Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1898-01-20

hungry OoDy ana op0ut muon % NJ
time nibbling the green leaf, and Of
course he slept . great deal, too, and
grew bigger every day
must tell you Of one funny thing
he did. He made tiny soft ball OF
bits Of leaf and spun silk and he al
ways rolled this ball close to the eaten
edge Of tho leaf and left II there when
he went down to the tip Of the mid
rib to take his nap. Perhaps he
thought that the hungry creatures
who wanted to find HIM would look
at the ball instead; perhaps he made
il to hide behind when he was eating.
Maybe il was just his plaything. All
babies like balls.
BY and by he had grown 80 much
bigger Mother Nature thought he
needed o new suit of clothes, SO he
crawled out of his first baby dress,
and when he had rested little, what
do You think he did? Why, he ate up
his old clothes-yes, every bit, just as
he had eaten his egg shell.
Before the little caterpillar had
grown a great deal bigger the nights
began to be chilly and the leaves OF
the birch tree on which he lived were
slowly turning yellow.
winter is coming" whispered
Mother Nature. "You cannot stay
out in the sunshine much longer, little
caterpillar. Come, build your house
and crawl into it,"
So the little caterpillar began to
build his winter home. He had been
born on the tip of the birch leaf; it
had been his cradle and his dinner
table, and now he was going to build
his house OF it.
He carefully ate away until all that
was left of the leaf were too small
flaps on either side of the mid-rib,
near the stem; then the little cater
pillar stopped eating and began to
spin. He travelled slowly over the
flaps of green and pretty soon they
were covered with a thick carpet of
soft, brown silk. When this was
done he carefully drew the flaps to-
gether until they met overhead and
bound them round and round with
soft threads of silk that fastened them
firmly to the mid-rib.
Then little caterpillar stood on the
porch of his little house and looked
into it, and he thought it was so nice
and soft and warm he would like to
take a nap that minute. The air was
getting chilly, too, SO he just glanced
about at the big world once and then
crawled head first into his coy house,
with it's silken carpet and hangings,
and closed the door behind him.
He heard the breezes whispering
outside, but they only made him more
sleepy, and he was soon ready for his
winter nap. He knew that when the
cold winds came they could not get
into his snug dwelling, and perhaps
the snow would drift up about it, like
a soft, woolly blanket and keep him
warmer still.
Perhaps through his long winter
sleep little caterpillar will dream OF
the spring time when he can open the
door of his little home and creep out
on to his sunny porch again. Then
Mother Nature will give him another
suit of clothes, and before long he
will spin himself another silken nest
and hide away again but after that he
will not be a furry little caterpillar
any more.
When he comes out of that second
silken cradle and feels the warm sun
shine touching him tenderly, he will
have two beautiful great wings to lift
him from the earth and carry him
above the nodding flowers and grasses.
How beautiful it must be for q
drowsy little caterpillar to dream OF
the hour when he can fly