|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: the high-road on their way to some neighbouring fair. The new-born
babe mewls on the mother's breast, in a hammock formed out of a
kerchief. The last-weaned is carried pick-a-back; a third toddles
clinging to its mother's skirts; others follow closely, the biggest
in the rear, ferreting in the blackberry-laden hedgerows. It is a
magnificent spectacle of happy-go-lucky fruitfulness. They go
their way, penniless and rejoicing. The sun is hot and the earth
is fertile.
But how this picture pales before that of the Lycosa, that
incomparable gipsy whose brats are numbered by the hundred! And
one and all of them, from September to April, without a moment's
The Life of the Spider |
