The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-10-01
A WONDERFUL SPINNER.

Mary ID. Rr'ns, IN Nursery.
A WONDERFUL SPINNER.
Little children, have not even the
few years of your young lives taught you
that this beautiful world of ours is full
of wonderful things? Have you not al
really learned that our loving Father is
wise and thoughtful in all things. and
that He never places even the lowest
creature in the world without giving it
all that is needful to its welfare?
The great ocean holds many of these
humble little toilers, and it is the story
of the life- work of one of these. families
that l am going now to tell you.
Have you ever gone into great fac
tory, where men and women are at
work amidst the buzz of machinery,
spinning threads, of which, by-and-by,
will be woven the very clothes you and
l wear! These men and women have
to devote long months. or years, to
learn low to do their work. and other
men have devoted other years to in
venting the machinery with which these
delicate little threads are spun; and all
the work is done in the midst of hurry
and hustle and noise.
1t all seems very wonderful, the toll
of these human spinners; but what will
you say when tell you that, many and
many time, you and l have held in
our hands q more wonderful spinner
than these; spinner SO humble and
quiet that few know of its industry and
skill: spinner who has again and
again come to the aid OF man. when,
but for its help, all his toll of months
and years must have been lost and
swept away?
Perhaps you will hardly believe it
when tell you that the homely little
mussel. that we use to bait our fish
hooks with. is this very spinner of the
sea- Not the fresh-water mussel, but
"that which dwells by the sea" in the
crevices of the rocks, and gives us so
much trouble to tear it loose from its
rocky bed.
When the tiny mussel first creeps out
of the little egg which held it, it floats
about in the water at the mercy of the
wind and the waves; but very soon, as
it grows larger, and the time comes for
it TO settle down for life, Dame Nature
the faithful servant of the great Gre
ator-furnishes the humble mussel with
the means of moving about at will, SC
that it may select its homo.
Take up one of them in your hand
and open it carefully with q knife, and
you will see an organ or muscle of con.
ical shape and deeply grooved in ap.
pearance. This is the mussel's foot
and it is by this it drags itself along in
its early DAYS while hunting for roch
or bank which it may suit its fancy to
choose for its future home.
Ibis foot is just like that of the
snails we all know so well, and if yor
will watch 3 snail moving along ON the
ground you will know cxactly how the
"Spinners of the Sea'--and, in fact
all of the mollusk family-trav be
meath the water.
The mussel does not love solitary
life. On the contrary, when we fint
one we find thousands-aye, and hun
dreds of thousands-all fast-bound
by their own work, to their ROCKY
homes.
! just as soon as the young musscl
looking out for home, finds place t,
suit it. it puts its foot firmly in the rock
and at once begins the work of its life
spinning threads, SO that it may not y
swept away from its new home.
If you look once more at the opel
shell in Your hand, you viii see hang
ing do sn from the base OF the foot
bundle of stout threads, which the foo
has spun out of semi-fuid materia
that is secreted in a gland in its int
| r;or. And thus the spinner of the SCI
| not only spins bis own thread, but &C
tually manufactures the material O
which he makes it.
As we have said. the young musse
begins this work as soon as it settles o.
, place in which to pass the rest OF 1t
. days. The moment the foot touche
, the rock, it projects beyond the shel
and then draws back, leaving fast Il
the rock q delicate thread, which a
tirst is very tender, but almost Instant
, hardens and strengthens. Then tn
foot is pushed out again and agai
Withdrawn, and there is another thread
: and SO the mussel continues TO spin it
: thread, until very often it is tied 8
firmly to the rock. or stone, or large
shell on which it lies, that the mass {
: threads is dozen times as large as tn
mussel it incloscs.
Once, far away on the shore OF one {
the beautiful islands in the Bay of Par
! anna. l, who write you of these bus
little spinners Of the sea- found one {
: them had spun such mass of thread
: over its little shell that it looked like
. huge sponge; and after working wit
3 chisel and hammer for Eve minutes,
: loosen the threads that tied it to il
, home, / took pity on the industriot
little worker, and left il to bask in Ii
{ sunshine and the waves it loved |
: we'll.