The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1897-08-18
Story ofa Caterpillar.

''orN VI
This is the time of year when n
certain fuzzy little caterpillar goes
camping. 1t chooses for its summer
outing the convenient crotch of a
cherry or apple tree, and there sets
up its tent. The tent is beautifully
spun of the finest web, and is so
formed that it will keep out the wet
and cold fully as well as the larger
canvas tent with which you will go
camping this summer. At first the
caterpillars are very small and weak.
They are covered with little short
hairs, and there is q long white streak
down their back The lower portions
of their bodies are black. and their
sides are sprinkled with yellow and
blue. So you see they can lay claim
to being very aristocratic and we'll
dressed caterpillars.
After building the tent the cater.
pillars, led by their king, choose some
warm afternoon and crawl out along
the limbs of the tree and begin to eat
the tender young leaves. They take
everything as they go, veins and all,
but they do not try to eat the stout
mid-rib of the leaf, Very busy eaters
they are, and as long as the sun shines
they remain at their meal, but if
transform comes up, somehow the
caterpillars findit out in time to crawl
back to their tent, where they can
keep their nice clothes from getting
wet. They also rest every night like
civilized folk, and they have regular
times for meals.
From the very first they grow
rapidly, and presently their tent will
no longer hold all of the family. Ac-
cordingly the best workmen set about
and spin additions and lean-tos and
dormer bedrooms. In few weeks
time the caterpillars have grown to
full size-about two inches long-and
they are very handsome as cater
pillars go. They have also eaten all
the limbs off the farmers trees and
spoiled his crops, perhaps, but that
doesn't trouble their consciences at all.
Like a grown boy, the grown cater
pillar wants to go out and see the
world, and so, some sunshiny day, he
crawls down out of the trees and be-
gins his travel. Sometimes in June
thousands of these adventurous cater
pillars find some convenient chip or
fence rail or bit of bark under which
to spend the night. If he likes the
spot, perhaps, he determines to settle
there permanently, and builds himself
permanent house or cocoon, beauti-
fully soft and oval, and rolls himself
inside of it. No doubt more than one
boy and girl has found these little
yellow caterpillar houses and wondered
what they were. Inside the cocoon
the caterpillar goes through many
marvellous changes.
In two or three weeks time, if YOU
were to hold the yellow cocoon close
to your ear, you would hear rustling
inside, as if something was trying to
dig through. Presently little hole
appears at one end of the cocoon and
reddish-brown moth, with moist
wings, crawls out. If it is daylight
the moth stands quite still and slowly
moves her wings to get them dried
out. As soon as darkness comes she
flies up in the mir and begins happy,
care-free existence, enjoying to its ut
most the warm July weather. Two or
three days she flies about and then she
finds an apple tree in some farmers
yard, or in the woods wild cherry
tree. No one knows how it happens
that she can find the right kind of
tree, where there are so many to
choose from all about her, but she
never makes mistake.
On some convenient little twig the
moth lays a great number of eggs,
which she forms into a smooth,
rounded mass. Over them she spreads
fine varnish, which dries hard and
smooth and keeps out the rain. The
eggs are laid in July, after which the
moth, having finished her work, soon
dies. But the eggs remain in good
condition all the rest of the summer
and all of the following winter In
May of the year following, as soon
as the sun grows warm and
bright, they hatch out into the little,
fuzzy caterpillars, who go at once to
the work of building tent.
And this is the whole story of the
tent caterpillar, which is one of the
commonest insects around Chicago,
and the story has been repeated year
after year, for nobody knows how
long. Chicago Record.
How Pussy Blue Eyes Was Lost.
Pussy was lost The family were