THE SPIDER 73 



cross, and they make a net-work in which the 

 blundering fly or mosquito or miller is sure to be 

 caught. Then out the spider runs and binds it up 

 in strong silken ropes. 



You have to be careful, when you walk over dead 

 branches in the woods, not to trip, do you not? 

 Supposing you had six feet instead of two, how soon 

 do you suppose you could disentangle them? 



So the spider weaves with great skill and great 

 care her smooth white carpet to run upon, but up 

 above she makes tangled threads of the finest, 

 strongest silk she can spin, knowing that the in- 

 quisitive fly will blunder right among them and 

 be caught. 



Did you ever see a spider make her carpet? No, 

 because she works at night. At night, when we 

 are sleeping she is working hard, spinning the silken 

 thread and weaving it into the finest and softest of 

 carpets; and then all day she sits and watches for 

 her food. She never seems to sleep, but is always 

 watching in the daytime and working at night. We 

 could not work so hard as that, for we must sleep 

 at night and rest a little in the daytime. But the 

 spider, from sunrise to sunset, is feeling with her 

 feet and watching with her eyes to see if there is the 

 slightest quiver of the silk to tell her that some fly 

 has alighted upon her web. Did you ever put a 

 little piece of straw or a tiny leaf upon a cobweb 

 and watch the spider dart out, seize the straw, drop 

 it, and run back disgusted? 



The house spider makes a three-sided carpet in 

 the corners of an unused room or of a cellar or barn. 



