Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-07-26
The Strand From Above.

morning. A thousand gems Of dew
sparkled in the meadows. and upon the
breeze fioated, in the wake of summer
the shining silken strands Of which nc
man knoweth the whence or whittier.
One of them caught in the top Of tree
and the skipper. q little speckled yellow
spider, quit his airship to survey the leafy
demesne there. 1t was not to his liking,
and. with prompt decision, he spun a new
strand and let himself down straight into
the hedge below,
There were twigs and shoots in plenty
there to spin a web In, and he went to
work at once. letting the strand from
above, by which he had come, bear the
upper corner of it. , ., =.
A fine large web it was when finished.
and with this about it that set 1t off from
all other webs thereabouts. that it seemed
to stand straight up in the air without
anything to show what held it. 1t takes
pretty sharp eyes, to make out single
strand of spider web even a very little
way off. t.5.9
The days went by. Flies grew scarcer,
as the sunrose later, and the spider had
to make his net larger that it might
reach farther and catch more. And here
the strand from above turned out great
help. With it to brace the structure, the
web was spun higher and wider, until it
covered the hedge all the way, across. In
the wet October morning. when it hung
full of shimmering raindrops, it was like
a veil stitched with precious pearls.
The spider was proud of his work. No
longer the little thing that had come out
of the vast with nothing but his unspun
web in his pocket. SO to speak. he was
now big, portly opulent spider, with the
largest web in the hedge.
One morning he awoke very much out
of sorts. There had been a frost In the
night. and daylight brought no sun. The
sky was overcast; not fly was out. All
the long gray autumn day the spider sat
hungry and cross in his corner. Toward
evening, to kill time, he started on tour
of inspection, to see If anything needed
bracing or mending. He pulled at all
strands; they were firm enough. But
though he found nothing wrong, his tenn
per did not improve; he waxed crosser
than ever.
At the farthest end of the web he came
at last to strand that all at once
sc emed strange to him. All the rest went
this way or that-the spider knew every
stick and knob they were made fast to,
every one. But this preposterous strand
went nowhere-that is to say, went
straight up into the air and was lost. He
stood upon his hind legs and stared with
all his eyes, but he could not make it out
To look at, the strand went straight up
into the air and was lost.
The longer he sat and glared to no pur-
pose, the angrier the spider grew. He
had quite forgotten how, on a bright
September morning, he himself had come
down this same strand. And he had for
gotten how, in the building of the web
afterward. when it had to be enlarged, it
was just this strand he had depended up
on. He saw only that here was a useless
strand fool strand, that went nowhere
in sense or reason, only up in the air
where solid spiders had no concern.
Away with it," and with one vicious
in two.
That instant the web collapsed, the
whole proud and prosperous structure
fell in heap, and when the spider came
to, he lay sprawling in the hedge, with
the web all about his head like a wet
rag. In one brief moment. he had
wrecked it all-because he did not under
stand the use of the strand from above
The Outlook.