .... 38 She was not much to look at when she went to sleep . . . .41 Then she changed into a little midget 44 Papil spun a peg and a belt and changed into a chrysalis, just as Poly had done 48 When they become butterflies they drink nectar from flowers . . 51 // you find a caterpillar like Poly, she can teach you a great deal . 54 When you stop to think about it, you remember that a bitter-sweet vine does not have thorns 66 Jack and Jill 68 Jack's foreign cousins 73 This is the foam that stiffens into a blanket to cover her eggs . . 78 Nata was a hunter 84 Nat was Nata's mate 88 Well She came out of Nata's bathing suit 93 Oho! Here was Lampy 97 Like a flock of dancing stars the Will-o'-the-Wisps are taking flight 101 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE And every one of them carried a candle 104 It was noontide of the hottest day of the summer 107 Now Carol had two little fans 109 Perhaps you thought she was a butterfly 112 Before she climbed up the buttercup stem she put on her last dress 119 Ann Gusti wiggled her toes 123 The thinnest living skeleton 125 A beetle who had a queer spring 127 There he sat, the happy little fellow 130 Gryl and Taffy .... 133 Lucy and Gryl Cricket 137 Luna had been a caterpillar once upon a time, and a pretty one 142 The moonbeams could find nothing lovelier than Luna . . . 146 She would fly in the moonlight 150 Later there must be cocoons wrapped in fallen leaves . . . .153 Keti lived all alone in a tiny log cabin 156 He travelled on the under side of the branch and let his home hang down like a bag 160 Keti's cousins 163 And fly forth to seek out a wingless mate 167 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE HEXAPOD STORIES HEXAPOD STORIES i VAN, THE SLEEPY BUTTERFLY WHO WAS WAKENED BY A JANUARY THAW VAN was having a happy time making her New Year's calls. She had crept out of bed about noon, for there was no cold wind blowing, and the sun had thrown its warm rays against the loose piece of bark under which she was sleeping. These warm rays had wakened her. That was a pleasant way of starting January, to have the sun knock at her door with its own sort of " Happy New Year! " Other pleasant things happened, too. To begin with, Van was thirsty; and there is much to enjoy in being hungry and thirsty if there is food and drink near by. She had had nothing to eat dur- ing November or December, as it had been too i A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE cold for two months to do anything but sleep; and she was ready now to enjoy a New Year's dinner. So she must have been glad when she had some invitations to "come and have a feast/' Of course these were not written in notes, and put into envelopes, and stamped, and brought her by Uncle Sam's post-man. Nor were they brought her by messenger boys who said in words, " You are invited to dine at Mrs. Appleby's." Those would have been silly ways, for Van was a butter- fly, and what did she know about written or spoken invitations or dinner-bells? But there was a way for all that to let her know the table was spread for her. And after all, what better \vay, when folk ( either boys or butterflies ) have been without food until they are hungry, than to be tempted by good smells? The first invitation that the air brought Van was from an old apple tree that lived near the edge of the woods. My, my! what a good-smelling one it was! The apples had frozen on the ground, and now they had thawed and were soft, and the 2 VAN, THE SLEEPY BUTTERFLY juice was like cider. Oh, oh! what a feast for a thirsty butterfly! Other guests had been before her. Brother Rabbit had eaten there more than once. Mr. Fieldmouse had nibbled up half an apple and left a pile of crumbs in its place. And the birds? There was one that very minute pecking with its thick short bill at an apple that had caught in the branches. So bird and beast and butterfly were all made happy by the New Year's gift of the old apple tree. The second invitation the air brought Van was from a maple tree that lived down the same lane not far away. This was such a good one that Van could hardly get there fast enough. She flut- tered her wings in a hurry to get a quick start, and then sailed for a little way. Then she flut- tered her wings again as if she wanted to get there before it was too late. And no wonder! For there was a broken branch on the maple and a little icicle where some sap had dripped out and had frozen, and now the icicle was melting. Maple syrup! Oh! oh! oh! A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE The third invitation that the air brought to Van was But we shall never know because, just as she was starting to her third feast, a boy and a girl came racing down the lane. "Oh, see!" they called; "a butterfly! A big beauty! Just think! A butterfly on New Year's Day! Let's take it home to show! " So they ran after Van, who was spreading her brown wings with yellow borders for a slow sail. Oho ! catch Van? Why they could n't even see her! What had been a large butterfly, with wide showy wings, a minute before, now looked like a ragged bit of bark on a tree near by. Van had hidden. And she was almost near enough to touch, though perhaps a little too high. She had hidden right in plain sight. And all she had done was sit on the bark of the tree and fold her wings above her back and keep still. Catch Van? Why Van could fool a bird in a game of hide-and-seek ! By the time the children gave up the hunt, the sun was under a cloud and the wind felt chilly. So Van did not have any more feasting that day, or make any more New Year's calls. She was 4 VAN, THE SLEEPY BUTTERFLY near her shelter of loose bark and crept up under cover out of the wind. She had had a good time. She had had cider and maple-sap enough to last her until the next thaw spell - - be it one week or two, or one month, or two, or even three. Time was all alike to her when the weather was cold short or long, it was the same! She just slept ! You may ask the wisest man you know why it did Van no harm when the weather was cold as zero. If he is very wise, indeed, he will tell you, "I do not know why." But our not knowing why made no difference to Van. She did live through the cold winter in the north, with no shelter but a loose bit of bark, 5 Van now looked like a ragged bit of bark. A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE just as her grandmother had lived one winter in a hollow tree, and her great-great-grandmother had lived under the roof of an old empty shed. As spring came on, Van had invitations from the pussy willow, where she met some pretty flies with stripes on their bodies. She called, too, on the trailing arbutus, where she met Old Bumble more than once ; for they both drank from those sweet pink cups and carried pollen from flower to flower. Some time in May Van found that she could not spend all her time in calling on flowers, how- ever much she liked their nectar, and however much they needed to have their pollen carried for them. So she hunted for a willow tree, and made a little ring around one of its twigs. This ring was set with fifty jewels, the very best she had to offer to the world. Of course, these jewels were her eggs. In about two weeks they began to hatch, and Sister Essa was the very first of them all to bite around the edge of her egg-shell, until the top lifted like a little lid and out she came, looking 6 VAN, THE SLEEPY BUTTERFLY much too long to be curled up in the shell she crept out of. Essa did not go away from her brother and sister caterpillars. When they were all hatched, they crept off together and lay in a row side by side, with their heads at the edge of the leaf. There they had their breakfast, which it took them several days to eat. And what do you suppose it was ? No, their mother did not bring them cider from old soft apples, or syrup from broken maple twigs, or nectar from flowers. She was not like Old Bumble, who fed her babies every day. Van did not bring her fifty children one single thing to eat. Sister Essa was hungry, too ; and so were the rest of the family. And here they were left on a willow branch, where there was nothing at all but leaves -food their mother never could have eaten with her long tongue, if she had uncoiled it and tried. But we need n't worry about those babies. In less than the flick of a minute Sister Essa had nibbled a tiny green bite out of the top of the willow leaf, nodding her little head over it as her 7 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE jaws opened and shut as if there were nothing better to be had for a breakfast. All her brothers and sisters were nodding their heads just the same way, and while they were about it, they nibbled off the whole top of the leaf just as if it were a green layer cake and they wanted only the shiny frosting. Before breakfast was over, Sister Essa led them to another leaf, where they lay side by side in a row as before, and ate until their skins were too tight to hold another bit of shiny green frosting. That was a sign that their breakfast was over; so they spun a thin mat with silk which they spilled out of a little tube near their lower lips, and took a nap on the mat. The first day they rested quietly, but the sec- ond day they acted as if they were having bad dreams and tossed their heads a great deal. In fact Sister Essa jerked so hard at last that her little skull came off like an empty shell. By that time she was wide-awake, and crept out of her tight skin through the collar-hole the skull left when it tumbled off. Before she had time to turn 8 VAN, THE SLEEPY BUTTERFLY around, all her brothers and sisters were jerking their skulls off, too, and creeping out of their skins through the collar-hole. Something funny had happened to them and they never looked the same again. They now had new heads, with bigger jaws and fine new stretchy skins. After that nap that had had such a queer end, they were hungry; so they went off to some new leaves (this time one was not big enough to hold them all) and lay in rows and ate their luncheon. It was so good they did not stop for nearly a week. When their luncheon was over at last, they spun another thin silk mat and had another nap. They woke in about two days, jerking their skulls off again, and crept through the collar- hole in their skins just as they had before. They now had still bigger heads, and skins that were stretchier than ever. Well, that was the way Sister Essa went on doing, until she had had her dinner and another luncheon and her supper. Each meal lasted sev- eral days, with a day or two for a nap in between. 