Tenants of an old farm; leaves from the note-book of a naturalist

Front matter

w* /ittr ^K^

C

*V

Contents

Chapters. page

I. Transformed and Transferred . . 9

II. Renewing Old Acquaintance ... 13

Chapter I. Transformed And Transferred

At last the old farm-house at Highwood had a tenant. For years it had stood vacant, thanks to the conservative spirit of the owner, a wealthy rural manufacturer, who refused to lease it save on condition that all its antique style and fixtures should be maintained. Thanks, also, to the luxurious notions of American housekeepers, no acceptable tenant had yet been found willing to submit to the conditions.

With that steadiness w r hich marks the return of uninhabited places to a state of nature, the house and its surroundings had fallen into decay. The premises were in sad contrast with the thrifty appearance of the place in the day of good Farmer Townes, who had lived in it from his infancy until death. Thus by a kind destiny Highwood was reserved for us. Very cheerfully we covenanted well and truly to preserve to the place all its primitive features. The ancestral shrines of the Lares and Penates of the old Quaker farmer and his

Quaker forefathers should not be disturbed by the invading family of " world's people. " On the other hand, the proprietor, heart-sore over the advancing decay of his property, willing to serve a friend, and, at the same time seat him in his own near neighborhood, undertook to introduce enough modern improvements to bring into Highwood a reign of comfort and health. Therefore, we signed the lease and became the Tenants of the Old Farm.

On the first day of October we took possession. A bright, warm morning, well worthy to open the door of that month whose varied beauties and rich vitality make it the halcyon season of our American year. "Old Dan," a colored laborer, met us at the road-side gate with pleasant smile, polite bow, and a hearty "Welcome to Highwood!" The broad lane through which we drove was skirted on either side by a row of trees — on this side locusts, a favorite wood with our fathers ; on the other, cherries, a canny or benevolent mingling of the useful and ornamental, for which the country-side boys had inwardly blessed the memory of Friend Townes.

Hugh Bond met us at the yard-gate. " Our farmer " we called him ; our man-of-all-work he was, in fact, to be. He greeted us with a quiet " Good morning," becoming equally an independent freeman and an honest employe, and proceeded with much satisfaction to show us the " improvements " that had been wrought. They were visible enough to our eyes, but why should we recite them here ? Suffice it to say the old trees near the front had been spared, but trimmed high up to

TRANSFORMED AND TRANSFERRED. 11

admit the sunlight to the chill stone walls ; a new porch guarded the threshold, instead of its tumble-down predecessor ; inside, the wainscoting had been repaired, walls neatly papered, and, finally, modern grates filled most of the wide chimney-places, a concession to the scarcity of wood and the abundance of coal. With warm carpets under foot, the household furniture in place, the pretty curtains at the square, small-paned windows, and the general air of coziness and home that filled all the house, like the odor of Mary's ointment, it was indeed a transformation. What eye could have seen through and beyond all the cheerlessness, disorder and dirt of the miserable farm-house that I looked at a month ago, the possibilities of so bright a home ? Whose heart had the cunning to devise, whose hands the deftness to bring about this change ? — whose but the dear housewife's, who beamed amidst it all with a face from which, for the hour, happiness and content had driven the anxiety that had stopped thereon too often during the last year ? Yes, the magic wand that had summoned back the exiled fairies of home was the touch of the New Mistress of the Old Farm.

" A year of retirement and rest will restore his vigor and save him for the future."

That was the ultimatum of Doctor Hayes. Promptly the mistress assented. The master yielded to the inevitable only after a long, hard struggle. Do you wonder ? An active life planted in a great city and come to the meridian of manhood, has many and strong roots. They run deep, they branch widely, they clasp and entwine tightly a multitude of persons, objects, causes, plans. It is no light work to tear them up on sudden notice and transplant them to a rural home. But we have paid this penalty to over-work, and now for a year shall try the virtues of " vegetating. " To work in the field or sleep in the house ; to sit or walk or ride or recline ; to keep the mind pleasantly occupied and the body in the open air ; to drift on easily with time and chance, and to — wait ! Such is the life which the Doctor bids me live. Well, a worse prescription perhaps might have been prepared. I shall take my medicine honestly, for, in sooth, one cannot — as with other doctors' nostrums that I wot of— throw this remedy out of the window.

