title="[Pg 43]"/>

"Have you any eggs?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler.

"Rather!" said the spider. "I have everything that belongs to a well-regulated household. I have any number of eggs. As I lay them, by degrees, I hang them up in bundles from the ceiling of my parlour."

"Don't you hatch them?"

"No, dear lady. My heart is not so warm as that. And it's not necessary either. They come out nicely by themselves."

"Did your husband help you build the parlour?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler.

"He had enough to do building for himself, the booby!" she said. "You needn't think I would have him in my parlour, He made himself a little room beside it; and then there was the tunnel between us and that was really more than enough."

"Was?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Is he no longer with you, then?... Oh, you mustn't take my question amiss, if it pains you. I find it so difficult to understand the domestic conditions of the lower classes.... Perhaps you don't even know where he is?"

"Why, I should just think I did know!" replied the spider. "More or less. For I ate him last Wednesday."

"Goodness gracious me!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.