All through the fall and winter the many, many eggs which the
reddish-brown Moth had laid were kept snug and warm on the twig where
she had put them. They were placed in rows around the twig, and then
well covered to hold them together and keep them warm. The winter winds
had blown the twig to and fro, the cold rain had frozen over them, the
soft snowflakes had drifted down from the clouds and covered them, only
to melt and trickle away again in shining drops. One morning the whole
wild cherry tree was covered with beautiful long, glistening crystals of
hoar-frost; and still the ring of eggs stayed in its place around the
twig, and the life in them slept until spring sunbeams should shine down
and quicken it.
But when the spring sunbeams did come! Even before the leaf-buds were
open, tiny Larvae, or Caterpillar babies, came crawling from the ring of
eggs and began feeding upon the buds. They took very, very small bites,
and that looked as though they were polite children. Still, you know,
their mouths were so small that they could not take big ones, and it
may not have been politeness after all which made them eat daintily.
When all the Tent-Caterpillars were hatched, and they had eaten every
leaf-bud near the egg-ring, they began to crawl down the tree toward the
trunk. Once they stopped by a good-sized crotch in the branches. "Let's
build here," said the leader; "this place is all right."
Then some of the Tent-Caterpillars said, "Let's!" and some of them said,
"Don't let's!" One young fellow said, "Aw, come on! There's a bigger
crotch farther down." Of course he should have said, "I think you will
like a larger crotch better," but he was young, and, you know, these
Larvae had no father or mother to help them speak in the right way. They
were orphans, and it is wonderful how they ever learned to talk at all.
After this, some of the Tent-Caterpillars went on to the larger crotch
and some stayed behind. More went than stayed, and when they saw this,
those by the smaller crotch gave up and joined their brothers and
sisters, as they should have done. It was right to do that which pleased
most of them.
It took a great deal of work to make the tent. All helped, spinning
hundreds and thousands of white silken threads, laying them side by
side, criss-crossing them, fastening the ends to branches and twigs, not
forgetting to leave places through which one could crawl in and out.
They never worked all day at this, because unless they stopped to eat
they would soon have been weak and unable to spin. There were nearly
always a few Caterpillars in the tent, but only in the early morning or
late afternoon or during the night were they all at home. The rest of
the time they were scattered around the tree feeding. Of course there
were some cold days when they stayed in. When the weather was chilly
they moved slowly and cared very little for food.
There was one young Tent-Caterpillar who happened to be the first
hatched, and who seemed to think that because he was a minute older than
any of the other children he had the right to his own way. Sometimes he
got it, because the others didn't want to have any trouble. Sometimes he
didn't get it, and then he was very sulky and disagreeable, even
refusing to answer when he was spoken to.
One cold day, when all the Caterpillars stayed in the tent, this oldest
brother wanted the warmest place, that in the very middle. It should
have belonged to the younger brothers and sisters, for they were not so
strong, but he pushed and wriggled his hairy black and brown and yellow
body into the very place he wanted, and then scolded everybody around
because he had to push to get there. It happened as it always does when
a Caterpillar begins to say mean things, and he went on until he was
saying some which were really untrue. Nobody answered back, so he
scolded and fussed and was exceedingly disagreeable.
All day long he thought how wretched he was, and how badly they treated
him, and how he guessed they'd be sorry enough if he went away. The next
morning he went. As long as the warm sunshine lasted he did very well.
When it began to grow cool, his brothers and sisters crawled past him on
their way to the tent. "Come on!" they cried. "It's time to go home."
"Uh-uh!" said the eldest brother (and that meant "No"), "I'm not going."
"Why not?" they asked.
"Oh, because," said he.
When the rest were all together in the tent they talked about him. "Do
you suppose he's angry?" said one.
"What should he be angry about?" said another.
"I just believe he is," said a third. "Did you notice the way his hairs
bristled?"
"Don't you think we ought to go to get him?" asked two or three of the
youngest Caterpillars.
"No," said the older ones. "We haven't done anything. Let him get over
it."
So the oldest brother, who had thought that every other Caterpillar in
the tent would crawl right out and beg and coax him to come back, waited
and waited and waited, but nobody came. The tent was there and the door
was open. All he had to do was to crawl in and be at home. He waited so
long that at last he had to leave the tree and spin his cocoon without
ever having gone back to his brothers and sisters in the tent. He spun
his cocoon and mixed the silk with a yellowish-white powder, then he
lay down in it to sleep twenty-one days and grow his wings. The last
thought he had before going to sleep was an unhappy and selfish one.
Probably he awakened an unhappy and selfish Moth.
His brothers and sisters were sad whenever they thought of him. But,
they said, "what could we do? It wasn't fair for him to have the best of
everything, and we never answered when he said mean things. He might
have come back at any time and we would have been kind to him."
And they were right. What could they have done? It was very sad, but
when a Caterpillar is so selfish and sulky that he cannot live happily
with other people, it is much better that he should live quite alone.
[Illustration]