Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-08-27
4 Wonderful Little Builder, Half an
Inch Tall.
BY OLIVE THORNE.

L have been digging him out of the big
books-hiS story, / mean-and it is too
marvellous thing for the big bookmak-
erS to keep to themselves, so | mean to
| tell you all about it. It's more wonder
full than all the wonder stories you ever
read
He's tiny bit of worm half an inch
long, and he builds himself a brick
house. What do you think of that?
He has no eyes; yet if you lift your
hands between him and the light he will
dive into his house like a flash. How
| do you suppose he knows what you did?
He has no feet, yet he runs into the
back room of his house in less than q
| second. How do you think he can do it?
He has no hands, yet he feeds himself
and washes out his house every day
Think OF that.
He is not so big as the end of lead
pencil, yet he carries about with him
200 or 300poles and 10, 900 or IL, 900 hooks.
As long as he's we'll and happy he
never leaves his house; but when he gets
i'll and miserable he goes out into the
wide world to die
NOw{isn't he a wonder, as I said? Let
me tell you about him. He belongs to q
family of worms living at the bottom of
the sea, and called Tube-Builders, be-
| cause they build their houses in the
shape of tubes, to fit their own little
round bodies, of course. There are ever
so many varieties of these tube builders;
! but they are very much alike, and if [
! tel you about one you'll know about the
Nnole, as you are not professional
WISE man who needs to be perfectly exact.
Now, though he is a worm. and worms
are not, as a rule, very beautiful objects.
he has one of the most lovely and eX-
! QuSIte ornaments that OLD Dame Nature
| has ever bestowed on a living creature.
! lie wears 1t on his head, and it is a crown
! OF long teathery arms, or tentacles, if
| you want the book name. When he
| comes up to the door of his house and
spreads those beautiful objects out in the
water, waving them about and display
ing their elegant colors-scarlet, and
white, and blue, and golden, and green,
III the different kinds-you would readily
agree that he was a wonderful beauty
And when | tell you that with these arms
he builds his brick house you will see
they are useful, as well as beautiful
! One of the family has about eighty of
these delicate arms, and when he wants
to add little to his house he collects the
sands, or shelly atoms, or mud, which
ever he prefers to build with (sOme prefer
one and some another), and, taking up
each grain by itself in one of his arms,
he puts it on his wall and cements it
with fluid he makes somewhere in his
wonderful little body How does he
grasp a grain of sand without handsp
Why, nothing is easier or more marvel
Gus. He just folds over his arms-not
turns up the ends, but folds from side to
s1de-and he can grasp an atom of sand
with any part of each arm. He selects
the grain, seems to balance it, and if it
slips away he feels all around for it.
How did people find this out? By per-
suading the little fellow to live in aqua
RUINS and studying his ways through
MICROSCOPE. He don't object to build in
an aquarium, and if he is provided with
| different-colored substances he will make
a curious residence indeed.
| How he sees without eyes is not yet
known; but | can tell you how he man
! ages to dart into his house so suddenly.
He has down each side row of tiny lit
| tie knobs, like warts; and when he wants
to come out of the house he sticks out of
each of these knobs bunch of stiff,
| sharp bristles, called pushing poles. There
are twenty or thirty in each bunch and
about fourteen lunches, SO you see there
are about 800 in all. These poles push
/
he gets out. But getting ia is quite an
other matter. He can take his own time
! to get out; but he must be able to jerk
! in like a flash if there is any danger
abroad. For this purpose he is provided
with the tremendous array of hooks that
| told you Of-10,OO0 or 1000 of them
which hook into that same lining and
| have him in quicker than wink.
| Without hands he feeds himself and
washes his house, and these two very i'm
! pOrtant duties he does at the same time.
| He comes to the door of his house,
spreads out iiis lovely arms, waves them
, q little in the water, opens his mouth,
| ana the whole thing goes on. The
| waving arms make a constant current,
! which sends the sea-water (flled with
| minute atoms of creatures of many
| kinds down the little fellows throat. He
retains the food and the water passes on.
nicely washing out his house for him.
| When he has eaten enough he retires to
| back room, folds up his arms and draws
| them in, and slams the door behind them.
| Did / tell you he had doors? When he
| is looking out it hangs down outside, like
| the stopper of bottle attached to a
! thread; but when he goes in it is drawn
up and shuts the opening up tight. And
! it is as beautifully shaped and colored as
you can imagine. In some Of them it is
| horned, in others ridged; one has spikes
outside and another is fiat and round;
but the strangest of all is sort of
three-storied concern, like the pictures
| of the Tower of Babel.
What marvellous provisions for the
safety and comfort of one poor little
worm, less than an inch longl
| have not told you his name. The
name Of the class to which he belongs is
Annulata, and each branch has its cwn
family name besides Tube Builders is
the common English name.-N. 7. Inde-
pendent.