Chapter II. Renewing Old Acquaintance

" We are not the only tenants of this Old Farm !"

"Indeed!" said the mistress, resting the featherbrush a moment, for she was dusting the bric-a-brac upon our little parlor mantelpiece — "indeed ?"

The first utterance was exclamatory, the second interrogatory, and the two together, taken with the glance cast at her spouse, expressed surprise, incredulity and inquisitiveness in due proportion and succession.

I stood at the open door, fencing out with my walking-stick our watch-dog "Dolf," who was always inclined to run into the forbidden precincts of the parlor. We were outfitted for a long walk, Dolf and I.

" It is quite true," I said, solemnly ; " we are not the

only tenants. There are a score — a hundred — in fact I

know not how many races of inhabitants here, all to the

manor born, and with a pedigree ante-dating William

Penn and his character, his treaties and his aboriginal

treators. They are the real ' original inhabitants ' —

the birds and beasts and flying-creeping things. I

made the discovery yesterday. I am going to make

the acquaintance of my fellow-tenants to-day. Good-

by, my dear. Come, Dolf!"

We walked out, leaving the mistress brushing the mantelpiece, with a brightened look, for, thank God ! her spouse had found at last a congenial outdoor occupation. Not a new one, however, by any means. Months afterward I learned that in the conspiracy for my health between doctor and wife there had been strong reliance upon a revival of the early tastes and pursuits of a naturalist, which had been pushed to the wall by engrossing business, to tide over a crisis, send the invalid into the health-giving fields, and hold him there content during the interval of rest.

"It was a happy moment indeed," the mistress said, "when the returning interest in } T our old studies, announced at our parlor door, showed me that the spirit of languor and decline had given back before a rising current of vitality. It was a red-letter morning, that, in my life, and the rainbow of hope bent above the old farm-house the livelong day."

Meanwhile, quite unconscious of the little woman's secret joys, master and dog were tramping across the meadow toward the small stream that threads the farm known as Townes' Run. The feathery grasses grew high along the banks ; clumps of tall reeds stood in the little basins like squads of grenadiers ; tufts of golden rod and wild asters, weeds and youngling bushes overhung the narrow channel. Yesterday I had found there, as I had carelessly strode on, the snare of a friend of other days, the Bank Argiope — Argiope riparia. I stooped to look and admire the comely spider hanging upon her white central shield. (Fig. 1.)

tflG. 1— AUGIOPE AND SNARE.

You do not believe, perhaps, in the sudden birth of a soul into a new passion, or its sudden palingenesis — its rebirth — into an old love and life ? Nevertheless, as I kneeled in the grass before that web of silken threads, brought out in detail against the background of a black slouch hat held behind it, the old passion came back as with a bound, and seated itself in my heart. Mam' years before this, during a brief enforced idleness, in a moment like the present, when the body was drifting deviously before ea\ aimless wind, a similar vision had awakened, as by a new birth, the first special love of a naturalist. Memory now recalled vividly the whole outward details of that scene, indeed my very thoughts and feelings. Was it merely a trick of mental association ? When forests of black-jack oak succeed burned pines on a Jersey barren, and chestnut groves follow a spruce-clearing in the Alleghanies, botanists suggest jthat it is simply a return to an earlier state, permitted by a removal of the restraining conditions. Do old mental moods, long buried under other courses oi thought and emotion, spring up in full force again when overlying habits are set aside ? But this is a digression into the field of philosophy. We return to our meadow and the Bank Argiope.

She is among the most beautiful of our native spiders, and is our largest species of orbweavers, with the exception of the Plumefoot jSTephila (Nephila plumipes) of the far Southern states. She is quite continental in her habitat, as I have traced her westward through Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska, to the Rocky

RENEWING OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 17

Mountains, northward to Vermont, and southward as far as Texas and Florida. She has adapted herself to the widely-separated conditions of this immense territory without any perceptible variation in form or habit.

