g-house "slavey," when she gets to her new place, with _carte
blanche_ allowance and the key of the pantry; for, in the course {8} of
twenty-four hours, he will have consumed more than twice his own weight of
food: and with such persevering avidity does he ply his pleasant task,
that, as it is stated, a caterpillar in the course of one month has
increased nearly ten thousand times his original weight on leaving the egg;
and, to furnish this increase of substance, has consumed the prodigious
quantity of forty thousand times his weight of food--truly, a ruinous rate
of living, only that green leaves are so cheap.

But the life of a caterpillar, after all, is not merely the smooth
continual feast he would doubtless prefer it to be; it is interrupted,
several times in its course, by the necessity nature has imposed upon him
of now and then changing his coat--to him a very troublesome, if not a
painful affair.

For some time previous to this phenomenon, even eating is nearly or quite
suspended,--the caterpillar becomes sluggish and shy, creeping away into
some more secluded spot, and there remaining till his time of trouble is
over. Various twitchings and contortions of the body now testify to the
_mal-aise_ of the creature in his old coat, which, though formed of a
material capable of a moderate amount of stretching, soon becomes outgrown,
and most uncomfortably tight-fitting, with such a quick-growing person
inside it: so off it must come, but it being unprovided with buttons,
there's the rub. However, with a great deal of fidgeting and
shoulder-shrugging, he manages to tear his coat down the back, and lastly,
by patient efforts, shuffles off the old rag; {9} when, lo! underneath is a
lustrous new garment, somewhat similar, but not exactly a copy of the last,
for our beau has his peculiar dress for each epoch of his life,--the most
splendid being often reserved for the last.

This change of dress ("_moulting_," it is sometimes called) is repeated
thrice at least in the creature's life, but more generally five or six
times. Not only does the outer husk come off at these times, but, wonderful
to relate! the lining membrane of all the digestive passages, and of the
larger breathing tubes, is cast off and renewed also.

After each moult, the caterpillar makes up for his loss of time by eating
more voraciously even than before, in many instances breaking his fast by
making a meal of his "old clo'"--an odd taste, first evinced