CLEANLINESS OF THE SPIDER. 



393 



in the days of Faery, to receive ever and anon a silver recom- 

 pense in the shape of " a sixpence in their shoe." As such a 

 maiden with her carpet and her curtains, for ever sweeping 

 and shaking, and thereto adding the personal propriety of never 

 failing to " clean herself" when her work is over, so does the 

 domestic spinner with her web, shaking it and dusting it, then 

 smoothing down her person, and combing her hairy legs, till 

 no unseemly particle is left to disfigure her attire or abode. 



In addition to perseverance and neatness, the spider num- 

 bers, as we have seen, amongst her more pleasing attributes a 

 large amount of ingenuity ; but we do not enlarge here either 

 on its mode of exercise or the works of constructive skill by 

 which it is exemplified, these having formed subjects more or 

 less direct of former essays. We have only done our best to 

 rescue the hairy-legged spinner from unmerited dislike. 



'^nare-gcttmg animal^, men ant> fibers.' 



