lds, having work to do, but liking not the doing.

CHAPTER IV.

Now I with _Rouser_ at my heels went manfully on my way. Gaily I went
over the parched brown wastes where lately the flood had lain heavy
upon the land, past the whispering copses of fir and beech and oak
that top the upland, through the yellowing corn that stands waving
golden promise in the valley, till I came to where the land bends
suddenly with a sharp turn from the eastward whence a pearly brook,
now swollen to a roaring torrent, babbles bravely over the stones.
Sudden I stopped as though a palsy had gripped me, though of the
TIDDLERS, as is well known, none hath ever suffered of a palsy, they
being for the most part a lusty race, and apt for enduring moisture
both within and without. Never till my dying day shall I forget the
sight that met my eyes. For there seated upon a tuffet, her beautiful
blue eyes fixed in horror and despair, her jug of curds and whey
scarce tasted, was my MARIAN, while beside her, lolling at ease with
the slothful stretch of his great limbs, and the flames as of Tophet
in his fierce eyes sat SPIDER, the great black-haired giant SPIDER
that would make a feast of her.

I know not how I ran, nor what mighty strength was in my limbs, but
in a moment I was with them, and his hairy throat was in my clutch.
Quickly he turned upon me and fain had freed himself. Our breast-bones
cracked in the conflict, his arms wound round and round me, and a
hideous gleam of triumph was in his face. Thrice he had me off my
feet, but at the fourth close I swayed him to the right, and then with
one last heave I flung him on his back, and had the end of it, leaving
him dead and flattened where he lay.

CHAPTER V.

Then gently I bore my MARIAN home, and mother greeted her fondly,
saying, "Miss MUFFET, I presume?" which pleased me, thinking it only
right that mother should use ceremony with my love. But she, poor
darling, lay quiet and pale, scarce knowing her own happiness or the
issue of the fight. For 'tis the way of women ever to faint if the
occasion serve and a man's arms be there to prop them. And often
in the warm summer-time, when the little lads and lasses gather to
the plucking of buttercups and daisies, likening them gleefully to
the gold and silver of a rich man's coffers, my darling, now grown
matronly, sitteth on the tuffet in their midst, and telleth the tale
of giant SPIDER and his fate.--[THE END.]

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