THE RUNAWAY WATER SPIDERS
When the little Water Spiders first opened their eyes, and this was assoon as they were hatched, they found themselves in a cosy home of oneroom which their mother had built under the water. This room had nowindow and only one door. There was no floor at all. When FatherStickleback had asked Mrs. Spider why she did not make a floor, she hadlooked at him in great surprise and said, "Why, if I had built one, Ishould have no place to go in and out." She really thought him quitestupid not to think of that. It often happens, you know, that reallyclever people think each other stupid, just because they live indifferent ways. Afterward, Mrs. Water Spider saw Father Stickleback'snest, and understood why he asked that question.
When her home was done, it was half as large as a big acorn and acharming place for Water Spider babies. The side walls and the roundingceiling were all of the finest Spider silk, and the bottom was just oneround doorway. The house was built under the water and fastened down bytiny ropes of Spider silk which were tied to the stems of pond plants.Mrs. Water Spider looked at it with a happy smile. "Next I must fill itwith air," said she, "and then it will be ready. I am out of breathnow."
She crept up the stem of the nearest plant and sat in the air for a fewminutes, eating her lunch and resting. Next she walked down the stemuntil just the end of her body was in the air. She stood so, with herhead down, then gave a little jerk and dove to her home. As she jerked,she crossed her hindlegs and caught a small bubble of air between themand her body. When she reached her home, she went quickly in the opendoorway and let go of her bubble. It did not fall downward to the floor,as bubbles do in most houses, and there were two reasons for this. Inthe first place, there was no floor. In the second place, air alwaysfalls upward in the water. This fell up until it reached the roundedceiling and had to stop. Just as it fell, a drop of water went outthrough the open doorway. The home had been full of water, you know, butnow that Mrs. Spider had begun to bring in air something had to be movedto make a place for it.
She brought down thirteen more bubbles of air and then the house wasfilled with it. On the lower side of the open doorway there was waterand on the upper side was air, and each stayed where it should. WhenMrs. Spider came into her house, she always had some air caught in thehairs which covered her body, even when she did not bring a bubble of itin her hindlegs. She had to have plenty of it in her home to keep herfrom drowning, for she could not breathe water like a fish. "Side doorsmay be all right for Sticklebacks," said she, "for they do not need air,but I must have bottom doors, and I will have them too!"
After she had laid her eggs, she had some days in which to rest andvisit with the Water-Boatmen who lived near. They were great friends.Belostoma used to ask the Water-Boatmen, who were his cousins, why theywere so neighborly with the Water Spiders. "I don't like to see you somuch with eight-legged people," he said. "They are not our kind."Belostoma was very proud of his family.
"We know that they have rather too many legs to look well," said Mrs.Water-Boatman, "but they are pleasant, and we are interested in thesame things. You know we both carry air about with us in the water, andso few of our neighbors seem to care anything for it." She was asensible little person and knew that people who are really fond of theirfriends do not care how many legs they have. She carried her air underher wings, but there were other Water-Boatmen, near relatives, whospread theirs over their whole bodies, and looked very silvery andbeautiful when they were under water.
One day, when Mrs. Water Spider was sitting on a lily-pad and talkingwith her friends, a Water-Boatman rose quickly from the bottom of thepond. As soon as he got right side up (and that means as soon as he gotto floating on his back), he said to her, "I heard queer sounds in yourhouse; I was feeding near there, and the noise startled me so that I letgo of the stone I was holding to, and came up. I think your eggs must behatching."
AS SOON AS HE GOT TO FLOATING ON HIS BACK. _Page 76_]
"Really?" exclaimed Mrs. Water Spider. "I shall be so glad! A housealways seems lonely to me without children." She dove to her house, andfound some very fine Water Spider babies there. You may be sure she didnot have much time for visiting after that. She had to hunt food andcarry it down to her children, and when they were restless and impatientshe stayed with them and told them stories of the great world.
Sometimes they teased to go out with her, but this she never allowed."Wait until you are older," she would say. "It will not be so very longbefore you can go safely." The children thought it had been a long, longtime already, and one of them made a face when his mother said this. Shedid not see him, and it was well for him that she did not. He shouldhave been very much ashamed of himself for doing it.
The next time Mrs. Water Spider went for food, one of the childrensaid, "I tell you what let's do! Let's all go down to the doorway andpeek out." They looked at each other and wondered if they dared. Thatwas something their mother had forbidden them to do. There was no windowto look through and they wanted very much to see the world. At last thelittle fellow who had made a face said, "I'm going to, anyway." Afterthat, his brothers and sisters went, too. And this shows how, if goodlittle Spiders listen to naughty little Spiders, they become naughtylittle Spiders themselves.
All the children ran down and peeked around the edge of the door, butthey couldn't see much besides water, and they had seen that before.They were sadly disappointed. Somebody said, "I'm going to put two of mylegs out!" Somebody else said, "I'll put four out!" A big brother said,"I'm going to put six out!" And then another brother said "I'll puteight out! Dare you to!"
You know what naughty little Spiders would be likely to do then. Well,they did it. And, as it happened, they had just pulled their last legsthrough the open doorway when a Stickleback Father came along. "Aren'tyou rather young to be out of the nest?" said he, in his most pleasantvoice.
Poor little Water Spiders! They didn't know he was one of their mother'sfriends, and he seemed so big to them, and the bones on his cheeks madehim look so queer, and the stickles on his back were so sharp, thatevery one of them was afraid and let go of the wall of the house--andthen!
Every one of them rose quickly to the top, into the light and the openair. They crawled upon a lily-pad and clung there, frightened, andfeeling weak in all their knees. The Dragon Flies flew over them, theWild Ducks swam past them, and on a log not far away they saw a long rowof Mud Turtles sunning themselves. Why nothing dreadful happened, onecannot tell. Perhaps it was bad enough as it was, for they were soscared that they could only huddle close together and cry, "We want ourmother."
Here Mrs. Water Spider found them. She came home with something fordinner, and saw her house empty. Of course she knew where to look, for,as she said, "If they stepped outside the door, they would be quite sureto tumble up into the air." She took them home, one at a time, and howshe ever did it nobody knows.
When they were all safely there and had eaten the food that was waitingfor them, Mrs. Spider, who had not scolded them at all, said, "Look mestraight in the eye, every one of you! Will you promise never to runaway again?"
Instead of saying at once, "Yes, mother," as they should have done, oneof them answered, "Why, we didn't run away. We were just peeking aroundthe edge of the doorway, and we got too far out, and somebody came alongand scared us so that we let go, and then we couldn't help falling upinto the air."
"Oh, no," said their mother, "you couldn't help it then, of course. Butwho told you that you might peep out of the door?"
The little Water Spiders hung their heads and looked very much ashamed.Their mother went on, "You needn't say that you were not to blame. Youwere to blame, and you began to run away as soon as you took the firststep toward the door, only you didn't know that you were going so far.Tell me," she said, "whether you would ever have gone to the top of thewater if you had not taken that first step?"
The little Water Spiders were more ashamed than ever, but they had tolook her in the eye and promise to be good.
It is very certain
that not one of those children even peeped around theedge of the doorway from that day until their mother told them that theymight go into the world and build houses for themselves. "Remember justone thing," she said, as they started away. "Always take your food hometo eat." And they always did, for no Water Spider who has been wellbrought up will ever eat away from his own home.