9 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE Every time she wakened, she pushed and jerked inside her old skin, until her skull fell off like an empty nut-shell; and when she crept out of the collar-hole she looked different from the way she looked when she went to sleep. By the time she was eating her supper, her skin was a soft black color, with little white specks like a " pepper-and-salt " suit. Down the middle of her back was a row of pretty red spots, and growing all over her sides were black spines with pointed branches. She was now two inches long and a fine-looking caterpillar after one got used to seeing her. As her brothers and sisters had all had the same sort of time growing that she had had, they were fine-looking, too, and so big that the fifty of them together made the tip of the willow branch hang down. They ate more for this meal than for any other, and they did not nibble just the shiny frosting as they did at breakfast when they were tiny they gobbled up all the flat green cakes on the branch. This would have been a bad thing for a little tree which needed all 10 Each meal lusted several days. A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE its leaves to grow with. Of course, if they had been on a small tree, it would have been better to take them off. But this was a big, big one, forty years old, and it was growing wild near a brook, with no gardener to trim off some of its branches; and what leaves Essa and the others ate could be spared as well as not. Of course, their supper must be a hearty one, for it had to last them until they were butterflies, like Van, with a long tongue to uncoil when calling on the flowers to sip nectar and to carry pollen. You never would think, to look at Essa, that she would ever fly; for there she sat clinging to the branch with ten of her feet and drawing the edge of the leaf down to her mouth with her other six feet, and she did n't have a sign of wings anywhere on her back. Ah, but Essa could do several things you would never think she could! She had never done them before why should she now? You might not think she could creep head first down the trunk of the tree, and take a walk, as fast as she could hurry, along the ground, until she 12 VAN, THE SLEEPY BUTTERFLY came to an old fence; and climb the fence, and spin a silk peg on the lower edge of a board, and fasten her hind-legs to the silk peg, and let go with all her other legs, and hang there head- down until her skull split and her skin ripped down the back seam! You would n't know how Essa could do that, would you? And if you ask the wisest man you see how a caterpillar can do wonderful things like that just once in her life, without learning or without any one to show her about making a silk peg, maybe he will tell you he does n't know, either. But our not knowing how she can do it made no difference to Essa. That is just what she did when she had finished her supper; and while she was about it, she changed into a chrysalis, which looked no more like a butterfly than it did like a caterpillar. Well, there they hung, Essa and her forty-nine funny brother and sister chrysalids, for about ten days; and none of them knew anything about Lampy's fireworks on the Fourth o' July. Soon 13 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE after that Essa broke her chrysalis case, and tumbled out head first. She did n't tumble far, for her feet caught hold of the empty case, and she hung there with her soft lit- tle wings down, until they grew big and stopped throbbing. She clung with four feet; but yOU There they hung on , their silk pegs. must not think she had no more feet than a cat or a dog, for her first pair were folded against her breast and covered up by her pretty brown fur. Some people said Essa's wings were purple, and some said they were brown. I don't know what you would think about their color. But all agreed that the border was pale yellow, and that next the yellow on the upper side was a dark band with lovely pale blue spots on it. And everybody who saw her said that she was a very beautiful butterfly when she spread her wings 14 VAN, THE SLEEPY BUTTERFLY open, and that, when she folded them shut above her back, she looked like a piece of bark. Essa flew about and made calls on the flowers, for there was flower nectar instead of frozen apple-cider in July. After a time she made a ring about the twig of a tree all set with her egg- jewels. I have forgotten whether she chose a willow or an elm; but it made no difference which, for her daughter Opie, when she hatched, could eat either one. If it had been an oak, Opie would have starved to death; but of course Essa would not have left her eggs on an oak or a pine tree. Well, Opie and her brother and sister cater- pillars ate and napped and grew, and changed into chrysalids and then into butterflies, just as their mother and their uncles and aunts had done. But by this time it was the fall of the year, and Opie found her life much more like her grand- mother's than it was like her mother's; for Essa had been a summer butterfly and Opie, like Van, was a winter one. So she flew about and called 15 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE on the fall flowers, and when the days grew cold, she found a shelter as her grandmother Van had done, and went to sleep, clinging with four feet to the roof of her winter bedroom and folding the other two close to her breast. There she rested all the winter long, except when the days were warm enough to thaw her out. For be it one month or three or even four, time was all alike to her when the weather was cold short or long, it was all the same. Opie just slept! II OLD BUMBLE CANDLEMAS DAY was bright and fair. Perhaps the ground-hog came out of his hole and was scared by his shadow and \vent back to bed again. I do not know. But I know Old Bumble did n't come out of her hole that day. Her legs \vere all cramped up with the cold, and even her pretty black and yellow fur could n't keep her warm. You see, she had chosen to make her winter bedroom in a little cave on the north side of a dry bank, and the sunshine did not touch it. This did very well last August when she \vent to bed. If she had been in a sunny place then, it might have been too hot for her. It did n't take much to disturb her when she first went to sleep. If anything had got into her bedroom then and touched her, she would have shaken herself and gone away and found or made a new place. In 17 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE August she was what is called ' ( a very light sleeper/' and could n't bear to be touched. In winter she was different. If the ground-hog had pawed her cave open and rolled her out of Old Bumble's long nap. bed on Candlemas Day, she would not have known anything about it! He did n't, so there she slept, though she had been napping for six months already and would very likely keep at it for t\vo or three more. Is n't that pretty lazy for a bee? She had not done one bit of work before she went to bed, either that is, nothing except to 18 OLD BUMBLE straighten out her bedroom a little; and as that was hardly more than a hole in the ground, the process did not take her long. She had not even hunted for her own dinner, which was to last her all winter. She helped herself to some fresh honey that her older sisters had put into a honey-mug, and drank enough to fill her honey-sack, and then went off and crept into bed. Pretty lazy for a bee, was n't she? She not only slept through Candlemas Day, but St. Valentine's Day came, with its pretty shower of cards and letters, and she did n't wake up then. George Washington's birthday found her sleeping still; and she did n't even dream while people were putting green ribbons in their buttonholes on St. Patrick's Day. It was not, I think, until April that she first roused herself and poked her sleepy head out of doors. Perhaps she was a little April Fool, for there was not much that she could do so early in the spring. Maybe, though, she could find something to drink, to make her feel better after her nap of 19 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE many months. Yes, the cool wind brought her a sweet smell from the trailing arbutus, the love- liest blossom that grows in the spring. For Old Bumble lived in a land where people had not yet robbed the woods of this dear flower, which used to be very common in the days of your grand- fathers, and is getting to be so rare that, unless you and the rest of us are careful, there will not be any left at all for your grandchildren to see. Well, Old Bumble found a few of the very earliest pink sprays in the sunny places, and she sang a happy humming song as she sipped at the tiny sweet cups. She did not stay up very long that day, for the sun soon went under a cloud and she felt like going to bed again. Then for a week or so it rained, so she took a nap until the weather was fine. After that, she got up and sipped from the different spring flowers as they blossomed, but still slept through