Let me describe her : her cephalothorax (united head and chest, or head-thorax) is robed in a beautiful silver-drab, so that thus far she has adopted the traditional color of the Society of Friends. But in the rest of her body she is not so orthodox, for the abdomen is beautifully marked with black, yellow and brown. Her eight legs are dark orange, ringed with brown and black. She has no fixed popular name, although I have heard her called the large meadow spider. She belongs to the group known as orb wea vers (Orbitelarice), because of the wheel-shaped geometric snare which they spin. There is a peculiarity in her snare, as it is generally formed, which at once marks it. In the centre, or hub, is woven a thick white silken oval patch, from the top ot which extends upward a ribbon of like material. From beneath runs downward a zigzag cord, which resembles more closely than anything I know in natural spinning-work, the "winding-stair" up which the unhappy fly was "dragged into the dismal den," according to the plaintive school-book classic of the " Spider and the Fly." Argiope loves such sites as the reedy banks of Townes' Kun, and one will often see her web swung among the tall grasses and bushes, while the occupant hangs head downward upon her central shield.

I had unfolded a light camp-stool and was seated contentedly sketching this pretty object when alight tread

*lfe i S3

RENEWING OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 19

was heard in the grass, and a woman's voice saluted me. Abby Bradford is a bright New England girl, of good family, good education, good manners, and good looks withal. She had held a position under the government in Glen Mills, just beyond, where the paper used in national bank notes had been made. When that most convenient medium of exchange, the fractional currency, was so unwisely abolished, Abby's occupation was gone, but an engagement to teach Highwood district school recalled her from her Massachusetts home. After the fashion of the counts-side, she must find a home in one of the rural families, and very gladly wife had welcomed her to the Old Farm. Her presence would relieve the solitude of our country-place, which was our advantage ; and a kindly home with congenial friends was hers. We shall know her better by-and-by, but I may say here that we had cause often to congratulate ourselves upon the good fortune that brought the school-mistress into our family.

"What!" she said, when we had exchanged greetings, " are you sketching? I did not know that you were an artist."

"I am not an artist," I answered; "but necessity has forced upon me a little rude skill with the pencil. Will you see my work V" I gave her the note-book, and pointed to my subject hanging among the golden rods and grasses at our feet.

" A spider ? Oh, the ugly creature !"

The young lady stepped backward a pace with this characteristic exclamation. As though to resent the insult put upon her, the Bank Argiope began to shake her shield, commencing slowly, and waxing faster and faster in her movements until the whole web was in violent oscillation.

" See !" I said, " You have wounded the creature's vanity, or, at least, you have awakened her fears. Wait until she has quieted, then look closely and see if either her person or work is worthy of so harsh a criticism. There, the web is still now — what say you ?"

"I do declare," answered the honest maiden, "it isnH so ugly after all, and the net is really a work of art. Certainly, I should know better than to speak lightly of any of Nature's children ; but then, you know, spiders do seem an exception. Everybody fears and dislikes them."

"Yes, you doubtless speak for your race. There is perhaps no creature with which man is intimately associated that has come in for a larger share of aversion than our humble friend Araclme. Like most human prejudices, this is an undeserved and unreasonable feeling. The spider is a true philanthropist. She is, without reservation, a friend to our race, destroying noxious insects by myriads, and making in return no impost or levy upon oui orchards, vineyards, cupboards or cellars. She is not the only example of unrewarded merit — of an ill name earned by a supposed ugly visage ; in short, of a prophet without honor in his own country. Spiders are not all so very ugly, either, as you have confessed. The fact is they have been deteriorated by too close contact with man. The house and cellar spi-

FIG. 3. — COCOON OF AKGIOPE KIPARIA.

ders, the occupants of our own homes, with which we oftenest meet, are precisely the ones least attractive to our eyes. If you will take the pains to search the flowers and shrubs, forests and ferns, you shall find that there are spiders with as fair an exterior, in point of color, at least, as more favorite animals. Even birds, be it remembered, have their buzzards and vultures ; and at all events, as long as ladies will insist upon shuddering at sight of the most beautiful animal in creation — the serpent — we may feel justified in disregarding their prejudice against poor Arachne. However, when you know her better, I am sure you will like her more."

