Outdoor Visits  by Edith M. Patch

A Spider's Tower

"The spider's name was Wolf Spider. She had eight legs like other spiders. But her home was not like the homes of other kinds of spiders. And she had different habits.

"There were some silk glands in Wolf Spider's body. Silk came out of these glands when she needed it. She did not make a web with it.

"Wolf Spider dug a hole in the ground for her home. It was about ten inches long. She put silk on the inside of her hole. It was easy for her to run on the silk when she went up or down.

Wolf Spider made a tower around the top of her hole. She found some little sticks to make it with. They were one or two inches long.

She laid the sticks so that her tower had five sides. She used silk to hold each stick in the right place. She made the tower more than two inches high.


[Illustration]

Wolf Spider often climbed her tower and watched from the top.

If she saw an insect on the ground she could jump and catch it. She liked insects to eat.

If some animal came and scared her she could hide in her hole.

So her tower was a watch tower.

One day Wolf Spider laid her eggs. There were a great many of them.

She made a silk bag for a nest. She put all her eggs in the bag.


[Illustration]

When Wolf Spider went to any place she took her egg bag with her. She held it under her hind legs.

Some days were cold and wet. Then Wolf Spider kept her eggs at home.

On pleasant days she often took her egg bag into the sunshine. The warm sun helped the young spiders to hatch.

After a while the baby spiders were old enough to come out of the silk bag. Then their mother helped them open the bag so they could get out of it.


[Illustration]

The baby spiders ran to their mother. They climbed to her back and other parts of her body.

Wolf Spider kept her babies with her while they were very young. She gave them rides everywhere she went.

They stayed on her back when she went hunting for food. And they had a fast ride to their safe home when she ran into the tower.

Don found the little tower one day and told Nan to come to see it.

They sat on the ground and were very quiet. At last Wolf Spider came to the top of the tower where they could watch her.

Wolf Spider watched them, too.