the colder days. Did anyone ever tell you that a bee is a busy little thing? Well, you see how Old Bumble spent the greater 20 OLD BUMBLE part of the year just dozing the time away. But wait and see what she did the rest of her days! As soon as the weather was warm enough she started out on a hunting trip. She buzzed slowly along near the ground, but this time it was n't flowers she was after. She was house-hunting. Just bedrooms no longer suited her. She was done with sleeping day after day. What she wanted now was a nursery. She must find a place where she could bring up a family of children. So here and there, and there and here, she flew, singing her slow hunting song as she went. Now and then she stopped and peeped into a hole, to see if she liked it; and if it was not good enough for her home, she came out and hunted still farther. At last she found a place that would do nicely for her nursery. It was a home a field-mouse had lived in once upon a time, and a field-mouse has very good taste about underground houses. Any way, Old Bumble liked the same kind. Of course it needed tidying up a bit after being 21 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE empty so long. So she went right to house- cleaning as if she knew all about it. She had never done such a thing in her life before, but Hot? Bumble's nest looked inside. she was not so stupid that she had to be shown how to do everything. She had a way of getting things right the first time she tried. She had saved her strength for many months, and now she was going to use it. Her nursery must be just exactly right! For one thing, it should be dry; and this empty mouse-hole had grown damp. So she worked 22 OLD BUMBLE about in the part she was going to use, and dried it out with the warmth of her body. She found the softest bits the mother mouse had left there, and shook them up with her jaws and piled them in a heap. Right in the very middle of this she hollowed out a little room, which cov- ered her up, top and all, except a hole at one side which she kept for a doorway into her snug little nursery. Then off she flew to the flowers for yellow pol- len, which she gathered and packed into her pol- len baskets on her hind legs. She brought back her load and put a lump of this yellow stuff, made moist and sweet with honey, right on the floor of her nursery. Next she brushed some wax off her body and made a little nest of it big enough for a few eggs. Before night came on, she brushed off some more wax, and this she made into a honey-mug just inside her doorway, and into this she put what honey she had had time to gather. But she must not fly too late, for her eggs must not get cold. If they did, it would take 23 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE them longer to hatch, and she needed her daugh- ters to help her as soon as could be. She sat on the little wax nest to keep it warm, and left it Old Bumble and a son and daughter bee. only long enough to fill her honey-mug, so that she could eat from it in the night or on stormy days. For, though she could sleep all winter without eating, she needed food now to give her strength. In a few days her eggs hatched, and then she was busy as a mother robin feeding her young. They were \vhite little babies without hair or 24 OLD BUMBLE legs, and you never could guess to look at one that it would some day be a black-and-yellow furry bee. You could not take a peep at them, though, as you can at little birds, because their nest had a tight wax cover, and the nest was in the nursery, and the nursery was in a hole, and the hole was in the ground. Now, how could Old Bumble feed her little ones if she kept them shut up tight in bag of wax? Well, for part of their food they ate up the pol- len paste she kept bringing and sticking close against their nest. But that was n't all they had to eat. Their mother mixed some pollen with honey until it was thin, and then bit a hole in the top of the nest and dropped it from her mouth. Every time she did this, she mended with wax the hole she made, for her babies had to be kept shut up tight. You can see that, with getting pollen and nectar from the flowers, and making pollen-paste and honey for the children, and brushing wax from her body to use in keeping the nest and 25 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE honey-mug mended, and storing honey in the honey-mug for nights and stormy days, the mother bee was not so lazy as she seemed at first. We might call her a very busy Old Bumble, indeed. A happy one, too, humming her cheerful song as she flew about on her out-door errands. In eleven or twelve days the little ones stopped eating and each one spun a thin cocoon about herself, for she must still be covered up. This would seem to give their mother a chance to rest. But no! It only meant new duties. She must clean away the wax and pollen from the cocoons, and make new wax nests and lay more eggs. Besides, she must keep the cocoons warm. So she spread her furry body out as big as she could make it stretch, like a mother biddy covering her little ones under her feathers. After about two weeks, or maybe it was not quite so long, the young bees began to bite holes in the caps of their cocoons, which might make you think of chickens pipping their shells. They had had enough of being shut up. They were now coming out into the world. This time Old 26 OLD BUMBLE Bumble did not try to wax them in. She helped them out. She might well be glad to see her daughters, even though they were queer and feeble little things. Their fur was as wet as a chicken's down when it first comes out of the shell. Their legs were so weak they could hardly toddle over to the honey-mug for their breakfast. After they had eaten, they crept back and cud- dled down under their mother, until their fur was dry and fluffy and they felt strong. Only a few days more, and Old Bumble's daughters were ready to help her. Good, faith- ful, cheery Old Bumble her pretty wings had grown tattered and torn with her flying for food. Her fur coat, that was so fresh and fine, was now looking ragged. But the little daughters that snuggled up close to her soon began to do her flying, and she could stay at home and keep house and rest her tired wings. What was this stir and bustle about the nur- sery? Why, Hum and Buzz were ready to start out on their first journey. And little Flyaway was going, too. They looked much as their 27 //// -^^-- r-iswr. //;// ;/*^|y "Vv-> -.' :^J3M**$md -^?= - / ^ -// -.: It teas noontide of the hottest day of the summer. 107 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE summer, and the sun shone down on her back and head, and the sand she was sitting on was almost hot enough to hurt your hand. It was the sort of day, in fact, when a person, if he does not put a damp cloth under his hat, is likely to have a sunstroke. But Carol did not even have a hat on. As for leaving that hot sand and having a nice cool wade in the little brook that sang "Bip-po bap-po" down through the shady woods to the river not far away why Carol would never have done such a thing in the world! Had her mother not sat in the sand by the side of the road one year ago; and had not her two grand-mothers done the same thing two years ago? And had her father and her two grandfathers ever found any better place than sand in the sun on a hot summer day? What was good enough for them was good enough for her. So there she sat, looking about the color of a tiny heap of sand, just as her mother and grand- mother and great-grandmother and great-great- grandmother, and all the rest as far back as you 108 CAROL can count, had sat and looked before her. You might say it was a habit of her family. Now Carol had two little fans, tucked down, one on each side of her. They were pretty when Now Carol had t-^'u little Jims. they were spread out dull soft black, with yellow borders. I once knew 7 a girl who made one the same size out of black and yellow tissue-paper for her Doll Jane, and it \vas as cunning a fan as you could wish to see at a doll party. But Carol was not at a party, and she was not 109 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE using her fans. She had them all folded neatly under their brown covers, which kept them from getting worn and torn. She never once fanned herself with either of them! With these thin black-and-yellow dainty things tucked out of sight beneath the tough covers that made a sort of roof over her back, there was nothing to show where Carol sat. A little sand- colored grasshopper sitting on the sand that was all. Why, you could have stepped on her easily and never have known it! That is, you could, if she had not seen you coming; for Carol's eyes were very quick to see anything that moved toward her. If things stood still like trees, she did not bother about them. For nothing could catch her unless it came nearer and nearer and nearer. But if old Rover pattered down the road, or a bird flew close overhead and made a shadow, or a child ran by, then quick as a flash Carol would lift her fan-covers out of the way and spread her fans like little sails and fly off with them. For her black-and-yellow fans were wings! no CAROL And when you saw her fly away, perhaps you thought she was a butterfly. Maybe you thought she was a butterfly like Van, with dark wings and yellow borders. Maybe you were the little girl or boy who chased after her along the road, and looked right at her and did n't see her at all; for you were trying to find something with black- and-yellow wings, and Carol was just a sand- colored grasshopper sitting in the sand. Well, if it was not you, it was some other girl and boy; and Carol led them half a mile along the roadside, fooling them time after time by showing them her broad wings in flight and then quickly hiding them under their covers, when she stopped to rest. And by-and-by the children grew so tired that they went off into the woods and found the brook, and waded there until they were cool. On and on flew Carol, a little way at a time, now this way and now that, as dogs and chil- dren and horses and men sometimes came up the road and sometimes down. And once Carol was scared into the woods by a funny old cow with 111 Perhaps you thought she teas a butterfly. CAROL a crumpled horn, and the first thing she knew, she was sitting on some pretty leaves on the cool damp ground. But her brown sand-colored body showed very plainly on the green, and she did n't like the shady woods, and when she started for the roadside she bumped up against some bent grass-stems and fell down. Then she tried jumping out, for two of her legs were big and strong for hopping; but she kept blun- dering against stems that were in the way. At last, she crept along more slowly without trying to fly or jump, and so got back to the roadside, where, although many things passed by, none could see her in the sand; and where, although she had often to hop and fly, there were no grass- stems above her to get tangled in. But you must n't laugh too much at little Carol, baking herself in the sunshine. If you had spent the winter where she did, perhaps it would take you all summer to get warm, too. For Carol's mother just think of it!