Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-01-03
A DrOH Little Doctor.

What else would you call him but Doc
tor, l should like to know, when he spends
his whole life making pills ?
| must admit he don't look much like
any doctor you ever saw-in fact, he IS no
bigger than pea.
He lives on the sea shore. and he makes
his pills out of sand, though what he
wants Of sand-pills is more than any one
knows yet. They'll know all about 1t
before long, however, for the wise men
are on the watch for him, and We shall
have his whole history some day, little and
shy as he is.
This Groll little pill maker is tiny
crab, and, as | said, he lives on the sea
shore in little holes which he digs in the
sand. If YOU live on the sea shore you
know all about the tide; and if you don't
/ live there, | dare say you have heard that
every day the water comes up very high
on the shore and then goes out again, 50
that where you can walk on dry sand at
one time, in an hour or two will be deep
water Well, these odd little fellows live
where the tide will cover them. As soon
as it goes out the beach Is covered with
thousands of them, each one busy rolling
up balls, and laying them one side.
Funny enough it looks, as though the
very sand was alive, 50 many and so live
" they are. 1t IS almost impossible to
see them work, for they are very shy, and
the instant they see any one coming they
scanper into their holes, or if they are
too far of they wriggle and twist them
selves into the loose sand and are out of
sight in a minute. But naturalists, per-
haps YOU know, are more interested 10
such little creatures than you are in your
m. st interesting games, aud no trouble Is
too much for them to take to find out all
their curious and wonderful ways. So
one of them resolved to watch Mr.. Crab
and see how he lived.
Seating himself on the sand, where he
saw lots Of their piles, he kept as still a.
a mouse. and waited. Pretty soon the
sand began to move, and hundreds of tiny
heads came to hundreds Of tiny doors bur
seeing him there, instantly popped back
again After trying that two or three
times. and fading him in the same place
suppose they made up their minds h'
was some new kind Of plant that haC
grown up there At any rate, they final
II went to work. Every one began t
gather up sand and make it into pills
In u very short time the whole beach wa
covered with the odd little balls Ii j:
supposed that they get their food out o
the sand as they roll il up but that
only a guess.
No sooner did the watcher move a
arm towards the busy workmeu, thar
there would lie a sudden little twinkle o.
the sand, and every one would whisk GU
of sight After long time be did sue
coed in catching one, when 1t rolled itsel
up and pretended to be dead When h
: and il down. however. it suddenly came I
iie and sank itself in a minute
There another funny thing abou
them YOU may dig till You are tire
where a minute ago there were thousand
of them. and not one can y0u ever dig up
They live in villages that Is, there ar
large places entirely covered with thei
holes Curious they look, too, all owe
n the beach with tiny paths leading fror
one to another of them. Then ten feet o.
perhaps, there won't be one of them Z
be seen.
e As long as the tide Is out they nevl
y stop work, but the first tiny wavelet tha
+ comes up they all vanish into their hole
IT and every little pill Is washed off Tha
. don't seem TO discourage them however
a for the minute the tide leaves the beac
e bare again, there they are all busy mai
q inc pills as though they had the world {
i supply.