THE NIGHT MOTH'S PARTY
From the time when she was a tiny golden-green Caterpillar, MissPolyphemus had wanted to go into society. She began life on a maple leafwith a few brothers and sisters, who hatched at the same time from acluster of flattened eggs which their mother had laid there ten daysbefore. The first thing she remembered was the light and color and soundwhen she broke the shell open that May morning. The first thing she didwas to eat the shell out of which she had just crawled. Then she gotacquainted with her brothers and sisters, many of whom had also eatentheir egg-shells, although two had begun at once on maple leaves. It waswell that she took time for this now, for the family were soonscattered and several of her sisters she never saw again.
She found it a very lovely world to live in. There was so much to eat.Yes, and there were so many kinds of leaves that she liked,--oak,hickory, apple, maple, elm, and several others. Sometimes she wishedthat she had three mouths instead of one. In those days she had fewvisitors. It is true that other Caterpillars happened along once in awhile, but they were almost as hungry as she, and they couldn't speakwithout stopping eating. They could, of course, if they talked withtheir mouths full, but she had too good manners for that, and, besides,she said that if she did, she couldn't enjoy her food so much.
You must not think that it was wrong in her to care so much abouteating. She was only doing what is expected of a Polyphemus Caterpillar,and you would have to do the same if you were a Polyphemus Caterpillar.When she was ten days old she had to weigh ten times as much as she didthe morning that she was hatched. When she was twenty days old she hadto weigh sixty times as much; when she was a month old she had to weighsix hundred and twenty times as much; and when she was fifty days oldshe had to weigh four thousand times as much as she did at hatching.Every bit of this flesh was made of the food she ate. That is why eatingwas so important, you know, and if she had chosen to eat the wrong kindof leaves just because they tasted good, she would never have becomesuch a fine great Caterpillar as she did. She might better not eatanything than to eat the wrong sort, and she knew it.
Still, she often wished that she had more time for visiting, and thoughtthat she would be very gay next year, when she got her wings. "I'llmake up for it then," she said to herself, "when my growing is done andI have time for play." Then she ate some more good, plain food, for sheknew that there would be no happy Moth-times for Caterpillars who didnot eat as they should.
She had five vacations of about a day each when she ate nothing at all.These were the times when she changed her skin, crawling out of thetight old one and appearing as fresh and clean as possible in the newone which was ready underneath. After her last change she was ready toplan her cocoon, and she was a most beautiful Caterpillar. She was aboutas long as a small cherry leaf, and as plump as a Caterpillar can be.She was light green, with seven slanting yellow lines on each side ofher body, and a purplish-brown V-shaped mark on the back part of eachside. There were many little orange-colored bunches on her body, whichshowed beautiful gleaming lights when she moved. Growing out of thesebunches were tiny tufts of bristles.
She had three pairs of real legs and several pairs of make-believe ones.Her real legs were on the front part of her body and were slender. Theseshe expected to keep always. The make-believe ones were called pro-legs.They grew farther back and were fat, awkward, jointless things which shewould not need after her cocoon was spun. But for them, she would havehad to drag the back part of her body around like a Snake. With them,the back part of her body could walk as well as the front, although notquite so fast. She always took a few steps with her real legs and thenwaited for her pro-legs to catch up.
As the weather grew colder the Polyphemus Caterpillar hunted around onthe ground for a good place for her cocoon. She found an excellent twiglying among the dead leaves, and decided to fasten to that. Then beganher hardest work, spinning a fluffy mass of gray-white silk which clungto the twig and to one of the dry leaves and was almost exactly thecolor of the leaf. Other Caterpillars came along and stopped to visit,for they did not have to eat at cocoon-spinning time.
"Better fasten your cocoon to a tree," said a pale bluish-greenPromethea Caterpillar. "Put it inside a curled leaf, like mine, and windsilk around the stem to strengthen it. Then you can swing every time thewind blows, and the silk will keep the leaf from wearing out."
"But I don't want to swing," answered the Polyphemus Caterpillar. "I'drather lie still and think about things."
"Fasten to the twig of a tree," advised a pale green CecropiaCaterpillar with red, yellow, and blue bunches. "Then the wind justmoves you a little. Fasten it to a twig and taper it off nicely at eachend, and then----"
"Yes," said the Polyphemus Caterpillar, "and then the Blue-Jays andChickadees will poke wheat or corn or beechnuts into the upper end ofit. I don't care to turn my sleeping room into a corn-crib."
Just here some other Polyphemus Caterpillars came along and agreed withtheir relative. "Go ahead with your tree homes," said they. "We knowwhat we want, and we'll see next summer who knew best."
The Polyphemus cocoons were spun on the ground where the dead leaves hadblown in between some stones, and no wandering Cows or Sheep would belikely to step on them. First a mass of coarse silk which it took half aday to make, then an inside coating of a kind of varnish, then as muchsilk as a Caterpillar could spin in four or five days, next anotherinside varnishing, and the cocoons were done. As the PolyphemusCaterpillars snuggled down for the long winter's sleep, each said tohimself something like this: "Those poor Caterpillars in the trees! Howcold they will be! I hope they may come out all right in the spring, butI doubt it very much."
And when the Cecropia and Promethea Caterpillars dozed off for thewinter, they said: "What a pity that those Polyphemus Caterpillars wouldlie around on the ground. Well, we advised them what to do, so it isn'tour fault."
They all had a lovely winter, and swung or swayed or lay still, just asthey had chosen to do. Early in the spring, the farmer's wife and littlegirl came out to find wild flowers, and scraped the leaves away fromamong the stones. Out rolled the cocoon that the first PolyphemusCaterpillar had spun and the farmer's wife picked it up and carried itoff. She might have found more cocoons if the little girl had notcalled her away.