- poked every egg she had down as far as she could reach into the ground, and poured over 113 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE them a sort of froth that hardened about them. Carol herself was the very last egg her mother pushed down, so that she was on top of her brother and sister eggs, which lay under her in slanting rows. But even if she was on top, she had to stay there all winter long, and the ground froze as solid as a cake of ice, and part of the time the weather was colder than zero; and though the snow lay over her like a thick blanket, it was a cold bed for all that, and it is no wonder that Carol did n't hatch for months and months. When she did, poor little baby, she was buried alive under ground, and had a hard time of it pushing and pushing and pushing up; for she was the top of the brood and had to open up the way for her brothers and sisters as well as for herself. But the world she found when she crept out of that hole was worth working to get into, for it was spring-time and the sun shone and there were some warm stones near by; and so Baby Carol hopped about and ate whatever she wanted, and was, so far as anyone could see, quite happy. 114 CAROL All that, of course, was long before she could fly; for a grasshopper never has any wings until she is grown up, though every time she moults her brown skin, the little pads, that will some day be fans and fan-covers, grow bigger and bigger. Yes, that was all many weeks ago, and Carol was now grown up and old enough to have a mate. So we must not be surprised to see Carl Grass- hopper talking pleasantly with her one day when they met on a large rocky place in the sun. But you may be surprised to know where he kept his voice, for though Carl had a throat and a mouth and lips, he used them to eat with and never spoke a word through them in his life. No, when Carl talked to Carol he did it by rubbing his great hind-legs against his sides; and this seemed to her the most natural way in all the world to be spoken to, for it was the way her father had talked to her mother. It was a gentle scraping sort of sound, and you would have to be near to notice it. But Carol was sitting on the same 115 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE stone, and her ears, which she kept in as queer a place as Carl did his voice, could no doubt hear him very well. Carl could sing, too, and his song was louder than his talking, and he had such a pretty way of doing it, that poets, who love pretty things, have sometimes sung about Carl's song in their verses. That makes a sort of double song, does n't it? When Carl wanted to sing, he would spring into the air about three feet, and hover almost in one place, with his wings spread and flutter- ing so fast that they made a clacking sound where the edge of the fans clicked against the edge of the covers. And if poets have liked his song, is it strange if Carol was pleased? But Carol could not spend all summer listen- ing to music. She must hurry and get her eggs all buried before cold weather came. Carl did not help his mate dig a single hole; but you must not blame him for this, for his father had never dug a hole nor his grandfather nor his great- lie CAROL grandfather nor his great-great-grandfather, nor any father as far back as you can count. So you see it was not the fashion in Carl's family to dig holes for their mates to lay their eggs in. And, after all, Carol had plenty of time to do it herself, and the tip of her body was all fitted up with the nicest little tool for boring into the ground the four parts of it pushed down just right, and I think she really liked to use this little boring tool. And of course she really liked to put her precious eggs there in slanting rows in the soft froth that soon hardened about them, keep- ing them clean and safe all winter. So her own queer little nest was left in the earth just as her mother's had been, that good old Earth that takes care of what is planted in her, the same good old Earth to whom we owe, in many ways, our own life, just as surely as Carol's babies owe theirs to her: even those of us who are far from her, in a city flat way up in the air, instead of down by the country roadside, like a grasshopper in the sun, IX ANN GUSTI'S CIRCUS ANN GUSTI was chewing a buttercup-leaf. If you did such a thing yourself, I dare say it would make your tongue smart a bit. But Ann Gusti belonged to a family of blister beetles, and a peppery salad tasted very good to her. In fact, she liked it better than any other food. For this reason some people name her Buttercup Beetle. Besides that, she is often called Oil Beetle, be- cause she can drop oil out of her joints. And when she was a baby, just hatched from an egg, she was so funny that people said she was a Tri-un-gu-lin, and every time she changed her clothes somebody gave her a new name. So you see that by the time she was grown up she had plenty of them; but I like Ann Gusti best of all. Before she climbed up the buttercup-stem she put on the very last dress she was ever going to have, and a pretty one it was, too. It fitted her nicely, for, of course, like all beetle dresses, it 118 ANN GUSTI'S CIRCUS ,grew on her body inside the dress she Wore be- fore; and when it was ready for her to use, she crept out through a rip in the old one; and there she was, all spick-and-span! It was a lovely dark-blue color, with some broad black stripes that were as shiny as satin. And on the back were two wing-covers that did very well for trimming, though they were not of much use, for there were no wings under them. No, poor Ann Gusti never had a ride with her own wings in her life. But perhaps we need not be sorry for her, be- cause she had one good ride through the air for Be f rc she climbed up the buttercup . stem she put on her last dress. all that, one day when she was a baby and her name was Tri-un-gu-lin. As it was one of the most wonderful rides in the world, that was enough to last her a lifetime. 119 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE This was the way it happened. When Ann Gusti hatched out of an egg, she was hungry. Of course she was. All babies are hungry, or else they would n't eat and grow up; and most insect babies can find something to eat very near at hand. But Ann Gusti could n't. That was before she learned to eat buttercup-leaves! In fact, there was only one sort of food in the whole wide world that would agree with her when she was wee and wore her first baby clothes. Now that food was way, way off in a bee's nest, and she did n't know where the nest was. Most babies in a fix like that would have starved to death. But Ann Gusti did n't! Oh, no! She just climbed up into a flower and waited. By-and-by a bee came buzzing to the flower, and then, quick as a flash, wee Ann Gusti grabbed hold of the hairs on Mother Bee's leg; and that is how she got her ride and that is how she got her breakfast. For she clung tightly to the hairs, and off she rode wherever Mother Bee went, from 120 ANN GUSTI'S CIRCUS pretty flower to pretty flower, and at last right into the bee's nest, where she made herself at home and liked the food and stayed. If you know a smarter baby than Ann Gusti, or a stranger ride to take before the first break- fast, I hope you '11 write a story about it. So with a ride like that to start life with, it is no wonder that Ann Gusti grew up to be a clown in a circus. Did you think that a circus had to be under a cloth tent, with tigers and lions in cages, and trained horses and dogs there to do tricks? Well, Jack and Jane liked that kind, too; but they went to a different sort of circus with Uncle David one day as a special treat, and they both said his kind is the best there is. The top of the tent \vas the prettiest blue you can ever see, and at one side there were trees with the earliest ripe apples on them, and at another there was a river with a rocky bank and a great flat stone with a bonfire burning on it; and at a third side there was a meadow; but neither Jack nor Jane could tell what was on the fourth side, 121 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE because Ann Gusti was playing her funny tricks in the meadow; and so that was as far as they got. As I said to begin with, Ann Gusti was chew- ing a buttercup-leaf. She was right in plain sight at first, but the minute the toe of Uncle David's boot hit the buttercup-stem she was gone. Now you know