ous spider. We captured him
when he was small, and we fed him--oh, not on little flies--that would
be cruel--but on morsels of raw meat. Now he is very big, and he has
wicked eyes. I would rather call him Demon than Dickie; but Sylvia named
him Dickie when he was but a baby thing, so the name has stuck to him.
We love him dearly."

"I will come up to your room presently, and you shall show him to me.
Have you brought other pets from the country?"

"Oh, stones and shells and bits of the moor."

"Bits of the moor, my dear children!"

"Yes; we dug pieces up the day before yesterday and wrapped them in
paper, and we want to plant them somewhere here. We thought they would
comfort us. We'd like it awfully if you would let one of the dogs come,
too. He is a great sheep-dog, and such a darling! His name is Andrew. I
think Donald Macfarlane would part with him if you said we might have
him."

"I am afraid I can't just at present, dear; but if you are really good
girls, and try your very best to please me, you shall go back to Donald
Macfarlane in the holidays, and perhaps I will go with you, and you will
show me all your favorite haunts."

"Oh, will you?" said Betty. Her eyes grew softer than ever.

"You are quite a dear for a head mistress," said Sylvia. "We've always
read in books that they are such horrors. It is nice for you to say you
will come."

"Well, now, I want to say something else, and then we'll go up to your
room and see Dickie. I am going to take you three girls up to town
to-morrow to buy you the sort of dresses we wear in this part of the
world. You can put away these most sensible frocks for your next visit
to Craigie Muir. Not a word, dears. You have said I am a very nice head
mistress, and I hope you will continue to think so. Now, let us come up
to your room."

CHAPTER V

THE VIVIANS' ATTIC

Mrs. Haddo was genuinely interested in Dickie. She never once spoke of
him as a horror. She immediately named the genus to which he belonged in
the spider tribe, and told the girls that they could look up full
particulars with regard to him and his ways in a large book she had
downstairs called "Chambers's Encyclopedia." She suggested, however,
that they should have a little room in one of the attics where they
could keep Dickie and his morsels of meat, and the different boxes which
contained the caterpillars. She volunteered to show this minute room to
the young Vivians at once.

They looked at