THE PERSISTENT TUMBLEBUG
The frog at the bottom of the well, in the old fable, that climbed up
three feet during the day, and slipped back two feet each night, had a
hard time of it getting out of the well. But he finally succeeded.
But Sisyphus, who, in the fabled story, was condemned to push a rock
up a hill eternally, had a far harder and more discouraging task; for
every time he got the rock to the top of the hill it rolled back again,
and he bad to begin his task all over again, and so never succeeded.
Those who have watched tumblebugs try to roll their balls up over
obstructions or out of some rut into which they had fallen, have
doubtless been impressed with the persistence of these sturdy black
bugs. They keep at it and at it, no matter how many times the ball rolls
back and gets away from them, until they finally succeed in surmounting
their difficulty in some way. They will push a little harder, or try
some other route, and still another if need be, seemingly without a
thought of giving up. It is a rare bug indeed that gives up his task.
In this the tumblebug sets us a good example of continuity and
stedfast persistence. The author has never forgotten a saying he once
heard when a boy: "Pluck and perseverance will hop a toad to Jerusalem."
As with mankind, the family life of birds, and animals center in and
cluster around the mother. She especially cares for the little ones, and
sees that their every want is supplied.
In all this they set us a good example of what our own homes and
family life should be, and teach us how we should live together in love,
kindness, and helpfulness in our own places of abode.
Says J. R. Miller in one of his beautifully written books, "Nothing
else can take the place of love in the home; nothing else can supply its
lack. Nothing this side of heaven's gate is more beautiful than the
home, be it ever so plain and humble, where love reigns as queen, and
where patience and gentleness rule."
HIS KNOWLEDGE OF BEETLES SAVED HIM
AN entomologist is one who makes a study of bugs, beetles, and
insects. Entomologists are among the most practical and useful
scientists in the world, having saved many lives and much property by
learning of the many harm ful insects and how to destroy them in large
numbers.
It is not often, however, that we hear of insects saving the lives of
entomologists, though a spider is said to have saved the life of the
Scottish chief, Bruce. But there is a true story of a great French
entomologist, implicated in the political troubles of France during the
stormy times of the eighteenth century, who was about to be sent away on
a convict ship to a penal colony where disease and poisonous insects
soon ended men's lives.
An officer on the ship was much interested in a beautiful beetle. The
entomologist told him its name, and some interesting things about it.
The officer thereupon became interested in the scientist and, to his
great delight, procured his release.
His knowledge of insects saved him. Knowledge is power.
SAVED BY A SPIDER
LITTLE things sometimes accomplish great results. History furnishes
many examples of this.
In one of his fables, Aesop tells how a mouse once saved the life of
a lion.
More wonderful still, and no fable, were the results of the work of
one little spider.
A prince who had been defeated in battle, fled, and hid in a cave in
the woods.
That night a spider wove its web across the mouth of the cave.
In the morning two soldiers from the enemy's camp, searching for the
prince, passed the cave where the prince was hiding.
"Look," said one, "there is a cave. Perhaps the prince is in there."
"No, he cannot be," said the other, "for if he had gone in there, he
would have brushed away that spider's web," and they went on their way.
So the spider saved the prince.
THE WILY HORNET
ONE summer not long ago, fifty boys were camped, in some good army
tents, near Leesburg, Virginia, one tent-that occupied by Mr. E. K.
Wallace, their head instructor-being fitted up for " first aid "
treatment.
Among other things, Mr. Wallace told the boys not to disturb nor kill
the bees or hornets flying about, because the bees, he said, made honey,
and the hornets caught flies. He told them that neither would molest
them if they let them alone. Early several mornings Mr. Wallace had
noticed a hornet come into his tent and catch flies, taking them out,
one by one, to some hornets' nest, as he supposed, near by.
One morning, however, after failing to catch any flies following
several attempts by direct attack, he saw the hornet fly to one side of
the tent and wait and watch, as if to think out some new method of
attack.
Before long he saw a fly light on one side of the octagonal upright
pole in the center of the tent. The hornet at once flew to the other
side of the pole, and, slowly creeping around toward the fly, suddenly
made for it and seized it. What he could not do by direct attack, he
succeeded in doing by stealth and a rear or flank attack. In this he
displayed the wisdom of an army general.
From this we may learn the lesson that what we fail to accomplish in
one way, we may succeed in doing in another.
FREAK HOMES OF HONEYBEES
LIKE the birds and most other living creatures, the honeybees seek
secluded and safe places in which to build their marvelous hives of
honeycomb and store their delicious honey.
Their instinct to find such places sometimes leads them to select
strange and unheard-of locations.
A familiar place of the honeybee is a hole high up in some large tree
in the forest. About the only animal likely to disturb them in such a
place is the bear, who is not only a good climber, but a great lover of
honey. All bears seem to have a "sweet tooth," and are willing to
undertake some tall tree-climbing if they think there is any prospect of
finding some honey.
For many years some honeybees had their storehouse in the attic of
Mr. James S. Galloway's residence, at Hillsdale, Ohio, where great
quantities of honey were stored between the floors and walls. But after
the house had been closed for a time during the summer of 1926, the bees
abandoned their old haunts, and, like the barn-swallows, built outside
high up under the eaves of the house. Being out in plain sight, and the
bees keeping busy from morning till night, their work attracted much
attention. The structure they built looked like a collection of
mushrooms, was of the same color, and about the size of a bushel basket.
