Spiders. 



149 



tiful, milk-white spider with the crimson trimmings has a 

 little runt of a husband that goes about in plain brown, 

 with dark markings, and he is lucky to be alive. As a 

 rule, in spider-land the males are undersized. They 

 don't last long. It is a kind of a hard world for he- 

 spiders. Imagine how it would be if a man's wife w^ere 

 thirteen hundred times as 

 big as he was. He would 

 have to take all her im- 

 p u d e n c e and back-talk 

 without a whimper. I'm 

 glad I'm not a spider at 

 least, not a he-spider. 

 When he goes courting, 

 his girl treats him meaner 

 than a dog. 



But even the spideress 

 with the highest principles 

 will finally succumb to the 

 charms of some y o u n g 

 whiffet or other, but if he 



stays around the place he has to understand distinctly 

 that he must keep out of the way. She's got a lot of 

 things on her mind and she can't be bothered with him. 

 He knows what she means. So he hops around, hangs 

 to her when he can, drops when he can, dodges when he 

 can, but you know what the upshot of it always is. One 

 day there is a withered he-spider skin hanging in the web 

 and the widow stops and looks at it before she throws it 

 out. She smacks her mouth. Well," says she and 

 draws a long breath, " he certainly was good to me." 



The jumping and running spiders are really most 

 interesting to watch in Love's brief delirium. Then they 

 put on their nicest clothes and do all sorts of cake walks 



33- Spider, exhibiting his 

 charms before the female. 



