NATURAL HISTORY. 95 



we will thank you to tell us the story about 

 the spider." 



" Very well, boys ; you shall hear it. Pray, 

 do you not think that it is a piece of difficult 

 work to make a door to a house, and to make 

 hinges to hang it with, and to fit it so nicely 

 that when it is done you cannot see the joints 

 where the door is shut ?" 



" Indeed it is a piece of very hard work, 

 Uncle Philip, and it takes the carpenter a long 

 time to do it ; and it is hard work, too, for the 

 blacksmith to make the hinges. But what 

 has that to do with the story about the spider ?" 



" Patience, boys, patience : you shall know 

 presently. Never be in too great a hurry : it 

 is a bad plan. I have always noticed that 

 those persons who hurried most, went 

 slowest in the end. Another question I wish 

 to ask you is this, do you not think it 

 was hard work for the first man who ever 

 made a spring, and put it on a door, to make 

 it shut itself again when it had been opened ?" 



" Yes, it was so : and the man who does it 

 now gets well paid for it." 



" Very good, boys. And now what will 

 you say when I tell you that a poor little spi- 

 der did all these things long before man did ?" 