This was how it happened that one May morning a little girl stood by thesitting-room window in the white farmhouse and watched Miss Polyphemuscrawl slowly out of her cocoon. A few days before a sour, milky-lookingstuff had begun to trickle into the lower end of the cocoon, softeningthe hard varnish and the soft silken threads until a tiny doorway wasopened. Now all was ready and Miss Polyphemus pushed out. She was verywet and weak and forlorn. "Oh," said she to herself, "it is more fun tobe a new Caterpillar than it is to be a new Moth. I've only six legsleft, and it will be very hard worrying along on these. I shall have togive up walking."
It was discouraging. You can see how it would be. She had been used tohaving so many legs, and had looked forward all the summer before to thetime when she should float lightly through the air and sip honey fromflowers. She had dreamed of it all winter. And now here she was--wet andweak, with only six legs left, and four very small and crumpled wings.Her body was so big and fat that she could not hold it up from thewindow-sill. She wanted to cry--it was all so sad and disappointing. Shewould have done so, had she not remembered how very unbecoming it is tocry. When she remembered that, she decided to take a nap instead, andthat was a most sensible thing to do, for crying always makes mattersworse, while sleeping makes them better.
When she awakened she felt much stronger and more cheerful. She wasdrier and her body felt lighter. This was because the fluids from itwere being pumped into her wings. That was making them grow, and thebeautiful colors began to show more brightly on them. "I wonder," shesaid to herself, "if Moths always feel so badly when they first comeout?"
If she had but known it, there were at that very time hundreds of Mothsas helpless as she, clinging to branches, leaves, and stones all throughthe
forest. There were many Polyphemus Moths just out, for in theirfamily it is the custom for all to leave their cocoons at just aboutsuch a time in the morning. Perhaps she would have felt more patient ifshe had known this, for it does seem to make hard times easier to bearwhen one knows that everybody else has hard times also. Of course otherpeople always are having trouble, but she was young and really believedfor a time that she was the only uncomfortable Moth in the world.
All day long her wings were stretching and growing smooth. When it grewdark she was nearly ready to fly. Then the farmer's wife lifted hergently by the wings and put her on the inside of the wire window-screen.When the lights in the house were all put out, the moonbeams shone in onMiss Polyphemus and showed her beautiful sand-colored body and wingswith the dark border on the front pair and the lighter border on theback pair.
On the back ones were dark eye-spots with clear places in the middle,through which one could see quite clearly.
"I would like to fly," sighed Miss Polyphemus, "and I believe I could ifit were not for this horrid screen." She did not know that the farmer'swife had put her there to keep her safe from night birds until she wasquite strong.
The wind blew in, sweet with the scent of wild cherry and shad-treeblossoms, and poor Miss Polyphemus looked over toward the forest whereshe had lived when she was a Caterpillar, and wished herself safelythere. "Much good it does me to have wings when I cannot use them," saidshe. "I want something to eat. There is no honey to be sucked out ofwire netting. I wish I were a happy Caterpillar again, eating leaves onthe trees." She was not the first Moth who has wished herself aCaterpillar, but she soon changed her mind.
There fluttered toward her another Polyphemus Moth, a handsome fellow,marked exactly as she was, only with darker coloring. His body was moreslender, and his feelers were very beautiful and feathery. She was fatand had slender feelers.
"Ah!" said he. "I thought I should find you soon."
"Indeed?" she replied. "I wonder what made you think that?"
"My feelers, of course," said he. "They always tell me where to find myfriends. You know how that is yourself."
"I?" said she, as she changed her position a little. "I am just from mycocoon. This was my coming-out day."
"And so you have not met any one yet?" he asked. "Ah, this is a strangeworld--a very strange world. I would advise you to be very careful withwhom you make friends. There are so many bad Moths, you know."
"Good-evening," said a third voice near them, and another PolyphemusMoth with feathery feelers alighted on the screen. He smiled sweetly atMiss Polyphemus and scowled fiercely at the other Moth. It would haveended in a quarrel right then and there, if a fourth Moth had not comeat that minute. One after another came, until there were nine handsomefellows on the outside and Miss Polyphemus on the inside of the screentrying to entertain them all and keep them from quarrelling. It made hervery proud to think so many were at her coming-out party. Still, shewould have enjoyed it better, she thought, if some whom she had known asCaterpillars could be there to see how much attention she was havingpaid to her. There was one Caterpillar whom she had never liked. Sheonly wished that she could see her now.
Still, society tires one very much, and it was hard to keep her guestsfrom quarrelling. When she got to talking with one about maple-trees,another was sure to come up and say that he had always preferred beechwhen he was a Caterpillar. And the two outside would glare at each otherwhile she hastily thought of something else to say.
At last those outside got to fighting. There was only one, thehandsomest of all, who said he thought too much of his feelers to fightanybody. "Supposing I should fight and break them off," said he. "Icouldn't smell a thing for the rest of my life." He was very sensible,and really the eight other fellows were fighting on account of MissPolyphemus, for whenever they thought she liked one best they began tobump up against him.
THEY LIVED IN THE FOREST AFTER THAT. _Page 109_]
Toward morning the farmer's wife awakened and looked at Miss Polyphemus.When she saw that she was strong enough to fly, she opened the screenand let her go. By that time three of those with feathery feelers weredead, three were broken-winged and clinging helplessly to the screen,and two were so busy fighting that they didn't see Miss Polyphemus go.The handsome great fellow who did not believe in fighting went with her,and they lived in the forest after that. But she never cared for societyagain.