HAT a wonderful little creature this is! It does all its work in
the night. It builds a comfortable home right in the side of a
bank. It is exactly round, and no bigger than a quarter of a
dollar; you would say it was done with some instrument, and
so it was; but it is on its own body. It isa sort of rake, made
of hard points, on its head. This little tunnel is then lined with
silk, and do you know why? Because dampness cannot get
through silk, and your mother’s drawing-room is not more beautifully furnished
with drapery than the mason spider’s sitting-room is. But the door is the most
curious part of it. It shuts of itself. It is about as large as a six-pence, bound
very thick, and made of thin layers of fine earth, moistened and worked together

with fine silk; attached to this little door is a silken hinge, very springy, and so
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