SPITE THE SPY.
When the Assembly of Brownies, which had been held at the old Scotch
Manse, was quite dispersed, a spider-pixie entered the vacant tent and
began to spin a web. He belonged to a race of sprites as vicious and
cruel as the Brownies are kind and good. They are called spider-pixies
because they do much of their mischief by means of silken webs or snares
which they spin, and in which they catch their enemies. The fact,
however, should work no prejudice against those remarkable creatures,
the spiders, which are doubtless worthy of all the loving attention that
naturalists give them.
The chief enemies of these Pixies (next to themselves, to be sure) were
the Brownies. Not that the good little fairies wished to harm any
creature; but then, as the Pixies wished harm to every one, and were
always showing their ill will by naughty tricks, the Brownies, out of
very goodness, tried to thwart their evil plans and save intended
victims from harm. Thus it came that the Brownies and Pixies lived in
continuous warfare. Many a battle had they fought on and around the
Manse glebe and kirkyard, for the Pixies hated Parson Wille most
cordially, and dearly loved to annoy him.
The Brownies were just as hearty in their love, and by close watching,
hard working and brave battling they had well nigh driven their enemies
from the place. Only once in a while a few, more daring and cunning than
the rest, would break through the boundaries and make a foray upon the
forbidden grounds.
Among the most successful of these leaders of mischief was Spite the
Spy. He was a great sneak, shrewd and sly, and well deserved his name.
He was a coward in the main, and loved best to do his mischief in an
underhand way. But for all that, he was so full of malice that he could
be quite venturesome rather than miss a chance to work harm to those
whom he hated. Thus it came that in spite of his natural cowardice he
had a fair reputation for boldness. It was this miserable fellow who
crawled into the tabernacle as the voices of the Brownies died away
among the grasses.
How came he therein? Having chanced to hear of the proposed Assembly to
consider the interest of the Manse folk, he set himself to spy out the
proceedings. How should he do that without being discovered? "Let me
think!" he said. He climbed up a tall weed that grew on the border of
the Manse farm, swung himself by a thread of silk from a leaf, and hung
there awhile, head downward, while he meditated.
"Ha! I have it!" he cried. He pulled himself up again hand over hand,
scampered down the weed and plunged into the thick forest of grasses. He
went swiftly, though cautiously, for a while. Then he ascended a tall
spear of timothy, perched himself atop of the bearded head and
reconnoitered.
"Yes, there it is," he said to himself. "I see the brown hat of the
toadstool tent; and--let me see--yes, sure enough, there is the Black
Pebble under which cousin Atypus used to have her nest. Any Brownies
about? No, the coast's quite clear. But, caution, old fellow! you are
pretty sly, but you may be caught after all. And they'd make short work
of Spite if they got hold of him once, I warrant." At this he chuckled,
puffed out his eyes, and swelled up his round pouch as though it were a
fine thing to be quite deserving of the Brownies' anger.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--"Silken Snares in Which They Catch Their
Enemies."]
Spite was not long in making his way to the Black Pebble which was at
the outer edge of the Brownies' meeting place, and was imbedded in a
little bank of sandy earth at the base of which the toadstools grew. He
began to scratch in the surrounding soil. His claws soon struck
something that gave him pleasure. It was a bit of silken tissue.
"Ha! I am in luck! Here is the door of the burrow. Now we shall see,
brother Brownies, and hear too; and if there's any mischief agoing
Spite the Spy will have his spinner in it."
Spite had come upon the door of a cave or tunnel. When a few more grains
of sand had been thrown aside he lifted the tissue door and entered. It
was dark at first, and there was a musty smell in the air. Spite did not
care for that, and in a moment ran to the far end of the cave and back
again. This strange place had once been the home of a Burrow Pixie. It
was a tunnel scooped out of the sandy earth.[H] It ran horizontally for
a short way, and then sloped downward. It was lined around the sides,
top and bottom with a tight silken tube, and was about half an inch in
diameter. It was, therefore, a tunnel within a tunnel, a silk within a
sand one. The silk supported the sides so completely that not a particle
of soil could pass through. The upper part of the tube projected from
the earth, falling forward so as to form a flap which protected the
mouth of the burrow or cave. At first the tube had been much longer and
was bent and carried over the surface among the moss. This was the door
which Spite had been looking for, and whose discovery so much pleased
him.