"Mr. Mayfield," cried Abby, " I must protest now ! Surely you are not in earnest when you call the serpent beautiful? I might come over to your opinion as to spiders and insects, but — snakes ! Ugh !"

"What is this ?" I asked, touching a spiral bracelet upon her wrist. " A mimic silver serpent ! And this ?" I added, lifting the links of a gold watch-chain, coiled at her waistband. "And this?" pointing to coils of brown hair upon the back of her head. " Here is your own witness that serpentine forms, at least, are not lacking in beauty. Ladies do not decorate their persons with ugly things."

The play of mind upon Abby's face was a pleasant study as she followed these sentiments, evidently quite new and startling. The mantling cheeks and kindled brown eyes betrayed the mixed nature of her feelings — the pleased surprise of novel thought ; the confusion

FIG. 4._a

BROOD OF SPIDEKLINGS ON THEIR FIRST OUTINfc.

of a mind detecting itself in error — doubt and keen inquiry, as though the latent sophistry of my remarks were suspected but not seen. I followed up my advantage.

" Cast your eye along this little stream as it skirts yonder hill-side and pursues its winding course across the meadow. Has it not taken upon itself the external and formal limitations of your ' ugly snake '? If a poet were to speak of it as ' crawling,' or of its ' serpentine way,' would he not be borrowing terms from the snake's natural action to express his idea of beautiful form and motion ? The progress of a serpent over the ground or through the water is the very ideal of free, graceful movement. Then, as to its anatomy — but, come, I must not be too fierce an iconoclast, or I shall cause a reaction in your thoughts against my animal friends, and quite spoil any good effect that I may have wrought in their behalf. This is your Saturday holiday ; can you join me for one hour in a morning stroll along the run ? I promise you some new and I hope agreeable acquaintances."

FIG. 5.— SPIDERS AT CAPE MAY.

Chapter III. The Tenants Preparing For Winter

' : Stop ! Look into this clump of grasses and tell me what you see."

'• I see nothing of special interest," said the schoolmistress. " The bearded heads of the grass have been twisted ' together by some passing animal, I suppose, but that is all. Ah, no ! I see now. Here is a beautiful little pear-shaped nest hung among the foliage. I have seen similar ones in New England, though I am sure I cannot guess what it is unless it be the cocoon of a caterpillar."

"No, it is the egg-sac, or, as it is technically called (although somewhat loosely), the ' cocoon ' of our Bank Argiope. It has evidently just been made ; we shall find the mother near by. Ah, here she is ! Alarmed by our approach she has hidden among these leaves. Observe how the abdomen has shrunken as compared with the specimen we first saw, who was distended with eggs, which, by-and-by, she will dispose of in a like cocoon. Excuse me a moment ; I must capture this little mother before telling more of her story."

Taking a paper box from my satchel I opened it, placed the two parts on opposite sides of the spider, gently approximated them until the body was inside, lightly pressed the struggling legs until they too were pulled within, then closed the box and put it in my pocket (Fig. 6.

COLLECTING A SPECIMEN."

"Isn't that cruel?" abruptly asked my companion, who had watched the process of " collecting a specimen " with curious eye.

"Cruel? No. I should be sorry to give needless pain to any creature ; nor do I feel entitled to use my lordship over the life of the humblest insect except for a sufficient and benevolent end. As a priest in the temple of Nature I may dedicate this victim to Science. I shall see that she has a painless death. Moreover, her days are already numbered by the irrevocable decree of Nature ; after the spinning of a cocoon the mother-spider hangs upon it or near it for a few days, and then dies."

" I have noticed," remarked Abby, plainly not quite satisfied that I had made out a good case, but willing to change the subject, " that spiders are nearly always found alone. Do they never go in pairs or groups ?"

