When the little Water Spiders first opened their eyes, and this was as
soon as they were hatched, they found themselves in a cosy home of one
room which their mother had built under the water. This room had no
window and only one door. There was no floor at all. When Father
Stickleback had asked Mrs. Spider why she did not make a floor, she had
looked at him in great surprise and said, "Why, if I had built one, I
should have no place to go in and out." She really thought him quite
stupid not to think of that. It often happens, you know, that really
clever people think each other stupid, just because they live in
different ways. Afterward, Mrs. Water Spider saw Father Stickleback's
nest, and understood why he asked that question.
When her home was done, it was half as large as a big acorn and a
charming place for Water Spider babies. The side walls and the rounding
ceiling were all of the finest Spider silk, and the bottom was just one
round doorway. The house was built under the water and fastened down by
tiny 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 it
with air," said she, "and then it will be ready. I am out of breath
now."
She crept up the stem of the nearest plant and sat in the air for a few
minutes, eating her lunch and resting. Next she walked down the stem
until just the end of her body was in the air. She stood so, with her
head 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 them
and her body. When she reached her home, she went quickly in the open
doorway 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. In
the first place, there was no floor. In the second place, air always
falls upward in the water. This fell up until it reached the rounded
ceiling and had to stop. Just as it fell, a drop of water went out
through the open doorway. The home had been full of water, you know, but
now that Mrs. Spider had begun to bring in air something had to be moved
to make a place for it.
She brought down thirteen more bubbles of air and then the house was
filled with it. On the lower side of the open doorway there was water
and on the upper side was air, and each stayed where it should. When
Mrs. Spider came into her house, she always had some air caught in the
hairs which covered her body, even when she did not bring a bubble of it
in her hindlegs. She had to have plenty of it in her home to keep her
from drowning, for she could not breathe water like a fish. "Side doors
may 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 and
visit with the Water-Boatmen who lived near. They were great friends.
Belostoma used to ask the Water-Boatmen, who were his cousins, why they
were so neighborly with the Water Spiders. "I don't like to see you so
much 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 the
same things. You know we both carry air about with us in the water, and
so few of our neighbors seem to care anything for it." She was a
sensible little person and knew that people who are really fond of their
friends do not care how many legs they have. She carried her air under
her wings, but there were other Water-Boatmen, near relatives, who
spread theirs over their whole bodies, and looked very silvery and
beautiful when they were under water.
One day, when Mrs. Water Spider was sitting on a lily-pad and talking
with her friends, a Water-Boatman rose quickly from the bottom of the
pond. As soon as he got right side up (and that means as soon as he got
to floating on his back), he said to her, "I heard queer sounds in your
house; I was feeding near there, and the noise startled me so that I let
go of the stone I was holding to, and came up. I think your eggs must be
hatching."
[Illustration: AS SOON AS HE GOT TO FLOATING ON HIS BACK. _Page 76_]
"Really?" exclaimed Mrs. Water Spider. "I shall be so glad! A house
always seems lonely to me without children." She dove to her house, and
found some very fine Water Spider babies there. You may be sure she did
not have much time for visiting after that. She had to hunt food and
carry it down to her children, and when they were restless and impatient
she 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 long
before you can go safely." The children thought it had been a long, long
time already, and one of them made a face when his mother said this. She
did not see him, and it was well for him that she did not. He should
have been very much ashamed of himself for doing it.
The next time Mrs. Water Spider went for food, one of the children
said, "I tell you what let's do! Let's all go down to the doorway and
peek out." They looked at each other and wondered if they dared. That
was something their mother had forbidden them to do. There was no window
to look through and they wanted very much to see the world. At last the
little fellow who had made a face said, "I'm going to, anyway." After
that, his brothers and sisters went, too. And this shows how, if good
little Spiders listen to naughty little Spiders, they become naughty
little Spiders themselves.
All the children ran down and peeked around the edge of the door, but
they 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 my
legs 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 put
eight 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 legs
through the open doorway when a Stickleback Father came along. "Aren't
you rather young to be out of the nest?" said he, in his most pleasant
voice.
Poor little Water Spiders! They didn't know he was one of their mother's
friends, and he seemed so big to them, and the bones on his cheeks made
him look so queer, and the stickles on his back were so sharp, that
every one of them was afraid and let go of the wall of the house--and
then!
Every one of them rose quickly to the top, into the light and the open
air. They crawled upon a lily-pad and clung there, frightened, and
feeling weak in all their knees. The Dragon Flies flew over them, the
Wild Ducks swam past them, and on a log not far away they saw a long row
of Mud Turtles sunning themselves. Why nothing dreadful happened, one
cannot tell. Perhaps it was bad enough as it was, for they were so
scared that they could only huddle close together and cry, "We want our
mother."
Here Mrs. Water Spider found them. She came home with something for
dinner, 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 sure
to tumble up into the air." She took them home, one at a time, and how
she ever did it nobody knows.
When they were all safely there and had eaten the food that was waiting
for them, Mrs. Spider, who had not scolded them at all, said, "Look me
straight in the eye, every one of you! Will you promise never to run
away again?"
Instead of saying at once, "Yes, mother," as they should have done, one
of them answered, "Why, we didn't run away. We were just peeking around
the edge of the doorway, and we got too far out, and somebody came along
and scared us so that we let go, and then we couldn't help falling up
into the air."
"Oh, no," said their mother, "you couldn't help it then, of course. But
who 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. You
were to blame, and you began to run away as soon as you took the first
step 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 the
water if you had not taken that first step?"
The little Water Spiders were more ashamed than ever, but they had to
look her in the eye and promise to be good.
It is very certain that not one of those children even peeped around the
edge of the doorway from that day until their mother told them that they
might go into the world and build houses for themselves. "Remember just
one thing," she said, as they started away. "Always take your food home
to eat." And they always did, for no Water Spider who has been well
brought up will ever eat away from his own home.