A careful little fellow too is the spider; he is not ashamed to mend as
well as to make, and you may see him busily repairing his broken net, and
may know, by means of this little barometer, what weather to expect; for he
is too wise to waste his silken threads and busy skill in making or mending
a net for a coming storm to break.
"When the spider works away,
Be pretty sure of a sunny day."
Very soon after the little spiders leave the silky ball in which they are
hatched, they begin to make webs of their own; but I. have heard that these
first attempts look very irregular, which shows us that although God has
given them the instinct by which they set about weaving snares, they learn,
as we do, by painstaking and practice, to make their work more and more
perfect.
Perhaps one reason why God has allowed us to watch the spider lay snares
for his prey, is to keep us in mind of the snares of which He tells us in
His Book. There are many very important passages about snares to which we
do well to take heed.
While I was telling you about the way the spider has of pulling each of the
cords which form the foundation of his web, one by one, to make sure that
there is no weak place in any of them, I remembered something which a young
girl once said to her mother. Alice had always been a merry, happy child,
the light and joy of her home, and she loved her father and mother and
little brothers and sisters, and the lambs and birds and flowers and summer
sunshine, and games and treats, just as much as you do.
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