" In a few species the male and female dwell together ; you will sometimes see broods of younglings massed together in little balls, or seated on their webs in little clusters (Fig. 4) ; you will even see large colonies of adults as on the boat-houses of Atlantic City and Cape May — each on an independent web, however (Fig. 5). But as a rule Arachne, in her social habits, is the very opposite of the social ants, bees and wasps. She is a solitary body, and welcomes all visitors as the famous Buckeye wagoner, Tom Corwin, advised the Mexicans to welcome our invading army, ' with bloody hands to hospitable graves. ' Nevertheless the maternal instinct is quite as strong within her as in any other animal.

"Here, now, is our Argiope's cocoon. See what a

pretty shelter-tent has been made by lashing these

plants together (Fig. 3). Guy ropes of silk are attached

to the cocoon at various points over the surface, and at

the opposite ends fastened to the foliage. Thus the tiny

basket swings secure amidst the most rigorous winter

storm. Our mother-spider, indeed, might sing over her

cradle the famous nursery rhyme :

" ' Rock-a-by, baby, on the tree top,

When the wind blows the cradle will rock.'

"However, there would be little likelihood in her case of such a melancholy conclusion as the lullaby has :

" ' When the bough bends the cradle will fall, And down comes cradle, baby and all !'

"You have doubtless heard of Indian wicker-work water-vessels. I have seen a large woven bowl in which meats were boiled, the water having been heated by hot stones. They were perfectly water-tight. That is an admirable example of ingenuity in weaving ; but Bank Argiope has approached it. The outside of her cocoon is usually tough and glazed, and effectually repels moisture. I have opened many and never found the slightest evidence that rain or snow or sleet had made an entrance. It is a strong case of forecast, certainly, although I am not prepared to say that the forecast abides in the braincells of the mother aranead. At all events, mother-love has met the difficulties as if they had been anticipated."

" Perhaps, " suggested Abby reverently, "we are here on the track of an infinite forecast ? How is the interior of the egg-sac furnished ?"

" Suppose we look. We may devote this example to science and dissect it. As I open it with my knife, thus, you observe that the glaze lies upon the surface of a soft, yellow, silken plush, the whole forming the outer wall. Within that there is a mass of purple silk floss — raw silk, you might say — which evidently acts as a blanketing to the egg mass within. The eggs are yellow globules, sometimes several hundred in number, deposited underneath a plate-like cushion, and swathed with a white silken sheet. Thus the young spiderlings are snugly blanketed and tucked away awaiting their deliverance from the nursery at the coming of spring."

"But does the mother leave the little fellows there without any provison for them ?"

" Well, a spider, unlike true insects, does not undergo transformation from a worm, through the chrysalid to the imago. It hatches out like a bird, and has no need to have stored within its cell a supply of nutrition as with voracious grubs. It can wait until its exode, when it is able to spin its own web and provide for its own larder. Therefore, the mother shows a true forecast of the situation and wants of her offspring when she fails to store food within the cocoon. Besides, there is a suspicion — though I am not prepared to affirm it — that the little ogres eat each other up, as necessity requires, an exigency of spider infancy which is provided for or against in the great number of eggs laid and young hatched out."

" Dear me, what a situation that for the baby spiderlings ! To be shut within those inexorable walls and wait until one's turn comes to be served for dinner to one's sister or brother ! It is to be hoped that Nature has kindly made the little fellows unconscious of their destiny. However, if one half is true that I hear of this human brotherhood of ours, it is not so very unlike the spider's baby-house. The big brothers eat the little ones, and the monopolies swallow all !"

" What ! so young and already a cynic? But you mustn't let your moralizing blind your eyes to the facts of life all around you. Look into that bush that you are passing. I see there one of my special friends whom I want you to know. Do you find her ?"

"You mean this pretty little cobweb? But it is small and delicately wrought, and half hidden among

FIG. 8.— SNARE AND EGG-SACS OF CAUDATA.

the leaves. How could you see it from where you stand, eight or ten feet distant ?" (Fig. 8.)

