Madam How and Lady Why; or, First lessons in earth lore for children . oves of cocoa palms grow up upon the lonelyisle. Then, perhaps, trees and bushes are driftedthither before the trade-wind; and entangled in theirroots are seeds of other plants, and eggs or cocoons ofinsects; and so a few flowers and a few butterflies andbeetles set up for themselves upon the new land. Andthen a bird or two, caught in a storm and blown away tosea finds shelter in the cocoa-grove; and so a little newworld is set up, in which (you must remember always)there are no four-footed beasts, nor snakes, nor lizards,n
Madam How and Lady Why; or, First lessons in earth lore for children . oves of cocoa palms grow up upon the lonelyisle. Then, perhaps, trees and bushes are driftedthither before the trade-wind; and entangled in theirroots are seeds of other plants, and eggs or cocoons ofinsects; and so a few flowers and a few butterflies andbeetles set up for themselves upon the new land. Andthen a bird or two, caught in a storm and blown away tosea finds shelter in the cocoa-grove; and so a little newworld is set up, in which (you must remember always)there are no four-footed beasts, nor snakes, nor lizards,nor frogs, nor any animals that cannot cross the on some of those islands they may live (indeedthere is reason to believe they have lived), so long, thatsome of them have changed their forms, according tothe laws of Madam How, who sooner or later fits eachthing exactly for the place in which it is meant tolive, till upon some of them you may find such strangeand unique creatures as the famous cocoa-nut crab,which learned men call Birgus latro. A great crab he. IX THE CORAL-REEF 167 is, who walks upon the tips of his toes a foot highabove the ground. And because he has often nothingto eat but cocoa-nuts, or at least they are the bestthings he can find, cocoa-nuts he has learned to eat,and after a fashion which it would puzzle you toimitate. Some say that he climbs up the stems of thecocoa-nut trees, and pulls the fruit down for himself;but that, it seems, he does not usually do. What hedoes is this: when he finds a fallen cocoa-nut, hebegins tearing away the thick husk and fibre with hisstrong claws; and he knows perfectly well which endto tear it from, namely, from the end where the threeeye-holes are, which you call the monkeys face, out ofone of which, you know, the young cocoa-nut treewould burst forth. And when he has got to the eye-holes, he hammers through one of them with thepoint of his heavy claw. So far, so good: but how ishe to get the meat out ? He cannot put
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