ch more. Their next move is to cast their skins. This takes about
three or four minutes and is a strenuous business while it lasts; every
bit of the old skin goes--even that from the head, jaws, and feet. The
ordeal leaves them weak and exhausted, but they soon cheer up, and are
eating again furiously as ever. You can't stop them from eating very
long."

"How does the new skin look?" inquired Marie. "Just like the other?"

"Why do you ask such foolish questions, Marie?" grumbled Josef. "Haven't
you seen your father's silkworms hundreds of times?"

"I'm ashamed to say I never noticed them very much, Josef," returned the
girl. "They seemed such horrid little things that I never was interested
in them."

"I don't know much about them either," put in Pierre. "I never expected
to be raising them myself. If I had I should have examined them more
carefully and asked Father lots of questions. It was such a bother
always to be gathering mulberry leaves for them that I came to dislike
the thought of a silkworm," confessed the boy. "Ever so many times I had
to pick leaves when I wanted to go and play. But now, you see, it is
different, because they are our own silkworms and of course we want to
learn all we can about them. I wish, Josef, you'd please tell us about
their new skins."

Josef glanced up good-naturedly.

"If you really want to know of course I'll tell you," he answered. "The
new skin looks just about like the old one, except that it is all loose
and wrinkled. You know how you look when you are wearing a new suit that
your mother has bought for you to grow to, Pierre. Well, that's the way
the silkworm's suit looks on him. It is several sizes too big at first.
But by the end of five days he has filled it all out until he is as
uncomfortable in it as he was in his old one, and is ready for
another."

"And he peels this one off just the same way?"

"Just the same--hat, coat, and gloves. This, as I have said, is not at
all easy, for you must remember that his skin fits very closely all
about his jaws as well as over all his sixteen legs. These are arranged
in pairs so when he shifts his skin it is equal to peeling off eight
pairs of stockings. How would you like that?"

The boy and girl shook their heads.

"These legs are very nicely planned, too," went on Josef. "There are six
in front--three pairs--neatly covered with a thick, shelly coating;
these fit under the first three rings of the silkworm's body and can