Twilight and Dawn; Or, Simple Talks on the Six Days of CreationPridham, Caroline
Religion
Twilight and Dawn; Or, Simple Talks on the Six Days of Creation
Pridham, Caroline
Creation -- Juvenile literature
A few days later he was again writing in the same position, when he beheld
his enemy the spider once more descending from the roof, and to his
surprise and joy it carried with it the pin, still sticking through its
body. This time our naturalist made no vainglorious display of his power as
a marksman, but beating down the spider with the nearest object at hand,
he again possessed himself of the lost treasure, now doubly valuable on
account of its extraordinary adventure, and his mother, for whom he was
preserving the beautiful stone, afterwards wore it, set in a small brooch.
There are six "orders" of Insects, arranged according to their form, and
the number of their wings, and one of each is chosen to represent the whole
class.
First, the Beetle.
Second, the Grasshopper.
Third, the Dragon-fly.
Fourth, the Bee, the Wasp, and the Ant.
Fifth, the Butterfly, and the Moth.
Sixth, the Fly and the Gnat.
I wonder which of all these we had better discuss; for there are such
wonderful things to tell even of the tiniest creeping and winged creature,
that I only wish we had time for them all--the honey-making bees and
the paper-making wasps, the many coloured dragon-flies, the moths, the
butterflies and the beetles--but as we must choose one out of this great
family, it shall be the "wise" and busy little ant: for how are we to learn
the lesson which God has given her to teach us, if we do not, as He bids
us, "consider her ways?"
Before we attempt to do so by noticing her "city," so full of life and
bustle, suppose we ask ourselves for a moment how it is that we see so very
few insects in winter. Did you ever stand very still, in the silence of
a clear frosty day in the country, and wonder what made all around so
strangely quiet?
One reason is, that the myriads of insects, whose hum and buzz make a good
part of the noise and stir of a summer afternoon, are all gone. No whirring
wings rush past; there is no sound of "dragon-fly, or painted moth, or
musical winged bee" to break the stillness; all the insect-world seems
dead, or flown south with the swallows--though, as there are still spiders'
webs to be seen, each delicate thread marked in sharp outline, like the
rigging of an icebound ship, it would seem that there must still remain
some unwary fly to be taken in the beautiful snare.
But _are_ they all dead and gone, those happy winged things that danced up
and down in shady nooks, or so lately shone like jewels in the sunshine?
Where are the topaz-coloured butterflies that glanced from flower to
flower, the emerald tiger-beetles, the ladybirds, and the grasshoppers?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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