-warbler himself was so frightened that he could not get out
a note. And the spider did not care in the least.

"Yes ... mother," she said. "That was only out of hunger. I didn't eat
her alone, either. My brothers and sisters shared in the feast. We were
famishing and there was nothing else to eat, for it was well in the
autumn. Then mother came along, just in the nick of time, and so we ate
her."

She jumped into the water again.

But Mrs. Reed-Warbler did not sleep a wink that night. She kept on
whispering to herself:

"She ate her mother ... she ate her husband on Wednesday...."

"Come, don't think about it," said the reed-warbler. "Why, your own
mother was eaten by the hawk; and, if you eat me, it will be for love!"

[Illustration: 'HE WAS IN MY WAY,' SAID THE SPIDER]

"You ought to be ashamed to jest in such times as these," said she.

"I think all times are alike," he said. "Those we live in always seem
the worst."

Then morning came and the sun shone and he sang to his little brown wife
until she recovered her spirits.

CHAPTER V

The Bladder-Wort

[Illustration]

Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler's babies were now expected any day.

There was no end to her nervousness and unreasonableness. Her husband
simply could not satisfy her. If he brought her a fly, she shook her
head and asked how could he think her capable of eating immediately
before the most important event in her life. If he brought her none, she
said it was evidently his intention to starve her. If he sang, it was
unbearable to listen to him. If he was silent, she could plainly see
that he no longer cared for her.

"You don't appreciate me as I deserve," he said. "You ought to be
married to the eel for a bit, or to the cray-fish's husband; then you
would know what's what."

"And you ought to have taken the spider," said she. "Then you would have
been eaten."

"Dear lady! Dear lady!" cried the cray-fish from down in the mud.

"Well?" said the reed-warbler.

"I can't stand this!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.

"I only wanted to ask you, dear lady, not to forget me and those
shells," said the cray-fish.

"I won't have anything to do with an odious woman like you, who eats her
own children," replied Mrs. Reed-Warbler.

"Oh, dear!... Surely, ma'am, you don't believe that mean carp who was
here the other day? A horrid, malicious fellow like that! He doesn't
even belong to the pond, you know. He's a regular man's fish. They only
put h