JUNE 21: A Spider’s Curiosity
“They may not think the spider is a curious creature, though again they may think so,” said Mr. Spider, “for I am sure I cannot keep track of what they think.
“But last summer I was attracted to a house which looked rather cool and comfortable and as though the people who lived in it had gone away and left the blinds down.
“Now when I say I was attracted to the house I mean that the house looked attractive to me and so I went there. I went in first through a crack under the door. I looked about me when I got inside and I thought to myself: ‘Dear me, I have the whole place to myself.’ But I found that a number of spider friends and cousins had come to the house too.
“‘Well,’ they said, upon seeing me, ‘have you come to this hotel to board? It’s really quite good. Meals are fine. We’ve found a number of delicious little creatures to nibble at.’
“‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’ve come to this hotel to board, but I won’t pay my board.’
“‘Oh, won’t you?’ said they.
“‘I will not,’ I answered. ‘I do not pay board. It’s a foolish thing to do, a waste of time, and besides I haven’t the money. I wouldn’t pay board for anything, for it spoils people.’
“Yes, they think they can do anything when they charge board. They can be rude and only give you so much of this and so much of that, and they have to watch over you to see that you don’t eat more than you are allowed. At least that is my idea of boarding, though I suppose for those who have plenty of money it is all right.
“But I have no money, none at all.”
“Neither have I,” said the spider who was listening.
“Therefore I cannot board,” said Mr. Spider.
“Well, as I was saying, my relatives and friends talked to me and when I said that I wouldn’t pay my board they said: ‘Oh, that is quite all right, Mr. Spider. None of us do. Besides, we feel sure the people who have gone away will be glad if they hear that some of the Spider family are watching over their house in their absence.’
“So I settled down, but after a time I began to feel as though I would like to be busy. Every one around me was working.
“And one day one of the other spiders said to me: ‘Mr. Spider, did you bring your work?’
“‘Yes indeed,’ I answered, ‘I have it here with me.’
“Then, of course, I thought I would choose a good spinning table or spinning chair, or some place where I would be comfortable and cozy a-spinning.
“Just as I was thinking about it I happened to take a look at a telephone upon a table.
“‘There will I go,’ I said to the others.
“‘But,’ they told me, ‘the telephone is a modern thing and spinning is an old, old thing to do.’
“‘Well,’ I answered, ‘I will mix the old and the new, I will work around the modern telephone. I will spin a web so when the people come back they will have to talk through Spiderland in order to talk to their friends.’”