| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: through it in their impetuous onrush, can be but rarely caught. I
myself place them on the web. The Spider does the rest. Lavishing
her silky spray, she swathes them and then sucks the body at her
ease. With an increased expenditure of the spinnerets, the very
biggest game is mastered as successfully as the everyday prey.
I have seen even better than that. This time, my subject is the
Silky Epeira (Epeira sericea, OLIV.), with a broad, festooned,
silvery abdomen. Like that of the other, her web is large, upright
and 'signed' with a zigzag ribbon. I place upon it a Praying
Mantis, {18} a well-developed specimen, quite capable of changing
roles, should circumstances permit, and herself making a meal off
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: "cheer up, lad; I warrant thy case is not so bad that it cannot be mended.
What may be thy name?"
"Allen a Dale is my name, good master."
"Allen a Dale," repeated Robin, musing. "Allen a Dale. It doth
seem to me that the name is not altogether strange to mine ears.
Yea, surely thou art the minstrel of whom we have been hearing lately,
whose voice so charmeth all men. Dost thou not come from the Dale
of Rotherstream, over beyond Stavely?"
"Yea, truly," answered Allan, "I do come thence."
"How old art thou, Allan?" said Robin.
"I am but twenty years of age."
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: looks for the strays, calls them, gathers them together. The
Lycosa knows not these maternal alarms. Impassively, she leaves
those who drop off to manage their own difficulty, which they do
with wonderful quickness. Commend me to those youngsters for
getting up without whining, dusting themselves and resuming their
seat in the saddle! The unhorsed ones promptly find a leg of the
mother, the usual climbing-pole; they swarm up it as fast as they
can and recover their places on the bearer's back. The living bark
of animals is reconstructed in the twinkling of an eye.
To speak here of mother-love were, I think, extravagant. The
Lycosa's affection for her offspring hardly surpasses that of the
The Life of the Spider |
