Crabs are greedy. They eat nearly all kinds of dead things that would spoil and make a bad smell if left on the sand. They eat dead fish, dead animals that are thrown into the sea, and grubs, flies, and worms. Do you ever see men going about to clean the streets? The crabs help to keep clean the sea and the shore. There are so many crabs, and they eat so much, and so fast, that they can clean away much of the dead stuff that lies on the shore. FOOTNOTES: [8] The large claw may be on either the right or left side of the crab. LESSON XI. MRS. WASP AND HER HOME. Here is a round hole on the hill-side path. Is it a crab’s hole? No, it is too far from the sea for a crab. Mrs. Wasp made it for her baby to live in. Her name is Vespa. In her house she has a hall, a room, and a bed. In the bed her baby lies asleep. It is now a soft, white egg. When the baby wasp comes out of the egg, he will be all alone. When Mrs. Wasp has laid the egg safe in bed, she goes away. She shuts her door with a lump of mud. She leaves her baby some food to eat. The food is a pile of little caterpillars. When she leaves her baby, she never comes back. When he gets big, he digs his way out, and off he flies. If he meets his mother he does not know her. Mrs. Wasp makes her bed of fine sawdust. She cuts the wood up soft and fine. [Illustration: A WAY-SIDE HOME.] She has two small, sharp saws with which to cut the wood. She can make paper. She saws the wood into a fine dust. Then she mixes it with glue from her mouth. When she takes it home, she spreads it out thin with her feet. It dries into fine, gray paper. With it she papers her house, to keep her baby warm and dry. Mrs. Wasp is cross, but she is wise. She has a long sting. She kills, or puts into a deep sleep, the caterpillars that she takes home. She is never idle. LESSON XII. WHAT MRS. WASP CAN DO. How does Mrs. Wasp make paper? First she finds a piece of dry, old wood. She cuts off bits of wood, like fine, soft threads. She wets these with a kind of glue from her mouth, and rolls them into a ball. Then, she stands on her hind legs, and with her front feet puts the ball between her jaws. She then flies to her nest. She uses her tongue, her jaws, and her feet, to spread the ball out thin. On her hind legs she has flat feet, to help her lay down the paper. She lays one sheet of paper on the other, until it is thick enough to make a nest. Some wasps hang these paper nests in trees. The nests are round, like balls, or are the shape of a top. At the bottom of each you will find two doors. Some wasps make paste-board. The wasp that builds in a tree does not live alone. She has in her home very many paper rooms. They are like cells in a honey-comb. [Illustration: A PAPER HOUSE.] She can make wax. She puts a wax lid on the cells. She can make varnish, to keep the cells dry. One kind of wasp is a mason. Her house is made of mud. She brings mud in little balls, and builds a house.