Inhaltsangabe
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1858. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXVIII. SPIDERS. What a spinner the spider is! How fine is the thread which he spins! What do you think that he makes it out of? It is something very soft that is inside of him. And this is made out of what he eats. The spider, like the siik worm, has a real spinning machine. The silk worm spins from his head; but the spider spins from his tail. He has a multitude of little holes in his machine. Out of these holes are spun threads so small that you can not see them. It takes thousands of these to make the thread that you see in a spider's web. These threads the spider uses in various ways. He builds his house with them. Look at a spider's web, made in some corner. See what a platform he has built across it with his threads. In at the back part of this platform is his house. It is shaped a little like a tunnel. There he runs in when he is frightened. How quick he will run there, if you put your finger near him as he is walking about on his platform! There he watches for flies. There he carries the flies that get caught in his web, and sucks their blood out of them. The spider sets traps for flies. He has threads all about his platform, stretching out this way and that way. Some flies are, like some people, a little careless. They do not take care to keep out of the way of these threads. So they get tangled in with some of them. Then they are caught by the spider and make him a good meal. Pleasant music is the buzzing of a fly to a spider's ear. There he is in his hole listening. As it comes nearer and nearer, he hopes that it will be caught in some of his snares. Perhaps it is careful, and flies another way as it sees the snares set for it. Then the spider feels very badly. As he hears the buzzing grow fainter and fainter, he says to himself, ' I s...
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