136 MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



Engineer Spider ran aloft and soon reported that these ropes were simply a web 

 hung there by some colossal member of his own species, for he could see its prey 

 dangling here and there from the strands, in the shape of mighty shreds and rags 

 that had a woven look about their texture and were no doubt the discarded skins 

 of prodigious insects which had been caught and eaten. And then he ran along 

 one of the ropes to make a closer inspection, but felt a smart sudden burn on the 

 soles of his feet, accompanied by a paralyzing shock, wherefore he let go and swung 

 himself to the earth by a thread of his own spinning, and advised all to hurry at 

 once to camp, lest the monster should appear and get as much interested in the 

 savants as they were in him and his works. So they departed with speed, making 

 notes about the gigantic web as they went. And that evening the naturalist of the 

 expedition built a beautiful model of the colossal spider, having no need to see it 

 in order to do this, because he had picked up a fragment of its vertebrae by the 

 tree, and so knew exactly what the creature looked like and what its habits and its 

 preferences were, by this simple evidence alone. He built it with a tail, teeth, 

 fourteen legs and a snout, and said it ate grass, cattle, pebbles and dirt with equal 

 enthusiasm. This animal was regarded as a very precious addition to science. It 

 was hoped a dead one might be found, to stuff. Professor Woodlouse thought that 

 he and his brother scholars, by lying hid and being quiet, might maybe catch a live 

 one. He was advised to try it. Which was all the attention that was paid to his 

 suggestion. The conference ended with the naming the monster after the natural- 

 ist, since he, after God, had created it. 



" And improved it, mayhap," muttered the Tumble-Bug, who wa? intruding 

 again, according to his idle custom and his unappeasable curiosity. 



END OF PART FIRST 



