d round about it was a big web for catching
insects.... Just now a water-mite was hanging in it and the spider took
her into the bell and sucked her out.

"It's really remarkable," said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "She has a nest
just as we have, hung up between the reeds. For all we know, she may sit
on her eggs."

[Illustration]

"Ask her," said the reed-warbler.

"I want first to get to the bottom of that story about her mother," said
she, sternly.

Soon after, the spider came up again and sat on the leaf of the
water-lily and smoothed herself out.

"You were looking down at me, weren't you?" she said. "Yes ... I have
quite a nice place, haven't I? A regular smart little parlour. You must
know I am an animal that loves fresh air, like Mr. Reed-Warbler and
yourself. And, as my business happens to lie in the water, it was
easiest for me to arrange it this way. It's thoroughly cosy down there,
I assure you. And, in the winter, I lock the door and sleep and snore
the whole day long."

"Have you any eggs?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler.

"Rather!" said the spider. "I have everything that belongs to a
well-regulated household. I have any number of eggs. As I lay them, by
degrees, I hang them up in bundles from the ceiling of my parlour."

"Don't you hatch them?"

"No, dear lady. My heart is not so warm as that. And it's not necessary
either. They come out nicely by themselves."

"Did your husband help you build the parlour?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler.

"He had enough to do building for himself, the booby!" she said. "You
needn't think I would have him in my parlour, He made himself a little
room beside it; and then there was the tunnel between us and that was
really more than enough."

"_Was?_" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Is he no longer with you, then?...
Oh, you mustn't take my question amiss, if it pains you. I find it so
difficult to understand the domestic conditions of the lower classes....
Perhaps you don't even know where he is?"

"Why, I should just think I did know!" replied the spider. "More or
less. For I ate him last Wednesday."

"Goodness gracious me!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.

"He was in my way," said the spider. "I tumbled over him wherever I
went. And what was I to do with him? So I ate him up; and a tough little
brute he was!"

"She ate her husband on Wednesday and she ate her mother last year,"
said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Sing to me, or that terrible woman will be the
death of me!"

But the reed