she could n't fly, because she had no wings under her wing-covers; and if a bee had come along just then it would have done no good, for by this time she was grown up and much, much bigger than a bee; so she could n't have ridden off that way, either. After a hunt among the leaves she was found on the ground, lying on one side with her head held so close to her body that her yellow neck did not show. Her little feelers were reaching up, but they were still; and her legs looked limp, and there were oily drops coming out at the joints. " Oh! " said Jane, " she's dropped down dead! " That shows how Ann Gusti fooled them! That shows how well she could do her trick ! No trained dog could have looked deader if he had prac- tised a year! 122 ANN GUSTI'S CIRCUS The children lay down on the ground with their chins in their hands, and waited and waited and waited. Just before their necks ached so that they could n't wait another minute, Ann Gusti wiggled her toes. Then she moved her feelers the least little bit. Then after Ann Gusti w gg ied her toes. a while, as everything was quiet, she got up on her feet and climbed the buttercup-stem and went on chewing a leaf as if there was nothing at all the matter with her. And there was n't. She was just fooling them. That was Ann Gusti's trick. " She's a clown!" said Jack. And that is how it happened that Ann Gusti had a circus on Labor Day before school began, when the friends of Jack and Jane could come. The children played the woodshed was a tent. Beside the tent door there was a sign made by cutting big letters out of a newspaper and past- ing them on card-board to make the words: 123 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE SIDE SHOW THREE WONDERS OF THE WORLD 1. ANN GUSTI, THE FAMOUS FAT CLOWN 2. THE THINNEST LIVING SKELETON 3. THE SPRY AMERICAN ACROBAT Inside there were three cages for the animals. Ann Gusti was in the middle one, chewing but- tercup-leaves. And when Jack touched her and said, "Now, you are a dead beetle," she would tumble down to the bottom of the cage and play she was dead every single time. Good Ann Gusti she knew her trick and did it, just as her mother and father and all the Gusti family had done as far back as any one can remember! They were all clowns, those Gustis. The minute they hatched out of their eggs they were ready for their bee-riding trick; and then late in life, when they wore wing-covers that did n't cover any wings, they played they were dead before they were. In fact they had all saved 124 ANN GUSTI'S CIRCUS their lives many a time by playing they were dead. So, being used to this trick, Ann Gusti could do it just as well with everybody watching her The thinnest living skeleton. as she could out in the field when some bird or little animal came too near. In the cage to the right of Ann Gusti was the " Thinnest Living Skeleton," whose body looked like one little twig and her six thin legs like six others. She was a sort of distant cousin to Carol and Gryl, but you would never think it to look at her. They both had large thick strong jump- ing hind-legs to hop with, and if the " skeleton " 125 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE had ever tried to hop, it would have made any- body laugh to see her. But I don't think she ever tried. As she had no wings or wing-covers whatever, she could n't fly like Carol and she could n't fid- dle like Gryl. In fact, there was n't much she could do but look like a twig. But she did that perfectly! If a person can do just one thing very well indeed, she gets along pretty well in this world. The " skeleton " had always been in a little oak tree before she came to the circus; and if you had tried to see her there, you would have found out that she could hide herself in plain sight on an oak-branch as well as Carol could hide herself in plain sight on the sand. Maybe that's how she came to look so like a twig that people call her a " walking-stick." In the cage to the left of Ann Gusti was a beetle who had a queer spring on the under side of his body; and whenever he found himself on his back, he had the funniest way of getting on his feet you ever thought of. He would jerk his 126 ANN GUSTTS CIRCUS spring with a " click" sound, and that would throw him way up in the air, and then he would come down right-side up. If he did n't do it the first time trying, he would keep on clicking and jumping until he did. So altogether Ann Gusti's side-show pleased the children and did the little animals no harm. By the next day, though, she be- came tired of her cage and tried her best to get out. She climbed up to the top and clung with her six little feet at the crack, and pushed and had a queer poked and bumped with her head, try- spring. ing to find a place where she could squeeze through. If Jack lifted the top, she would stop just where she was as if frightened, and keep still without moving a feeler or toe. When the cover was put down, she would wait a long time, and then begin all over again, creeping round and round and round the top of the cage, cling- ing at the crack with her feet, and pushing, pushing, pushing, with her hard little head. 127 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE That made both Jack and Jane so sorry for her that they gave her back to Uncle David, who took her home to her own wide meadow. And the last that was ever known of Ann Gusti, she had the great big beautiful sky for a circus-tent, and the little clown was chewing a buttercup- leaf whenever she felt hungry. X GRYL, THE LITTLE BLACK MINSTREL A LITTLE bird with a blue back was going in and out of a round hole in an old tree near the river. Now and then he would stop and say "Tru-i-lee, tru-i-lee," very softly to his mate. He sang as if he liked the hole, and perhaps he did; for was this not the place where he and his mate had nested in the spring? And now, before they flew far off to the south, had he not come back again to sit near the old doorway and sing to her? One tree on the river-bank was red and one was yellow, for it was an October day and their leaves were no longer green. Under them the quiet water seemed red and yellow, too, as if a big looking-glass lay there for the trees to see themselves in. With a bluebird singing his good-bye song and the gay leaves making bright places in the water, it was a day to be happy in. 129 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE There he sat, the happy little fellow. And Gryl Cricket was happy, even though he did not listen to the bird or look at the river. He was singing, too, the only song he knew. A funny sort of song it was, with all the \vords in the verse alike, and every verse just like the one before, and not much change in the tune. But although it was the same music over and over again, it had different sounds for all that. When near by, it was something like "Gr-gryl-1, gr- gryl-1, gr-gryl-1," tinkled oh, so quickly on a tiny bell; and when it was far off, it was more like "Cri-cri-cri-cri." 130 GRYL, THE BLACK MINSTREL Whether far or near, it was very good music for an October day. Any way, Gryl liked to make it: you may be sure of that, for he kept at it, off and on, all the warm sunny part of the day. And in the summer, before the nights were so cool, he sang in the dark, too. With so much singing day after day, does his little black throat ache and his voice grow hoarse? Not a bit of it; for Gryl's music-box is not like yours and the birds'. It is not in his throat at all! He wears a fiddle on his back and sings, not through his throat, but with his wings. There he sat, the happy little fellow, before his open door, and fiddled. He lifted two wings and rubbed them together so that the row of tiny hard ridges on the under side of his right wing hit against the hard wrinkles on the upper side of his left wing, and that is the way he made music for himself. His " Cri-cri-cri " just now seemed to be a song of thankfulness, as hungry people often say " grace" before they eat. Gryl had been too cold to get up for his breakfast, and now it was 131 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE dinner-time and he was sitting before a feast and fiddling as he ate. " I have meat and I can eat," he seemed to be saying over and over to himself. If he was glad, it was no wonder; he had found, when he went hunting, a nice fresh leg of grass- hopper which a blackbird had dropped near his home. Now Gryl liked a grasshopper-leg as surely as you like a turkey's drumstick for Thanksgiving dinner. So he munched and munched all by himself, and fiddled as he ate. Sometimes at parties, or in lunch-rooms, we have someone play to us during dinner. But we have to hire our meal-time music. A man can not play a fiddle on his back and eat at the same time. Funny little Gryl could do just that, and it would make you laugh right out loud to see him do it. The longer Gryl nibbled and fiddled, the more restless Taffy grew. Taffy Cricket, I forgot to say, was Gryl's neighbor, and he lived so near that he could smell Gryl's marrow-bone; and, like his namesake in the old verse, Taffy was a thief. 