EIGHT- LEGGED FR/E.VDS. 119 



thinner body, and by his natural modesty. TTo walked 

 gingerly on all eights, like an arachnid Aga^', in the 

 direction of the object of his ardent affections, with a 

 most comic uncertainty in every step he took towards 

 her. Ilis claws felt the threads as ho moved with 

 anxious care ; and it was clear he was ready at a 

 ninment's notice to jump away and flee for his life with 

 headlong speed to his native obscurity if Eliza showed 

 th(! slightest disposition, by gesture or movement, to turn 

 and rend him. Now and again, as he approached, 

 Eliza, half coquettish, moved her feet a short step, and 

 seemed to debate within her own mind in which spirit 

 she should meet his flattering advances — whether to 

 accept him or to eat him. At each such hesitation, the 

 unhappy male, fearing the worst, and sore afraid, would 

 turn on his heel and fly for dear life as fast as eight 

 trembling legs would carry him. Then, after a minute 

 or two, he would evidently come to the conclusion that 

 he had wronged his lady-love, and that her movement 

 was one of true, true love rather than of carnivorous and 

 cannibalistic appetite. At last, as I judged, his constancy 

 was rewarded, though His ominous disappearance very 

 shortly afterwards made me fear for the worst as to his 

 final adventures. 



In the end, Eliza laid a large number of eggs in a 

 silken cocoon, in shape a balloon, and secreted, like the 

 web, by her invaluable spinnerets. Indeed, the real 

 reason— I won't say excuse — for the rapacity and 

 Gargantuan appetite of the spider lies, no doubt, in 

 the immense amount of material she has to supply for 

 her daily-renewed webs, her home, and her cocoon, all 



