Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-06-11
The Spider GOdmOther.

story, as you yet will see in the end)
there lived little boy who was very
sad and very lonely indeed. His
mother was dead and he lived alone
with stern and severe father, in a
small, ancient, brown-colored house,
that was half covered with vines, for
all it stood in the heart of a grand
old city, with history a thousand
years old. This city was Genoa,
once called the Superb, which sits
like queen, though her loveliness is
faded, on her hillside, breathing of
the olive and the vine, and ever bath
ing her white feet in the sunny waters
of the Mediterranean,-a city full of
historic memories and ancient re-
nown, but which to-day cherishes no
memory more fondly or proudly than
that of the little sad italian boy
whsse bare feet once trod it's rocky |
streets.
Niclo-that was the little fellows /
rame-loved his birthplace, loved
its old streets and its grand houses,
with their lintels and corbels and
carved beam timber, six hundred
years old, if one; loved it's history
of turmoil and strife when armed no
bles fought in its narrow streets, and
its fleets sailed proudly into the no.
BILE harbor, laden with rich cargOes
from the Levant or bearing victorious
banners from conflicts with Pisa or
Venice, its neighbors and rivals. But
its years of glory were long since
past; and it could only sit on the
hillside, in the sunshine, and dream
of its former greatness, and listen to
the notes of Niclo's violin.
That was the one thing he could do
WELL He had a wonderful ear for
music, and his small deft fingers
could handle the bow of violin with
/ the touch of a master. Though he
was only nine years old, he was al
ready the marvel of the town. No
! body knew where he got his skill,
though his father, the grim Antonio. (
was an amateur musician, and kept {
the lad ever studying and playing,
playing and studying, till all the
neighhors said he would kill the {
slight, delicate child, who had the
soft features and dark eyes of his |
mother that lay sleeping beneath the '
tall, mournful expresses on the hill {
side above the city.
But the boy did not complain. He {
was of too brave and sturdy a spirit s
to do that; and, besides, he loved S
his music with the passionate ardOr S
of an Italian boy. His violin was the v
only thing he owned, and from it he
got such music,-music that, as the u
people heard it, they would look up t
to the vine-covered house, and say, il
with grave faces and hushed breath, b
''The angels are talking with poor t
little Nicolo - "
And Nicoli would sit there, in his a
little room under the caves, and play, c
hour after hour, some graceful fam t,
tasia or touching ballad, his slender W
little figure half-lost in the depths of I
a big armchair j., his dark hair tossed Y
over his pale brow, and his great a
starry eyes all afame with the music y
that was in his soul. He played be- o
cause he loved it, and because it b
made him happier, and made dear ST
little Silver Hair happy, too. N
''Silver Hair likes my music," said A
the boy to himself many and many g
time. ''She would miss me, were | fl
to 90 away; and | should miss her, "
too. Dear little godmother, how pl
lonesome l should be without you !'' "
And Silver Hair, like a fairy god do
mother, would sit and look at him NJ
with her queer bright eyes, land some
times crawl over his hands, as if to til
show her affection for the young mu- hf
sician, who, like her, lived away from dr
all the world. ye
She was large and beautifully
marked spider, whose nest hung be
among the vine leaves that clustered co
over the latticed window of his room. an
The first time that Nicolo had ever pc
PLAYED in the chamber, more than
three summers before, Silver Hair Gil
had crept out from the vines to lis riC
ten; and, of late, he never played he
without his strange pet resting upon ch
5he frame of his violin, where she held
fast with her four little pairs of legs di.
liked and motionless, listening to the tiv
sea of harmony, as wave after wave an
passed over her. AS soon as the pl:
music ceased, the spider would arouse sol
herself and crawl upon his hand. He III
would then carry her TO the window, Ill,
md she would disappear among the on
oliage.
Nicolo clung to the faithful little 10,
reature with real love. He told all gre
lis sorrows and joys to Silver Hair; Gil
nd he was sure she understood, for ant
lid she not seem to droop when he an,
vas sad, and was she not lively when bri
e was glad? Besides his spider god din
nother, as he had named her, there
7as but one other creature in the sha
ride world that seemed to care wheth- ly
+ he lived of died. wis
AS the boy sat there one afternoon,
laking his violin whisper the sweet, strC
ad music of dead and gone master, Wi
liver Hair, as usual, crouching and sid
stening on the carved polished gro