Four sunbeams sped into the west. All said, "We have found that in seeking the pleasure Of others we've filled to the full our own measure." Then softly they sank to their rest. The day is done; and slowly from the scene -Longfellow. mi'ero seōpe dê têr'mined în dus tri ous år is to erǎt'le LESSON XCIII. spin'ner ěts và rê tỷ erāze spi'dĕrş în'sĕets ĭm'pu dençe THE SPIDER SPEAKS FOR HERSELF. OLIVE THORNE MILLER. HARRIET MANN MILLER (1831), whose penname is "Olive Thorne Miller," was born at Auburn, New York. She wrote many books under her pen-name, "Olive Thorne," and after her marriage to Rev. Watts Tod Miller, she added her own name, Miller, and wrote under it. Her books are mostly for children, and are very interesting. She has written much on nature studies. Her home is at Brooklyn, New York. 1. I SUPPOSE you think we spiders are nobodies, because we go about quietly minding our own business, not dressing in bright colors like Mrs. Butterfly, nor making noise enough to craze one, like Mr. Humblebee. But I can tell you the spider family is older than the human family, who take on so many airs, looking into our secrets with that rude little microscope of theirs. 2. However, we're an honest and industrious family, and there's nothing about us to be ashamed of. In fact, I could show you some strange things, if your eyes were not too coarse to see them. There are my spinnerets, which spin out a beautiful silk rope of more than four thousand threads as fast as I want it. 3. Wouldn't you children think it fine if you could make a string in a minute any time you wanted it? Then you've never seen my combs; you can't-they're too small. I have one on each foot, and I use them to keep myself, as well as my web, free from dust. I don't like to brag, but I really think you would admire my eyes. 4. I have eight of them. I don't see how you can get along with two; though, to be sure, you can turn yours about. They are placed in a square in my forehead, for I belong to that branch of the insect family who live underground and have their eyes close together on their foreheads. Those who live in the air have them more separated, so as to see all around. 5. Then I would really like to show you my babies; but, alas! they're much too small. I carry them about with me all the time, till they're big enough to take care of themselves. They ride on my back and head, and in fact there are so many that they nearly cover me up. 6. Perhaps the most interesting thing about us is the variety of our houses. I build my house in your garden or bushes, and if it were not for the impudence of your gardener, and a destructive weapon called a broom, you would see it oftener than you do. 7. It does not become me to brag, but if you know of any home more graceful or more elegant than mine, I'd like to know what it is. Some of my family live in a sort of tent made of a leaf, lined with silk, which makes a pretty house, though rather an airy one. 8. One branch of the family builds a house, or rather a cradle, shaped like a tiny bell, and hung to a leaf or branch, where it rocks with every wind. It is not very large, is snow white, and very long. But after it is finished and filled with eggs, forty or fifty of them, the careful mother closes it up, and covers the outside with mud, because, you must know, there are many insects who will eat every baby spider they see. 9. Others build hanging houses. Some are three or four inches long, and made of white silk; others are made of empty seed-pods, fastened together and lined with silk, for wherever a spider lives, she must have silk curtains to her house. 10. One of my relatives, who lives in the West Indiesa splendid fellow, with body an inch and a half long, and bushes of hair on his legs-fastens his house to a plant, and it looks like a silk ball. It is very aristocratic and nice. 11. But I think the strangest house is made by the Trapdoor Spider, another foreigner, who lives in Australia. She is quite large, more than an inch long, and she digs a deep hole in the ground, which, of course, she lines with heavy silk hangings. Then at the top she makes a door, so strange that she takes her name from it. 12. It is of silk, made hard with some kind of gum. The outside is covered with dirt, bits of bark, etc., just like the ground around it, so that when it is shut it cannot be seen. The whole is hung with a hinge, like any door. What do you think of that? She often sits in her door to enjoy the air, but if anyone comes near, she shuts the door and holds it fast. 13. Some of my family have a strange wish to live near the water. One of them is called the Raft Spider, because he makes a raft of leaves and sticks, held together with silk. On this he sails around, eating such food as he can find on the water. He can run on the water, too, easily. 14. The strangest one, who builds a nice house under water, and spends all her time there, is called the Water Spider. Now, you know that spiders, as well as you, must have air to breathe, and one would think they must live on land; but this spider is so determined to live away from her relatives that she builds a beautiful house of silk, the shape and size of a thimble, with the open side down, and fills it with air herself. 15. I'll tell you how. Having finished the house, she goes to the surface, sticks one end of her body up into the air, then gives a jerk, and really carries a tiny bubble of air under the water. It is held partly by the long hairs on the body, and partly by the hind legs. When she gets to the house she turns around, and lets go the bubble. Of course it goes to the top of the little thimble, and there it stays. 16. In this strange way, bubble by bubble, air enough is carried in to fill the house. And there she lives, bringing her dinner there to eat, and making a nursery in one corner for the babies, who live at home till big enough to build thimble houses for themselves. 17. There are many more curious things I could tell you of my family, but I'm afraid you're tired already. Describe the spider. Tell the things a spider can do. OLIVE THORNE MILLER. Do you know a story in mythology which tells the adventures of the spider? THE HERO OF BLACKWATER. 1. THERE was once a king of England called "The Unready," because he was never ready to meet his country's enemies and drive them away. The greatest enemy that England had during this king's reign was the Dane. 2. The Danes had a fine fleet of vessels called the "Long Serpent" ships, in which they cruised about, fearlessly attacking and plundering the people on the shores of the North and Baltic seas. 66 3. The unready English king had allowed his navy to fall into decay. So whenever the Danes in their dreaded Long Serpent" ships appeared off the English coast, the only thing the king could do was to pay them whatever sum of money they might demand, in order to get rid of them. 4. Among the king's subjects was the Earl of Essex, who was a loyal servant of the unready ruler. He was not like the king, however,- ready to tax the people to pay tribute |