Fairies I have met/The Big Spider's Diamonds
THE BIG SPIDER'S DIAMONDS
THE sun-fairies were hiding behind a black cloud; but in the middle of the cloud there was a hole, and through this hole the sun-fairies peeped.
In this way they were able to see everything that went on in the garden where the Big Spider lived. If the Big Spider had looked up at the sky he could have seen the sun-fairies peeping through the hole in the black cloud; but he did not look up, because he was thinking of other things. He was in an excited state of mind.
Quite lately the Big Spider had spun a most beautiful web for himself, and had slung it between two tall blades of grass. He was very proud of it, for it was the nicest web in all the garden, being of a lovely and difficult pattern, and made with great skill. And now something had happened in the night to make it still more beautiful. While the Big Spider was asleep the dew-fairies had crept up from the grass, and had hung hundreds of sparkling diamonds on the strings of his web. He knew it must have been done by the dew-fairies, because they only keep the very best diamonds.
"Dear me, this is most kind of them," he said to himself. "They must have noticed that my web was the best in the garden; otherwise they would not have done it so much honour."
As a matter of fact, the dew-fairies had been hanging diamonds that night on the webs of all the spiders in the garden; but the Big Spider was so much occupied in admiring his own web that he had no attention to spare for the others.
"Good morning," he said pleasantly to a fly who was passing. "Have you seen my diamonds? They look very well there, don't they? They show off the pattern of the web. Won't you come a little closer? You can hardly see them properly at that distance. One really sees them best when one is inside the web. Can't you come in this morning?"
"No, thank you," said the fly firmly; for his mother had told him that the Big Spider was not a nice friend for little flies.
Then he flew away, and the Spider went on admiring his diamonds. He looked at them first from the right, and then from the left, and then he stepped backwards and looked at them again. If you have ever seen a person who paints pictures you will know exactly how he behaved.
All this time the sun-fairies had been peeping through the hole in the black cloud and watching the Big Spider. They could not help laughing at him.
"Ridiculous creature!" cried one. "Look at him admiring his web, as if it were the only one that had ever been hung with diamonds!"
"If he would look about him a little bit," said another, "he would see that the whole garden is blazing with diamonds this morning."
"The very grass is all twinkly and shiny with them," said a third, "but the grass-fairies are not behaving in that absurd way."
"No fairy would be so silly," said a fourth.
Suddenly a little sun-fairy began to clap his hands.
"I've got an idea," he cried.
As his ideas were generally full of mischief and very interesting, all the other fairies stopped talking.
"It's a lovely idea," he went on, chuckling. "This is what we'll do. We'll wait till that silly old Spider goes to sleep or is busy, and then we'll rush down—quick as quick—and steal his diamonds!"
Then all the sun-fairies laughed and clapped their hands so loudly that the hole in the black cloud grew a good deal larger. They thought it was a grand idea.
They had not long to wait. Presently the Spider became rather tired of admiring his diamonds all by himself, so he set to work to send out invitations for a fly-party. He asked all the flies in the neighbourhood to come and see how nice his web looked when it was hung with diamonds. As soon as the sun-fairies saw that he was busy they took each other's hands, and with a little run and a big jump they all burst through the hole in the black cloud. Then they flew softly down to the garden where the Big Spider lived.
"How nice and warm it is getting!" thought the Spider.
Presently he said to himself—
"My diamonds must be sparkling beautifully in this sunshine. I'll just take a look at them."
He turned round, expecting to see the pattern of his web delicately outlined in sparks of light. You will not be surprised to hear that he saw nothing of the kind. He saw his web, it is true, looking like filmy lace against the green of the grass; but there was not one single diamond hanging upon it!
Then the rage of the Big Spider was terrible to see.
He stamped with all his legs, and he rolled himself round and round, and he used all the most dreadful threats in spider-language.
"I don't care who the thief is," he said; "I shall think no more of eating him than if he were a fly!"
At that moment he heard the sweetest little laugh just behind him. This made him so angry that he spent a long time in looking for the person who laughed. While he was still searching the sun-fairies flew up again to the black clouds, carrying the diamonds with them.
"There," they said, as they threw the diamonds down on the cloud, "he won't find them there!"
They had forgotten for the moment that, hidden in the black cloud, there were a great number of rain-fairies. Now the rain-fairies never enjoy themselves so much as when they are annoying the sun-fairies: and in the same way there is nothing that pleases the sun-fairies so much as a good quarrel with the rain-fairies. This does not prevent them from being very friendly when they are not quarrelling.
The rain-fairies had seen all that had happened. They pretended to think that the sun-fairies had behaved very unkindly to the Big Spider.
"It's too bad," they said, "to steal the poor thing's diamonds. It's not fair. Let's throw them down to him."
Then a great fight began between the sun-fairies and the rain-fairies for the diamonds, and the fight lasted a long
THE WEB AND THE DIAMONDS AND THE BIG SPIDER HIMSELF ALL FELL TO
THE GROUND
time, and all the time that it lasted the Big Spider was in a rage.
At last the rain-fairies won the fight, and went off with the diamonds in their arms.
"Now we'll throw them to the Big Spider," they said, "and we'll see how glad he is when his web is hung with diamonds as it was before."
They forgot that the dew-fairies, when they had trimmed the web with the diamonds, had crept up softly and touched the strings with gentle fingers. But the rain-fairies are rather rough.
They flung out their little arms and threw the diamonds down out of the black cloud. Down dropped the diamonds, and down, and down, till they reached the garden where the Big Spider lived, and the web that the Big Spider had made. But instead of hanging on the web in rows, like little lighted lamps, they dropped into the middle of it with a crash and a dash and a splash, and broke it into a great many pieces, so that the web and the diamonds and the Big Spider himself all fell to the ground.
And by the time the Big Spider was standing on all his legs again the diamonds had disappeared into the grass.
The truth is that the dew-fairies had found them and had taken them home. I expect they will keep them till the Big Spider has made a new web.