132 Gryl and Taffy. A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE Perhaps if Taffy's home had been where the sun warmed it earlier than it did GryPs, Taffy would have wakened in time to find the bone first. But as it was, he had been too cold and lazy to start out until Gryl was half through his dinner. And the more he smelled that bone, the more he wanted it. So before long he crept out from under the slanting stone that covered his cave, and slipped very quietly in under the old piece of flat tin that made a roof for GryPs din- ing-room. While Gryl was making a merry, noisy tune over his meal, could Taffy come very softly and join the feast? He tried, and what happened to him was something like what would happen to you if you tried to take away a dog's bone. For wherever a dog has found his bone, he feels very, very sure, in his own mind, that it belongs to him, and no one except his master must go near him \vhile he is eating. If we do, and get hurt, then it is our own fault and \ve must not blame the dog. Perhaps Gryl felt that way, for he ran right 134 GRYL, THE BLACK MINSTREL up to Taffy and scared him off. The funny part of it was that he did n't stop fiddling while he ran! He just lifted his wings higher and fiddled louder, and this time he was not playing gently, " I have meat and I can eat," to himself: he was playing a threat to Taffy which meant, " Taffy Cricket this is my bone. I hunted for it. I found it. I brought it home. You lazy thing, you just go out and hunt for your own dinner. Go away! Go away! Go away! r ' Taffy must have understood him, even though what he said sounded like ' l cre-ek, cre-ek, cre-ek ! ' ' He understood so well that he did not even stop to turn round. He just stepped out backward and left Gryl, as he had found him, fiddling over his dinner. When Gryl had eaten plenty of food, he washed one of his front feet by putting it into his mouth. Then he pulled one of his long feelers down with his foot, until he could wash that, too. After that he brushed his shiny black sides with his hind-legs; for this was GryPs wedding-day and of course he must be clean as well as happy. 135 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE In the afternoon he went for a walk in the sunshine. He was merry as could be, except when a man happened to come that way and shake the ground with his heavy foot. Then Gryl stopped fiddling and sat so still that even his feelers did not move. He stayed still a long, long time, and then crept off under some fallen leaves, to hide until the steps passed far away. He could never fly even when danger was near. His front wings were a fiddle and his hind ones weak, little folded things that were too feeble to carry him an inch. But he knew how to slip away and hide, as you would find if you tried to catch him for a pet. Toward night he played a soft tune to Lucy Cricket, who lived under a bit of bark near his own little dug-out. Now Lucy was black as a piece of coal, and her head was so bald and shiny that not a hair could be seen on it anywhere, and she was dumb. But she was not deaf, and she could hear Gryl's song and liked it. And what do you suppose she did? Do you think she painted her little black 136 GRYL, THE BLACK MINSTREL cheeks and put on a wig? Oh, no; she was an honest cricket and went out to her mate just as she was. As he was black as a piece of coal, too, Lucy and Gryl Cricket. and just as bald as she was, they really looked very much alike, except that her wings had no fiddles, and he had no long slender tail, but only two tail-feathers. Well, Gryl went right on fiddling, and this time it was their wedding march. For a wedding supper they had a wild-lettuce salad, with some apple-sauce for dessert; for there was a wild- 137 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE apple tree on the bank, and the apples that had dropped down were nice and soft. Then Lucy went back to her cave under the bark and Gryl found his way to his own little dug-out. After all, he did not need any one to help him about his meals. He rather liked going out to hunt for them himself. And he needed no one to show him how to finish his dug-out. He knew just how to pick up the hard little bit of dirt or stone in his mouth and carry it off out of the way, and just how to scratch out the soft places with his head and feet. It was well that he felt that way about it, for Lucy was far too busy with her ow r n task to help Gryl or any one else. It took her all her time for a while to take care of her eggs. For these must be put down so that they would keep all winter. What better could she do with them than trust them to good old Mother Earth, who broods over the tiniest seeds that are left in her care? And Lucy's eggs were something like wee seeds. She planted them in the earth with the GRYL, THE BLACK MINSTREL long slender back part of her body, that looked like a tail but was really a tool to put eggs into the ground with. So while Lucy tended her eggs like a good little mother, Gryl finished his dug-out, making it deeper and deeper, until the days grew very cold and he fell asleep in his bedroom in the same earth that sheltered Lucy's eggs. One day, a long time after that, the trees, which had dropped their red and yellow leaves on the river-bank, unfolded some very fresh green ones. A bird with a blue back, who had flown far, far to the south, and north again, was hop- ping in and out of the hole in the old tree near by and whispering "Tru-i-lee, tru-i-lee" sweetly to his mate. It was spring, and time for Gryl to waken from his long nap and begin fiddling again. For there are always some crickets to welcome the spring - their songs do not belong just to the summer and fall. As Gryl sat and fiddled before his open door, his little sons and daughters hatched in their 139 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE egg-shells and climbed up out of the ground. They were wee midgets who looked much like old Daddy Gryl, with their bald black heads and hopping hind-legs. For a cricket is a cricket all the days of his life except while he is an egg. He is n't one thing first and then another after- ward, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. All a small cricket has to change to is a larger cricket. So there was not a great deal of differ- ence between Gryl and one of his little sons ex- cept size and wings. For a baby cricket is like all other baby insects, who must eat and grow up before they can have any wings. While he is growing, he must throw off his little black skin when it gets too tight, and from time to time his \ying-pads will get bigger. Then, when he changes his skin the last time, there will be wings on his back instead of pads not wings to fly with, but to fiddle with. So, long before the bluebird will come to say good-bye to his nest next October, Daddy Gryl's sons will be fiddling near their open doors, mer- rily, oh merrily, as crickets should. XI LUNA'S THANKSGIVING THE hazelnut bushes had dropped their leaves. They were dry brown leaves now, that rustled when the boys and girls waded through them; and when the wind lifted them up and made them dance, they flew here and there as if they were merry. But there was one leaf that did not dance with the others. It stayed still, for it was \vrapped tightly about Luna's little silk-room. Luna had papered the outside of her room with the leaf before she spun the wall too thick to reach through. Now you can tell from that that Lun?, was a caterpillar; because what else could it be that would spin a room of silk? Yes, Luna had been a caterpillar once upon a time in her spinning days a big one, too, and a pretty one, a very, very pretty one. But after she had finished making her little home that had just one room in it, she rested a while and then 141 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE she stopped being a caterpillar. It happened this way. Her last caterpillar clothes ripped down a back seam just behind her head, and her caterpillar skull cracked open like a nut. And Luna had been a caterpillar once upon a time, and a pretty one. the pale little body that lay inside was not a caterpillar any more. No, Luna was a pupa now, and grew darker and darker until she was brown all over. There was nothing for her to do but to sleep, for her one room was a bedroom, and she had locked herself in until spring. 142 LUNA'S THANKSGIVING There was no pantry in her little house, and she could not eat. Not one crumb of food and not one drop of drink was she to have all winter. But she was so plump that we need not feel sorry for her, for she had spent all her life in a pantry until she made her bedroom, and had eaten enough to last her a long, long time. Her pantry had been an oak tree, and the shelves were the oak-leaves, and she ate up some of the shelves! Before she was a caterpillar she was a white egg; and her mother, who was very beautiful in- deed, had put this white egg with some others on top of one of the oak-leaf shelves. This made it handy for Luna when she nibbled a hole in the egg-shell and poked her little head out. What more could she want than to be hatched in a pantry with so much food in it that she could eat whenever she felt hungry? And an oak pan- try, too! She would n't have minded if she had hatched in a birch or walnut pantry, but there was nothing she liked better than oak. Indeed, she liked an oak-leaf as well as a blue jay or a squirrel likes an acorn maybe even better. 