"Well, well," said Spite, talking all the while to himself, "this is
lucky indeed. It must now be several moons since cousin Atypus was cut
off by the Brownies, and here is her old place just as good as ever. It
looks right into the meeting house. How fortunate! But I must fix up
this door a little, or I shall have those suspicious fellows smelling
around here; although I doubt whether they know anything about the
place. They caught Atypus when she had ventured out of doors."
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--English Atypus in Her Burrow.]
Meanwhile Spite was busy with the door. He laid a dry leaf and a few
bits of dry moss around the edge of the pebble, then gently lifted the
silken flap and crept within. He made a wee hole in the flap, and
through this saw and heard the proceedings of the Brownies. Little did
the good folk suspect that one of their enemies was so near, almost in
their midst. As for Spite, he was in high glee, although he was not
without fears. The boy Brownies had climbed atop the Black Pebble, and
crowded and capered upon it until they were like to shake it from the
bank, and send it arolling into the Assembly.
"Serve 'em right, the little plagues," snarled Spite, "if the old rock
did get loose, and break all their necks in the avalanche. Only, that
would make a gap in my burrow, and--well, it isn't pleasant to think of
the consequences."
Moreover, MacWhirlie and the restless youngsters who were mounted on the
herbage that grew above and around the Pixie's cave, were continually
tramping over the moss around the door, rocking to and fro on the
overhanging heather sprays till the roots fairly shook, and scrambling
up and down the little slope and over the flap itself. No wonder that
Spite's heart seemed to jump into his throat occasionally.
However, the door of the cave was so cunningly disguised and fitted into
the bank, that Spite was not discovered. He was well satisfied, for all
that, when the meeting was dismissed and the last of the Brownies
disappeared. He pushed open the flap, peeped out, then crawled slowly
into the light, crept down the slope and entered the vacant meeting
place. He was hungry; the labors and excitement through which he had
passed had quite exhausted him. He therefore crouched behind a toadstool
stem, and, after waiting patiently a while, sprang upon and devoured a
hapless fly and beetle that chanced to straggle that way. Then he wiped
his jaws with his hairy claw, rubbed his cheeks and head quite in the
fashion of pussy washing her face,[I] stretched a few silken threads
from the stem to the ground, and turned away.
"There," he said, "I leave those few lines to show that I have been
here, and that Spite the Spy is sharper than all the Brownies. Now for
home! King Cobweb will be interested in what I have to tell. As for
Parson Wille and his Brownies, perhaps they shall not escape us quite so
readily."
Spite gained great applause by this adventure, and when it was resolved
to send out to the New World some one to watch the motions of Parson
Wille, and do all the harm possible to his kind Brownie guardians, who
but Spite the Spy should be chosen? "You need take but few companions,"
said King Cobweb; "there are plenty of our folk in that country. I shall
send a letter with you to my cousin, King Cobweaver, and you can muster
a goodly company in America."
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--"Having Overspun Themselves."]
Now what should Spite do, but make his way straight to the old chest. He
discovered that in one corner the joints of the planks had sprung open a
little. "That will do bravely, I think!" He crept into the crack to try
if it fitted his size.
"Very good indeed," he exclaimed, and then ran to report.
King Cobweb was quite satisfied. Spite thereupon hid himself in the open
seam with two other Pixies named Hide and Heady, and, having overspun
themselves with a silken covering, made the voyage to America in the
old chest with the Brownies.[J]
When safely landed at Hillside, he reported to the nearest tribe of
Pixies. He was received with great favor as a distinguished foreigner;
was feasted, petted, and his wonderful skill in strategy heralded
everywhere. In short, he was quite a lion, and his fame was even greater
in America than on the other side of the Atlantic. Spite took his honors
gracefully, enjoyed them hugely, acknowledged them publicly, hobnobbed
with his friends, and took occasion when talking in private with his two
countrymen, to ridicule the customs and manners of American Pixies. That
was very mean, to be sure; but what better could you expect from Spite
the Spy?
In the midst of all his junketings and sight-seeing Spite never once
forgot the great object of his journey. He was spinning out his plots
against the Brownies, counseling with his American friends how he might
worry, injure and destroy them, and forming leagues for that purpose.
That was the beginning of troubles for the Brownies at Hillside.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote H: Appendix, Note A.]
[Footnote I: Appendix, Note B.]
[Footnote J: Appendix, Note C.]