LITTLE STORIES OF FAMOUS ANIMALS
For several years, Robert Bruce, the hero King of Scotland, was an outlaw with but a few followers. He even had to leave his beloved Scotland at one time, and hide himself on a small island off the coast of Ireland.
He had only a wretched hut to live in, although he was a king, but he was as patient as he was brave, and willing to suffer hardships if he could only free his native land.
While lying on his bed one day, he noticed a spider who was spinning its web. Time after time it failed to run its slender thread from one beam to another. Six times it tried and as many times it failed. This was just the number of battles that Bruce had been defeated by the English.
"If the spider tries again," he said to himself, sitting up on his bed and watching the determined little insect intently, "if the spider tries again, so will I!" Once more the spider tried, and this time with success. Bruce jumped from his bed, and in a few days was back in Scotland.
It was indeed a happy omen, for from that time the tide turned in his favor, and gradually he won back all the cities and castles which the English had conquered. And so Bruce freed Scotland and won back his throne, but if it had not been for the little spider, perhaps he never would have had the heart to attempt it.