quickly exclaimed. "It's the spider.
She's crawling toward you, and I don't want her to sit down beside
you, and frighten you away."

Little Miss Muffet laughed a jolly laugh.

"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" she cried. "I'm not at all afraid of spiders!
I'd let a dozen of them sit beside me if they wanted to, for I know
they will not harm me, if I do not harm them. And besides, I knew
this spider was coming all the while."

"You did?" cried Nurse Jane, surprised like.

"To be sure I did. She is Mrs. Spin-Spider, and she has come to
measure me for a new cobweb silk dress; haven't you, Mrs.
Spin-Spider?"

"Yes, child, I have," answered the lady spider. "No one need be
afraid of me."

"I'm not," Uncle Wiggily said, "only I did not want you to frighten
Miss Muffet away before she had her curds and whey."

"Oh, I had them," the little girl said. "Nurse Jane gave them to me
before you came in, Uncle Wiggily. But now let me tell you what I
came for, and then Mrs. Spin-Spider can measure me for a new dress.
I came to ask if you would do me the favor to come to my birthday
party next week. Will you?"

"Of course I will!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'll be delighted."

"Good!" laughed Little Miss Muffet. Then along came Mrs.
Spin-Spider, and sat down beside her and did not frighten the little
girl away, but, instead, measured her for a new dress.

So from this we may learn that cobwebs are good for something else
than catching flies, and in the next chapter, if the piano doesn't
come upstairs to lie down on the brass bed so the pillow has to go
down in the coal bin to sleep, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and
the first little kitten.

CHAPTER XVII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FIRST KITTEN

Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, was asleep in
his easy chair by the fire which burned brightly on the hearth in
his hollow-stump bungalow. Mr. Longears was dreaming that he had
just eaten a piece of cherry pie for lunch, and that the cherry pits
were dropping on the floor with a "rat-a-tat-tat!" when he suddenly
awakened and heard some one knocking on the front door.

"Ha! Who is there? Come in!" cried the rabbit gentleman, hardly
awake yet. Then he happened to think:

"I hope it isn't the bad fox, or the skillery-scalery alligator,
whom I have invited in. I ought not to have been so quick."

But it was none of these unpleasant creatures who had knocked on
Uncle Wiggily's door. It was Mrs. Purr, the nice cat l