Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-10-23
pRANks OF A PET SPIDER.
Nightly Visits of q SOciable lnsect-His
Rescue from q Dangerous Bathtub.

Nightly Visits of . Sociable lnsect-His
Rescue from q Dangerous Bathtub.
We named him Eelshazzar on the occa-
sion of his first visit to US, though have
forgotten what suggested the name. He
was big black spider with shiny, fat
body. suggestive of an abundance of flies,
but for all this appreciation of the good
things of life he was of scholarly turn of
mind.
We were all seated around the study
table. preparing the next days lessons and
tasks, when Minnie gave a scream that
made me jump and even the boys looked
up startled. There was big black spider
calmly seated on Latin dictionary re-
garding us intently tapped paper at
him, bat he only drew in his legs with a
slightly contemptuous air and did not stir
''Let him alone, sister," said Tom "I've
been studying about spiders, and here is a
good opportunity for observing their hab
it's
As if encouraged by this championship
BelshazZar descended from the dictionary
and crawled slowly over the open page of
an algebra, as if trying to make out what
it was From this he went over all the
books, inspecting them all with the same
critical air, and at last settled on phys
ical geography as most worthy of his at
tention. Every now and then he would
refresh himself with drink out of Aleck s
ink bottle.
All at once we missed him, and as he
had last been seen drinking from the edge
of the bottle suspicion Immediately arose
that be had fallen in. He had, and was
founderng helplessly about in the black
pool He was rescued and placed on a
scrap of waste paper, with injunctions to
remain there until dry but this he had no
intention of doing On the contrary. he
showed a fixed determination to walk over
Toms neatly written Latin exercise
you sha'n't, SIR" said Tom, gently
hosting him with the feathered end of a
quill pen on to his scrap of paper
And then, for the next few minutes, we
forget all about him. till Toms cry of dis
may called attention to his exercise. 1t was
lined and refined and lined again with Bel
shazzar's tracks He had not left an inch
unmarked, and was even looking very
complacent over his nice black tracings
when our EXPLANATIONS of sorrow and an
ger seemed to arouse him to a sense of
shame, and he scrambled down the table
and was gone in the twinkling of an eye
We thought we had seen the last of him,
but the next night he came again and the
next, until we looked for him as a regular
visitor and placed the physical geography
open for him, for his fancy for it seemed to
last The accident of his fall into the ink
bottle was repeated several times for he
would drink the ink, and once, for some
minutes, we feared that he was drowned,
but he gradually revived, and beyond APP
pearing rather subdued was little the
worse for the adventure.
But whenever he had been in the ink
after that first night nothing could induce
him to stir off the paper on which he was
placed to dry, though he would run over
that and seemed to take pride in the de-
signs with which he ornamented it.
What became of our queer pet we never
knew, but one night he failed to make his
appearance, and we were surprised to find
how much we missed him. We hoped,
however, that he would come the next
evening, but he never did, and somehow
the study hour after that seemed longer
and duller, and not to be looked forward
to.-Philadelphia Times.