143 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE So of course she ate and ate, and I think she would have eaten for sixty days without stop- ping, except for one thing. That one thing was her skin. It was a funny sort of skin to have. It could stretch and grow for about a week, and then it would stop. Whenever Luna's skin stopped stretching she had to stop eating. As soon as this happened, she would spin a thin silk mat all spread out on the leaf, and tangle the little hooks on her ten fat clinging feet in it, and wait. While she waited she would lift her head and put her six thin front-legs together, so that she looked as if she were asking for something. What she needed was a new skin that would stretch farther, and a new head so that she could eat bigger slices of good oak-leaves. And sure enough she was going to have them both! For there behind her head that was too little for her, there was a place where her neck looked swollen. That was because a new head was growing inside her old tight skin; and as it grew, it pushed the little old skull off until it looked something like the nose-bags men put on 144 LUNA'S THANKSGIVING their horses when they feed them away from home, where there is no food-box. And at last her bigger new head inside her skin pushed the little old skull so far that rip, rip went the skin right round her collar, and off dropped the little old skull and out popped her new head! Then she crept out of the old tight skin through the collar-hole; and there she was as good as new, with a new suit of skin that would stretch for about a week. So she could eat another good long meal. That was the way she ate and grew, and that was the way she changed her skin-dress. And every dress she had was a little different from the one she had before. They were all pretty dresses, and all green ones that did not show much when she was clinging to her green pantry shelves. The tips of her legs were reddish brown, and so was her mouth. She had some tiny red dots and some yellow ones on her dress, and some blue ones. There was a yellow line along each side and some in other places. These colors made her all the prettier, but they did not show very 145 The moonbeams could jind nothing lovelier than Luna. LUNA'S THANKSGIVING far away, and she really looked nearly as green as the leaves she ate. When she had on her last suit of skin, she grew to be three inches long; and when she was about sixty days old, she left the oak pantry for the first time in her life. And she was never going back. Plenty of good fresh leaves lay all about her on every side; but greedy as she had been all her growing days, she seemed to know when she had had enough and did not stop to take another bite. She walked along the branch until she came to the trunk of the tree, and then down she crept head first way to the ground. Then she wandered off for her very first walk on the ground. It was her very last one, too; for by the time she had reached a hazelnut bush she felt like spinning. It \vas more than a thin mat to rest on, while she changed her dress, that she felt like making. There was a leaf near by and she felt like spinning this about her with silk and mak- ing her cocoon inside it. Cocoon is the name of her bedroom. 147 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE The silk she used dripped out of a tube near her under-lip. It was wet and sticky at first, but as soon as the air touched it, it hardened into a fine thread. She spun these threads in little loops by swinging her head from side to side, and it took more loops than you can count to make enough to cover her all up, though the more she spun the shorter she grew. She seemed to shrink as she worked; and by the time the cocoon was done, it did not have to be more than an inch and a half to hold her. That is how she came to be all snugly tucked up in a silk cocoon with a leaf wrapped about it. Then she changed to a little pupa inside, as brown as the hazelnuts the children were hunting. For it was Thanksgiving time, and Jack and Jane were nutting in Uncle David's woods. But Luna did not hear them as they laughed and shouted and waded through the dry leaves, any more than she heard the big black birds calling "Caw! caw!" or the other big bird with a jacket almost as blue as the sky, scream at the top of his lungs that his name was "Jay! Ja-ay!" The 148 LUNA'S THANKSGIVING woods might ring with noises, but Luna slept on. Boys and girls might have turkey baked brown and cranberries cooked to a beautiful red jelly and candy with hazelnuts in it for their Thanksgiving dinner. What did Luna care about that? She had eaten her fill long ago. The only Thanksgiving she needed was to sleep safely in her cocoon. That is how she spent the day. Alone and asleep! Sometimes she wiggled and turned in her bed, but she did not waken. She would wait until Spring called her, and then her long, long night would be over. Then she would break her brown pupa case and wet her cocoon with something that would soften the hard silk so that she could break her way through, and out she would come out of her bedroom into the open world of sunshine and moonlight! At first her wings would be tiny limp flaps, and they would grow bigger and bigger and big- ger until it would take a ruler five inches long to reach across them when they were spread. And they would grow so fast you could see them do it! 149 She -izould Jlj in the moonlight. LUNA'S THANKSGIVING Their color would be the loveliest pale green there is in the world. Near the middle of each one there would be a tiny clear place, like a wee window with a pretty frame of white, black, and red. Across the front edge of the front wings would be a border of purple, and the hind wings would each end in a long part like a tail. Luna's body lying between the wings would be covered by beautiful white fluffy scales, the whitest white that ever was seen whiter even than the feathers on a white dove! Upon her head would wave two pale brown plumes. There she would be next summer a moth so lovely that you would not want to touch her, but just look and look and look. What would she do, this wonderful green and white and purple moth who had been a plump, brown sleeping pupa before that, and a pretty, growing caterpillar, green as an oak-leaf, before that, and a white egg first of all? She would fly in the woodland, but not by day. She was a moon moth and would wait for night to come. 151 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE By night she would fly, and where, do you think? To the flowers with deep cups, and un- coil her long tongue to sip up the sweet drops at the bottom? Oh, no. That is what many moths would do, but Luna had no tongue and could not drink. That is the way Lunas are made. They eat, when they are caterpillars, enough to last them while they sleep the sleep of change. All moths are like that. But Luna's caterpillar food lasts her all her life, though many other moths sip from flowers at night as butterflies do by day. No, Luna would not visit the blossoms that hold up their sweet-smelling cups. She \vould fly -have you guessed where? Yes, she would fly in the moonlight. She would be beautiful enough to be a fairy, with her snowy robe and her pale green wings. You could call her a fairy princess if you liked, and say that her name is Princess Luna. And the prince would come to fly near her in the moonlight . Be sure of that Prince Luna would be there, too. He would be dressed like the prin- 152 LUNA'S THANKSGIVING cess, with a white robe and fair green wings, and the plumes on his head would be even larger than hers. The moonbeams seeking through all the Later there must be cocoons wrapped in fallen leaves. woods could find nothing lovelier than the Prince and Princess Luna. There would be music for the night-time. In the fields near by, a black cricket would be fid- dling joyfully. Way, way off, a night bird would call. The brook would make a sweet tune as it ran over the stones in its path. And overhead the oak-leaves would be whispering. Would they call the princess, do you think? 153 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE Or was there a fragrance in the whispering leaves that drew her to them? In some strange way the oak would tell her to come, and she would fly back to the tree she left so many months before. There upon the leaves she would put her eggs, her most precious gift to the world; and they would gleam in the moonlight like fairy pearls. She had been like one of them herself a year before. And if, in the year to follow, there are to be Prince and Princess Lunas floating among the moonbeams, there must be pearly eggs upon the oak-leaves, just as later there must be cocoons wrapped in fallen leaves, each with a pupa in it brown as a nut at Thanksgiving time. XII KETI ABBOT THE LITTLEST CHRISTMAS GUEST KETI ABBOT lived all alone in a tiny log cabin in a holly tree. Sometimes a wonderful cardinal bird sat on the branches near him and sang, his gay feathers looking very pretty against the glossy green leaves; for you know how becoming red is to a holly twig. Now Keti's father and mother had never kept house in the log cabin where he lived, and he had never seen either of them. Mrs. Abbot had left his egg, with a lot of others, in her own log cabin on a holly branch; and that was about all she had ever been able to do for her son. But you must not be sorry for the little orphan, for from the moment he hatched Keti was able to take care of himself. He had, in fact, never known an unhappy hour. He had everything he needed - a snug little home and plenty of food; and he never would have been lonesome even if the cardinal bird had not come there at all. But as 155 Kcti lin-d all alone in a tiny log cabin. KETI ABBOT this singer was not making sweet music to give him joy, the feelings of the bird were not hurt when Keti did not listen to him. Keti was so busy getting his meals and build- ing his log cabin that little else mattered to him, just so he was let alone as his father and mother had left him. It seems strange to think of that little chap finding food for himself from the time he was a baby less than a day old and ready for his first bite. Yet very soon after he had poked his head out of the egg-shell, he had crept off and fed himself on a nice crisp holly-leaf salad. It agreed with him better than malted milk would have done, which you may be very sure was the reason Mrs. Abbot had placed her pre- cious eggs where she did. If her son was to be left to find his own food, she would at least see to it that he was put where he would not starve for lack of the proper kind. That was all very well so far as his meals went; but where was the carpenter to be found who would make him a snug cabin? For, after he crept out of the egg-shell, he had no covering for 157 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE his tender little body, and