Something went wrong with a pipe-organ in an English church one
summer. As with some "high-class" singers, whenever the organ was played
the "tremolo stop " was in constant operation. Upon examination, it was
discovered that a colony of honeybees had taken up quarters back in the
organ, and were building their honeycombs there.
For ages bees seem to have been in the habit of selecting these freak
homes. One of the mysterious riddles propounded by Samson, strong man,
to the Philistines, was based o such a home. "Out of the eater," he said
"came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness."
Learning the answer to the riddle from his traitorous wife, the
Philistines asked, "What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger
than a lion?"
Previously, on his way down to the land of the Philistines, Samson
had killed a young lion, in the carcass of which, it seems, he later
discovered some bees had stored their honey.
WHAT FRANKLIN DISCOVERED ABOUT THE ANTS
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN is known as the discoverer of electricity, just as
Sir Isaac Newton is known as the discoverer of the law of gravity. One
made his discovery through flying a kite in a thunder-storm; the other,
through seeing an apple fall to the ground.
Franklin tamed the lightning; Prof. S. F. B. Morse taught it the
English language; and with it Thomas A. Edison has lighted the world.
But electricity was not Franklin's only discovery. He was what the
boys of today would call "a wise guy." He observed things, and inquired
into the reason for things.
Through his observations he learned that the little ants have a means
of communicating or imparting information from one to the other. In
other words, they have some sort of language, inaudible though it may be
to us.
Here is how he made this discovery: One day he found some ants in a
jar of molasses. After shaking them out, he thought to keep the molasses
away from them by tying a string to the jar and hanging it to a nail in
the ceiling.
But it happened that he did not shake quite all the ants out of the
jar. One little fellow stayed in and finished getting his fill of the
sweets of which ants are so fond.
After doing this, he sought to make his way out of the jar back home.
But, to his surprise, after running all over the jar from top to bottom,
he discovered that it was not sitting on a shelf as it was when he went
into it. Like the earth, it seemed to be hanging on nothing. But before
long, he found the string by which it was suspended from the ceiling.
Up the string he climbed and down the wall he went to his home, only,
however, to tell the other ants how they could reach the jar of molasses
again.
Soon there was a perfect stream of ants running up and down the
string, from jar to ceiling, which Franklin thought would surely keep
them out. The lone ant had let the secret out. He had told his fellow
ants how he got away from the jar, and how they could get back to it.
And they were not slow in following his directions.
Sometimes one kind of ants known as battling ants will get into a
fight with another tribe or group of ants, and in the midst of battle
they will send back to their ant-hills for re-enforcements. This shows
that they not only have some means of communicating their thoughts one
to another, but that they know that numbers count in war, and that they
are ambitious to win in battle and succeed in whatever they undertake to
do. The dead ants, the detached heads, and the pulled-off legs found on
one of their battlefields are mute evidences also that they are plucky
and determined fighters when they fight.
If you will watch ants as they are running about, every now and then
you will see two ants stop and face each other and put their feelers
together. It is probable that by this means they communicate with each
other. As we sometimes say of people, they "put their heads together,"
and then there is something doing. They have had a talk, and have told
each other something.
How wonderfully made are the smallest of God's creatures. May we not
well pause and study the wonders of his handiwork?
ANIMALS AND INSECTS THAT LIVE IN THE DARK
IMAGINE a universe without light, propounds a writer on natural
history. At first thought, he says, such a condition may seem
impossible, yet we are told that there are more than one hundred known
species of animals and insects in North America alone that live in a
universe of utter darkness.
Many animals, reptiles, and insects, like the fox, the badger, the
opossum, the ground-squirrel, and the bat, employ caves, dark recesses,
and holes in the ground as their usual and permanent places of abode.
But the true cave-dwellers, like the mole, which has no eyes, the
eyeless fish, the leeches, the white crickets, and the innumerable blind
insects that inhabit the dark recesses of caverns like the Mammoth Cave
of Kentucky, spend their entire lives in places where it is darker than
the darkest night. Never, from their own choice, do these animals and
insects come to light. In their homes of continuous and eternal night
they live, breed, and adjust themselves to their environment by
migrating upward or downward as the food supply and moisture conditions
require.
Some of these cave-dwellers are provided wit wonderfully sensitive
antennae or feelers resembling little strings of pearls, which serve asp
eyes, ears, and possibly nose to them. These antennae, projecting
prominently from the side of the head, enable these animals to travel
from place to place with perfect ease. Some of these inhabitants of
darkness also have the habit of spinning a delicate web while traveling,
which they leave behind them, so that they can retrace their path
perfectly if they wish to do so, by following the web.
These little insect-like creatures run quite actively, and can move
backward with as much ease apparently as forward. Their eggs are perfect
spheres about one-twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter, and of a
beautiful pearly white. Certain species fasten their eggs together in a
ball with web, while others spin a sort of stalk and set the mass of
eggs upon it in order to protect them from parasitic insects.
The wonders of creation seem inexhaustible.
