A Merchant brought some linen to a fair. That's a thing everybody
wants to buy, so it would have been a sin in the Merchant if he had
complained of his sale. There was no keeping the buyers back: the shop
was at times crammed full.
Seeing how rapidly the goods went off, an envious Spider was tempted by
the Merchant's gains. She took it into her head to weave goods for
sale herself, and determined to open a little shop for them in a window
corner, seeking thereby to undermine the Merchant's success.
She commenced her web, spun the whole night long, and then set out her
wares on view. From her shop she did not stir, but remained sitting
there, puffed up with pride, and thinking, "So soon as the day shall
dawn will all buyers be enticed to me."
Well, the day did dawn. But what then? There came a broom, and the
ingenious creatures and her little shop were swept clean away.
Our Spider went wild with vexation.
"There!" she cried, "what's the good of expecting a just reward? And
yet I ask the whole world--Whose work is the finer, mine or that
Merchant's?"
"Yours, to be sure," answered the Bee. "Who would venture to deny the
fact? Every one knew that long ago. But what is the good of it if
there's neither warmth nor wear in it?"