"Nothing marvelous in that. I caught the sheen o\ the white web in the sunlight which fell upon it just at the right angle, and a glance was enough for recognition. There is a multitude of spider webs that are revealed only thus, or on a dewy morning by the drops oi moisture entangled in them. Let me show you how I

FIG. 9.— CAUDATA'S COCOONS, WITH SCALPAGE.

recognized the species. Observe that a segment of the web is quite cut out at the top, through the centre of which a thick line is stretched. This peculiarity is caused by the little mother (Cyrtophora caudata) when she begins making her cocoons. She cuts out the spirals, as you see, and in the clear space hangs a straw-colored, pear-shaped cocoon, no larger than a pea. At first it is a clean silken sac, but as the mother preys upon the small insects that fall into her snare, instead of casting out the dry shells, as is common, she hangs them upon her cocoon, which is soon decorated with gauze wings, shining black heads and bodies (Fig. 9) until the original color quite disappears. By-and-by a second cocoon is added ; a third and a fourth follow, and I once found a string of eight. Each cocoon is treated in the same manner, until, like a genuine savage of the genus homo, the tiny Amazon has decorated her home and her babies' homes with the scalps of her victims. Here she hangs on the hub of her snare, holding on to the lower part of her precious string of beads with a little white ribbon woven into the net beneath her. It was this ' scalpage' that enabled me to know my small acquaintance so readily."

Leaving our aboriginal Caudata undisturbed in her wigwam to the full enjoyment of her cradles and scalps, we resumed our walk. Finding myself presently alone I turned and saw Abb} 7 intently peering into a pyramid of grasses which I had almost trodden under foot.

" Here is surely something of value, " she cried. "At first 1 thought it was an egg-nest of Bank Argiope, but

FIG. 10.— EGG-SAC OF TUB BANDED ARGIOP]

it is quite different when I look closely. Maybe it is the work of a young mother ? Ah ! I see by your smile that I have blundered."

"I was thinking of jom: last remark ; and, after all, when I reflect, it is not so unnatural a conclusion. There is Caudata, who, after having made half a dozen cocoons, might be considered an ' experienced' mother. But Argiope never makes but one. Her maternal love and energy center upon that single work, and then she dies. But upon the discovery itself I must congratulate you ; it is a noble find — the cocoon of the Banded Argiope [Argiope fasciata) — which I have never met but once. And now, with a boast of clear-sightedness fresh upon my tongue, I have fairly run over this rare specimen ! Well, it is not the first time that I have had illustration of the old adage :

" ' A raw recruit,

You have proved yourself an apt recruit in the entomological field, and have done good service. You have shown a true eye also, for this is not the egg-nest of Eiparia, but of one of her congeners, the Banded Argiope (Fig. 10). Here she lies, or hangs rather, holding even in death, to the frail hammock of a few lines spun against the dry grasses. She is a beautiful creature, covered with a glossy silver-white fur coat, with bands of black and yellow across the abdomen, from which she gets her name. How fortunate ! here is another snare, spun in the weeds at the edge of the run!"

FIG. 11.— SNARE OF ARGIOPE FASCIATA.

"And here is a third," echoed Abby, "with the spider hanging at the centre."

"Good! Now we can study the web, which is a very pretty object." (Fig. 11.)

" It is quite like the snare of Bank Argiope, I think — mine is at least ; but yours, how daintily the central part has been decorated ! Why is that ?"

TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM.

FIG. 12. — DECORATION OF FASCIATA.

" I cannot speak with certainty. This snare, as you remarked, resembles that of Riparia, although the central shield is rarely so prominent, and the £ windiug stair ' is less frequent. The decorations of which you speak are more generally found on Fasciata's nest. They are semi-circular, zigzag ribbons and cords of silk spun in pairs or triplets on either side of the hub. Sometimes they go quite around it (Fig. 12). They certainly give the snare a dainty appearance, but I imagine they are not for decoration — as the scalpage of Caudata really seems to be — but to strengthen the snare, and perhaps to form a sort of barricade to protect the owner from assault of enemies. I must collect this cocoou before we go further ; it may be long before I meet another specimen. There, dead mother and her future progeny are safely boxed, and we may walk on.