The new skin is fine and soft but soon grows firm and tough. LESSON XXVIII. THE SPIDER AT HOME. The spider, like the wasp, is busy all the time. It is not cross like a wasp. The bite of a spider does not do a man or a child much harm. A spider does not bite unless it is hurt, or when it kills its food. The bite is to kill flies, bees, wasps, ants, and such things, to eat. [Illustration: IN HIS KINGDOM.] Spiders make webs, nets, and snares. They can spin, weave, dig, hunt. Some can build rafts, and others make mud houses. Their webs are to live or lie in. The nests are for baby spiders. The snares are to catch food. The silk of the web is very fine, but it is very strong. It will hold up a big, fat spider. It will hold fast a wasp or a bee. Do you see the spider on his thread? It is his swing. He can swing as the boy does in his rope swing. Do you see the spider lie at rest in his web? Do you see the child rest in a web made of string? How does the spider make his web? First he finds a good place. He presses the end of the tube he spins with, and makes a drop of glue fast to a wall, or leaf, or stem. Then he drops away; and as he goes, the glue spins out in many fine streams, which unite into one, and turn to silk-like thread. If he does not find a good place to make his web fast, he can climb back! How can he climb back? He runs up his line as fast as he came down. If you scare him, he drops down on his line like a flash. It will not break. If you break it, he winds up the end quickly. Then he runs off to find a new place to which to make it fast. The long lines in the web are called rays. The spider spins the rays first. The rays are spread out like the spokes of a wheel. Webs are of many shapes. You often see the round web. The spider guides the lines with his feet as he spins. He pulls each one to see if it is firm. Then he spins a thread, round and round, from ray to ray, until the web is done. LESSON XXIX. THE LITTLE NEST. The web of the spider is made of two kinds of silk. The silk of the rays is smooth. The silk that goes across the rays has tiny drops of glue on it. This makes the line stick to the rays. Mrs. Spider begins her lines at the outer edge. They are laid nearer to each other as she gets to the centre of the web. When all is done, she is in the centre, and does not need to walk on her new web. She has a nest near her web. From the nest runs a line. Mrs. Spider can sit in the door of her nest, and hold the line in her claw. When a bug or fly goes on the web, the web shakes. She feels her line move. She runs down the line and gets the fly or bug, and takes it to her nest to eat. Before she takes the prey to her nest, she kills or stuns it. Then she winds some fine web about it. She makes a neat bundle of it, and then carries it off. You can make Mrs. Spider run down her line if you shake the web a very little with a bit of grass or stick. She will run out to see if she has caught a bee or a fly.