no son of the House of Abbot would be caught without just the right sort of shelter over his head. No, indeed. His family for many, many years back had all had tidy places of their own, and it was not to be thought for a moment that he would get along without one as good as any of them had had. He might be fatherless and motherless, and with no nurse to prepare his dinner for him; but home- less he would not be. Never! And he did n't sit round waiting for that carpenter, either. He went to work as busy as a little bee and made his own log cabin. That is what Keti did. Think of it, with no one to show him how, and he a baby just new in the world! He started it with the tiniest pieces, for he was wee himself and did not need a big dwelling; and if you had seen him turning heels over head with it in the beginning, you might have thought that he was only play- ing a game with a cunning little collar. But he kept at it until it covered him all up, and as fast as he grew, he kept chopping more tiny holly logs and making it bigger, to fit him. 158 KETI ABBOT He cut the wee twig-logs as neatly as a man could cut huge ones with an axe, although he had no choppers to use but his own strong jaws. He placed them criss-cross at the ends, and fast- ened them together firmly, not with wooden pegs or nails, but with silk. Now, no man who is not very rich has his walls covered with silk, for it costs a great deal to buy it. But it was none too good for Keti Abbot, who would have as fine a cabin as his father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather had had, even if he did have to make every bit himself. You will wonder where he got his silk. It grew in a sort of pocket in his body back of his head, and all he had to do when he was ready to spin was to pull it out from an opening in his mouth and swing it back and forth until he wove a silken lining for his little log cabin of a nest. And no one taught him how to spin or how to weave. He just did it all right the first time he tried. After he had taken all that pains with his home, you will not be surprised to learn that he liked it so well that he stayed in it night and day, 159 He travelled on the under side (if the branch and let his home hang doicn like a bag. never leaving it for a minute all the fall. He no more left that little log case of his than a snail would leave her shell, and in some ways he got along in much the same way that a snail does. When he went walking about on the highroads of the holly branches, he stuck his head and creeping feet out of the open doorway and stepped off - - cabin and all. While he was tiny, he walked on top of the branch, with his house straight up in the air; but after he grew and his house was too heavy to hold that way, he traveled on the 160 KETI ABBOT under-side of the branch and let his home hang down like a bag. In this way he would hunt here and there about the tree for the best holly salads; and having his dwelling handy by, he could camp out wherever he happened to be. Now all these things that Keti did without any practice like catching his own salad at just the right stage, and cutting holly-twigs just the right length, and fitting them together at the corners in just the right way, and binding them into a snug little home with a silken lining which he spun and wove just right are very wonderful things indeed. And perhaps it is not quite true to say that he was not taught, because, after all, he had a better teacher than can be found in all the colleges of the world, or even in all the kin- dergartens. Of course that famous teacher is Dame Nature herself; and the little chap got along so well with all the hard lessons of his life by simply obeying his instincts. It is n't much use to pucker up your brow and try to understand how Dame Nature led Keti 161 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE from task to task, and how he could do all these things perfectly the first time trying. You might study about it for more than one hundred years, and even then not understand very well. It is enough for us to know that Keti ate and cut and builded and spun and wove; so much any of us can find out for ourselves by some day watch- ing one of his kind; for Keti grew up in time, and had children and grandchildren and great-grand- children; and although he never saw any of them himself, that is no reason why we cannot see them. It was during the fall, when Keti was only a few weeks old, that the cardinal bird sat in the holly tree now and then, adding his bright feath- ers to the bright berries on the twig and making altogether a lovely picture, though Keti never noticed the gay visitor when he poked his head out of his cabin door. Neither did he see those little cousins of his on the trees near by, who were making other kinds of cases to live in. They were not such pretty ones as Keti's, and the sticks went up 162 KETI ABBOT Keti's cousins. and down on the outside instead of crosswise, and perhaps they looked more like bags than log cabins. Still they did as well for shelter, and were as carefully lined with silk. One was as 163 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE large as Keti's home, but the others were much smaller. Each made his house in his own way, and never looked to see what his cousin was doing. So Keti worked at building and spinning day by day; and he walked here and there along the holly highroad, clinging to the under side of the branch, whenever he felt hungry enough to hunt up a good fresh dinner. Well, after a while the weather grew colder - as cold, indeed, as it ever gets in the land where Keti lived; for winter came on and the little fel- low, still less than four months old, was growing drowsy. So he fastened his cabin to a twig with silk, and swung there like a bird in a nest while he took rather a long nap. He was safe as a baby oriole in his swinging house, which rocked in the wind like the cradle old Mother Goose once sang about. And after he had slept there a number of weeks, three children ran along one day, looking for holly branches to make their house bright at Christmastime. Little Eleanor spied Keti's cabin swinging like a cradle and said, " Oh my! 164 KETI ABBOT oh my! oh me! oh my! Here's a tiny wee bag of sticks! I want it for Dolly Jane's very own little Christmas-tree. And there is a holly-berry stuck right in the side of it! ' ; So David took out his knife and cut off Keti's cabin, twig and all; and Eleanor tucked it among the branches of a small evergreen tree which she was making ready for Dolly Jane's Christmas. There Keti stayed while Eleanor and David and Phoebe helped make laurel wreaths, and while Father put up the big red balls, and while Mother hurried about making plum pudding and wonderful cakes and candies. On December twenty-fourth the three children crept away to bed very early, so as to be sure not to be too sleepy to waken if they should hear anything that sounded like reindeer stamping on the roof or any jingle that might be sleigh- bells; for Mother always read to them,- 'Twas the night before Christmas, When all through the house Not a creature was stirring - Not even a mouse, - 165 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE and the rest of those jolly verses, every Christ- mas Eve; and every time they could not help thinking how amusing it would be to see for themselves what really happened in their own home on that night so full of secrets. But it was not Eleanor or David or Phoebe who wakened that Christmas Eve. It was little Keti, who crept off Dolly Jane's tree right in the midst of all the fun. The house was so warm that he got over being drowsy, and suddenly the electric lights were turned on, which made the room bright as day. And there was Somebody putting glitter all over the big Christmas tree until it sparkled like stars and icicles and shiny snow. And there were bright toy birds perched on the twigs, and ropes of gayest red and pretty gold and silver hanging all about the spreading green branches. And all around the base of the tree was a long line of toy animals like every kind you can see at the cir- cus. A little reindeer led them, and after him came all the others, like a grand parade. And Somebody was cramming the stockings 166 KETI ABBOT And fly forth to seek out a wingless mate. by the fireplace so full of little packages that they were all bunched out. And there were toys and books and bundles tied with red ribbon in piles before the grate. And Somebody kept laughing softly and whispering, " Eleanor will love to swing Dolly Jane in this little hammock"; and " David will make wonderful things with this set of carpenter tools"; and "Phoebe will paint pictures in this book by the hour." Think of it! All those things happening while the three children slept soundly, and little Keti 167 A LITTLE GATEWAY TO SCIENCE Abbot awake all that delightful Christmas Eve! He even felt so lively that he crept out to the nearest holly-branch and nibbled a lunch at midnight. While he was doing this, Somebody saw him creeping about and chuckled, and then shook a finger at him and called him a long name that sounded like talking in Latin. ' Oiketicus ab- botii," Somebody whispered, "don't tell what you have seen to-night. It's a secret, you know." And sure enough, Keti, the little Christmas guest of Dolly Jane, never told a soul about what went on that gay night, although he crept from place to place and feasted during the twelve days before the holly, with him on it, was taken out-doors again. Then he went to sleep until warm weather came, and wakened him to eat and grow and change into a little winged creature like his father, and fly forth to seek out a wing- less mate in a log cabin like the one his mother had once lived in. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 001 367128 4