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Read Ebook: The Wonderful Stories of Fuz-Buz the Fly and Mother Grabem the Spider by Mitchell S Weir Silas Weir
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Ebook has 563 lines and 21843 words, and 12 pages
THE
WONDERFUL STORIES
FUZ-BUZ THE FLY
AND
MOTHER GRABEM
THE
SPIDER.
PHILADELPHIA J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 1867.
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
MRS. GRABEM AND FUZ-BUZ.
Mrs. Grabem was a hairy spider who knit cobwebs and caught flies and brought up a small household of nine young spiders.
When I first knew this happy family, and learned all the wonderful things they heard and did, their home was as pretty a place as a spider need want. Their web was spun to and fro across the crotch of an old apple tree, and when they looked down they could see the green grass, and when they looked up they could see the great jolly red apples which must have looked to those young spiders just as the stars look to our own young folks.
On one side of their web, Mrs. Grabem had knit with great labour a long dark cave all of cobweb, where the family slept at night, and where they lay trembling while the great winds blew and the tree rocked and bent.
One fine breezy morning in June, when the leaves above were clapping their palms for joy at growing, and when the birds were tossing little love songs to one another, the old lady sat mending her web which a great wasp had broken. Meanwhile, the young spiders chased each other along one thread and down another and shook the dew from the web as they played.
"Ah!" said the eldest of them, as he saw it sparkle in the sun, "these must be the diamonds we have heard about."
"No," said another, "they look to me blue, they are turquoises."
"Geese!" said a third, who was on a distant part of the web, "they are drops of gold, any one can see they are yellow."
At this they fell to abusing each other, when suddenly the old lady cried out, "Foolish children, if you change places you will see that each of you is right. You make me think of a tale which my grandmother used to tell me. It is a story which has come down in our family from your ancestor who gave Robert Bruce such very good advice without ever saying a word. You know that the king was looking at the spider when he was swinging a line, striving to fasten it. The spider having tried six times was about to stop, for before this spiders never tried more than six times. But when he looked up and saw the king he knew just what was needed to give him courage, and therefore it was that the spider made one more mighty effort, and so at last made fast the web.
"Thus you see that our ancestor invented trying seven times, although I think the Bruce usually gets more credit than the spider. When this wise spider grew older he went to Spain in the helmet of the good Lord Douglas who was killed by the Moors, so that they got his helmet and your great-great-great-grandfather, who kept quiet enough in the darkest corner until he was carried to Granada, where he lived a long while and found the flies many, and tender, and of good flavour. And this was one of his stories which he had gotten at Granada, when he lay among the Moors."
Then all the young spiders listened, and the old mother spider began.
"One night the King Almanzor was walking alone when he overheard three water-carriers gossiping.
"'I would not be the King,' said Amric, the first who spoke. 'Every morning before prayers I peep through a crack in the wall of the Palace garden, and always I see the King grave and sober, just when the sun is rising red and the birds are laughing and telling their dreams. I would not be a King, to look sober at dawn every day in the year. A grave man is the King.'
"'Bosh!' said the second, whose name was Hassan. 'The King is a sad man. He must have done some evil in his youth, for just before noon-day prayers I look into the Palace garden from my window, and lo! always the King kneels weeping at the great fountain, which we call the forest of waters.'
"'And I,' cried Amrah, 'think ye both wrong. A merry man is King Almanzor. For ever at evening, when the minarets call to prayer, I have seen the King at the fountain laughing, always laughing, always glad. A foolish man must the King be to laugh at nothing.'
"'He's too sober,' said one.
"'Too sad,' cried the second.
"'Too merry,' said the third.
"Then each held to his own opinion, and abused the others, until from words they came to blows.
"This roused the guard, who seized upon the whole three, and was taking them away, when the King whispered to the Captain to bring them to the Palace the next day.
"Accordingly in the morning they were brought to the King in the garden before prayer time.
"'I hear,' said Almanzor, 'that you talked of me last night. It is said that you think me sober, sad, and foolish.'
"Not one of them answered.
"'I will think of your crime, and how you shall be punished. Begone, and return hither at noon.'
"At noon-tide they were brought again to the King, who said to them gravely, 'You have abused the King. You shall die to-morrow.'
"'Woe is me!" cried they all, and as they were led away the King stayed weeping by the water's edge.
"But at evening, the guard took them out yet once more, and this time the King was merry, and the sound of music mocked their sadness.
"'You are pardoned,' said the King Almanzor. 'Judge not lightly of me again. In the morning I reflect on the crimes which I have to judge, and then I am grave. At noon I condemn some to die, and then ever I weep. But at night-fall I pardon the least guilty, and then always I am glad at heart. Be ye also merry to-night, and to-morrow wiser.'
"And thus saying, the King gave them a purse of gold and turned away."
"What a little story," cried the young spiders.
"Hush!" answered Mrs. Grabem. "Now I must mend this hole in our cobweb. But, bless me! run to the den. Here comes a big fly."
Quick as could be they all ran into the dark passage and Mrs. Grabem stayed at the door. Pretty soon the fly flew near. He was a handsome gay fellow all over gold and purple and sparkling in the sun-light. He thought he would have a little of the nice gum which flowed from the apple tree bark, so he flew nearer, but just as he alighted his legs caught in the net and then what a fuss he made! Buz, Buz, and pulled and bit, but it was in vain, for he was held fast by a long cobweb which allowed him to go a little way but no further.
Then Mrs. Grabem ran out, and pulled at the web, and drew him near, when all the little spiders began to sing, "We shall have a good breakfast."
"What! do you mean to eat me?" said Fuz-buz, the Fly. "I never hurt you."
"Oh no," said Mrs. Grabem, "you will do us a great deal of good very soon. You are a queer-looking fly any how. I hope you won't disagree with my children. Where do you live?"
"In Spain," replied Fuz-buz proudly. "I am a Spanish fly."
"Dear me," cried one of the spiders, "perhaps you can tell us some stories."
"I know a thousand fairy tales," said Fuz-buz.
"Oh mamma!" said one fat little spider, "It would be a shame to eat a thousand stories all at once. Let us keep him until he tells us nine hundred and ninety-nine tales, and then we can eat him afterwards."
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